Michael Bennet Campaign Pitch: Ken Buck Is Sharron Angle's 'Soul Mate'

Is Colorado GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck the "ideological soul mate" of Nevada Tea Party maven Sharron Angle?

Campaign workers for Sen. Michael Bennet -- Buck's Democratic rival in the midterm election -- certainly want voters to believe that. In an effort to paint Buck as a right-wing extremist who believes with Angle that Social Security should be privatized and the Department of Education eliminated, among other unconventional positions, Bennet's campaign sent out a fund-raising e-mail and video to supporters this week calling Buck a member of Angle's "Extreme Dream Team."

"Help us stop Sharron Angle's ideological soul mate, Ken Buck," the e-mail reads in part.

In a meeting last week, Angle, who is running for Senate in Nevada, named Buck -- along with Delaware's Christine O'Donnell and Alaska's Joe Miller -- as one of "a team of five" true conservatives she believes will help her lead a Tea Party revolution in the Senate after she wins the election.

At the meeting, which was secretly recorded, Angle tells Nevada Tea Party rival Scott Ashjian she will get him an audience with top Republicans in Washington if he drops out of the race. Angle is running neck and neck with incumbent Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, and she fears Ashjian will siphon votes from her.

The Bennet fund-raising e-mail, signed by Adrianne Marsh, deputy campaign manager, says in part:

If we don't want a team of Sharron Angles, Ken Bucks, and Christine O'Donnells taking over the Senate, we need to do our part and make sure Michael Bennet wins this election.

Christine O'Donnell, another of Sharron Angle's 'team of 5', has said that she doesn't believe in evolution but does believe we have "weekly shootings" because we took the Bible and prayer out of schools. [v, vi]

Where does that leave Ken Buck? Well, he's right there with her saying, "I disagree strongly with the concept of separation of church and state." [vii]

Sharron Angle is right -- they are all peas in a pod. A team of like-minded Tea Party extremists.

In Nevada, Ashjian is vowing to stay in the race against Angle and Reid, even though polls show Ashjian has support of only 1 percent o 5 percent of Nevada voters.