Last January, just before Scott Brown was elected in Massachusetts, here’s what Keith Olbermann had to say about him:

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“In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees. In any other time in our history, this man would have been laughed off the stage as an unqualified and a disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives. Instead, the commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States.”

Not a fan, to say the least. And yet somehow Brown won, even though Olbermann didn’t like him.

Can Christine O’Donnell win even though Politico doesn’t like her? Here’s the lede — the lede — to one of their, ahem, news stories about her this week:

The Republican Party’s hopes for winning back the Senate rest on a perennial candidate with a sketchy employment history who has dissembled about her education, defaulted on her student loan and her mortgage, sued a former employer for mental anguish, railed against the evils of masturbation and questioned whether it would have been OK to lie to prevent Nazis from killing Jews during World War II.

But they’re definitely not biased against her, and they’re not distorting anything she’s said or done. She’s also running against some dude, but he’s a Democrat, so he’s probably okay and there’s no need to look at anything he’s ever said or done.

Whenever one of these candidates comes out of nowhere and surprises everybody, whether it’s Sarah Palin or Scott Brown or now Christine O’Donnell, the impulse on the left is to dig up everything and anything they can, as fast as they can, and throw it out there all at once. Just shotgun-blast ’em with everything they’ve got. It makes you wonder how much of it is true. Who knows, maybe O’Donnell really is the insane, freeloading, ‘bater-hating, Jew-eschewing monster they’re trying to make her out to be. Or maybe people are catching on to the way Politico does business. And WaPo, the NYT, the newsweeklies, the networks, MSNBC, etc. When you look at the ratings and circulation numbers of all the usual suspects, and then you look at all these Tea Party candidates they’ve been excoriating… Who’s winning?

Maybe demonizing people you disagree with isn’t the best business model. Maybe there’s no “maybe” about it.

P.S. Kirsten Powers: Stop Mocking the Tea Party.

P.P.S. Another big Politico scoop: In 2008, O’Donnell wanted to distribute packets of suntan lotion to voters with the slogan “Don’t Get Burned By Higher Taxes.” Why isn’t she in jail?

P.P.P.S. A.B. Stoddard: Tea Party’s already won.