Robert Hurt's Strategist Disses "Joe the Plumber"?

I'm sure that this will go over real well among the tea party set.

Hurt, who is one of seven candidates running in the June 8 primary, will not participate in a Jan. 22 debate at the Albemarle County Office Building sponsored by Tea Party groups or in a Feb. 8 debate sponsored by the University of Virginia College Republicans.

Tea Party groups in the 5th District - which runs from the Charlottesville area down to Danville - have scheduled an additional two debates. Hurt’s strategist, Chris LaCivita, said the campaign has not been notified about those events.

[...]

Hurt, [Republican candidate Feda Kidd Morton] added, is calling for the Republican Party-sponsored debates as “a ploy to avoid the tough questions” that might be posed by the hardcore conservatives in the district’s Tea Party groups.

[...]

LaCivita dismissed Morton’s debate-ducking accusations.

“I guess some candidates will say anything to get their names in a newspaper article - including hiring Joe the Plumber,” he said.

Morton is referring, of course, to this event -- frozen yogurt with Mr. "The Plumber" in Charlottesville later today. It'll be a fun event, no doubt (bring the whole family!), but apparently Robert Hurt's senior strategist isn't amused. In fact, you can pretty much hear the contempt dripping from his mouth - kinda like melting yogurt - over "Joe the Plumber." Something tells me the tea partier set won't appreciate Hurt's and LaCivita's less-than-worshipful attitude towards their hero. Still, I wonder if Hurt is actually being quite smart about this, doing the minimum (e.g., taking a no-tax pledge) to be taken seriously as a "real" conservative, but distancing himself a bit from the crazies. I guess the question is, are there really as many tea partier types in the 5th CD as there appear to be? Also, how energized and organized are they? In the next few months, we're going to find out...starting with how many people join Mr. "The Plumber" for frozen yogurt in January.

P.S. Waldo has a bitingly sarcastic take on how the "six lesser dwarves basically want to have their debates in the parking lot in front of Perriello’s office while everybody burns a Muslim in effigy."