Have you heard? The Tea Party Express is storming Searchlight, Nev. this weekend! And why would anyone want to go to Searchlight, you might ask? Because that’s where incumbent Sen. Harry Reid is from, silly! They’re going to get ’em on his own home turf, those clever bastards! Gosh, they really are so darn witty — as my fellow Wasillian and event guest speaker Sarah Palin might say. (Yes, I grew up in Wasilla, Alaska.)

Look, I’ve been to Searchlight. It’s tiny. (It’s even smaller and folksier than Wasilla!) If I remember correctly (and this was a while ago), it had something like three non-residential buildings. It’s out of the way and hard to get to. Aside from the people who live in Searchlight, I don’t think anybody gives two craps about Searchlight. So, way to stage a photo-op in a fairly uninteresting place that nobody cares about. Gotta love those Teabaggers!

But that won’t stop a whole slew of folks from all sides joining (or hijacking or opposing) the wholesome (or is that bigoted and hateful?) Teabagging fun. Even Reid himself is hosting a tent with tea and donut holes to refresh weary Tea Partiers. Some estimate as many as 10,000, most from California, may travel to Searchlight for the event. Indeed, organizers are excitedly predicting that Teabaggers will make Searchlight’s population surge to one of the largest cities in Nevada this weekend. (Holy over-zealous commitment, Batman!) Personally, I wonder if the number of media folks will out-number everyone else who shows up!

All this while Tea Party senate hopeful (and Reid “challenger”) Jon Scott Ashjian has had some unpleasant press. Three of his properties have gone into default this week; the State Contractor’s board pulled the license for one of his companies (for passing checks without proper funds); and he allegedly owes the IRS $200,000. Not a good couple of weeks for Ashjian and then you add that the Nevada Tea Party and the national Tea Party Express group (the one organizing the big shindig in Searchlight) have completely disowned him, saying any candidate who runs on a Tea Party platform is a “fraud.” But Ashjian is a Teabagger, right? Don’t they stick together and surround themselves in the warmth of family values? It’s all so confusing!

Then there’s all those GOP folks who just want to snuggle with Teabaggers every chance they get. Gov. Gibbons has his “Gib-bus,” on which campaign contributors can ride on a bus from way up north down to Searchlight. (Gibbons will join the fun in Laughlin.) What a guy! What a non-opportunistic media-whore!

Needless to say, I’m going to be avoiding all roads that lead to Searchlight this weekend. That’s one circus I can miss!