So did he sell out for more money?

“INDIANOLA, Iowa – Michele Bachmann’s struggling presidential campaign saw her Iowa chairman defect Wednesday to rival Ron Paul’s side, an embarrassing blow that came as some called for her to leave the race to free up her supporters for other candidates.

Hours after appearing with Bachmann at an event, state Sen. Kent Sorenson gave his endorsement to the Texas congressman at a Des Moines rally. Sorenson said he resigned from Bachmann’s campaign to back Paul, whom he called the most conservative of the top-tier candidates.

Bachmann said Sorenson made the jump after “he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign.”

“Kent said to me yesterday that ‘everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn’t I,’” Bachmann said in a written statement. “Then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions.”

Paul campaign chairman Jesse Benton said the campaign was not paying Sorenson and that he was puzzled why Bachmann would make such a claim against an elected official popular with Iowa conservatives.

“We’ve always known Michele to be an honorable person. She should stop slandering an honorable Iowa state senator,” Benton said.”

So did he or didn’t he? Ed Morrissey at Hot Air is skeptical.

“I’m still skeptical about this, because it would have to involve monumental stupidity on someone’s part. Let’s say that the Paul campaign gave Sorenson cash in a legitimate manner, perhaps as a big campaign-to-campaign contribution, to convince Sorenson to switch. I believe that would be entirely legal, although perhaps a tactically questionable use of campaign funds in the middle of a primary, but it would have to be disclosed in FEC records — and the quarter-end reports are due in days, which means that the subterfuge will be exposed almost immediately. That would make Sorenson out to be a fool, especially since he’s denying it now, and it would be political suicide. I’m not convinced that Sorenson is a big enough fish to woo with cash anyway, but at least that would explain why he would leap from Bachmann to Paul, two campaigns that have diametrically opposed viewpoints on foreign policy and immigration.

The other alternative, if Geddes is telling the truth, is that the Paul campaign arranged an off-the-books payment to Sorenson, either directly or indirectly. That would be unbelievably idiotic, as it would be a prime example of corruption once exposed and would ruin everyone involved. And for what? Sorenson may be a larger fish in the smaller Iowa pond, but Ron Paul’s political future hardly hinged on the blessing of Kent Sorenson, nor did it hinge on derailing the all-but-derailed-already Michele Bachmann. And whatever one thinks of Ron Paul, the people running his campaign aren’t stupid — and they’re certainly not this stupid.”

So just why then? There is no doubt something took place, the question is whether or not it was under the rug or on the level, but as Ed points out we’ll know soon enough. It may be that for pure political career purposes he wants to position himself with someone he feels can win, but Paul? I will say this over and over again, Ron Paul has no shot at becoming the GOP nominee. At best he can run as an independent, but nevertheless in spite of a good organization and huge sums of money he simply will not appeal the majority needed to win.

The big question is just who is Sorenson? According to this not much.