State and national Republican leaders are clearly worried about the possible Tim D'Annunzio factor in the fall.  D'Annunzio led the Republican field in the 8th District Congressional primary Tuesday with 37 percent of the vote, four percent points better than former Charlotte sportscaster Harold Johnson, who now lives in Cabarrus County.

The two will meet in a runoff June 22 with the winner taking on Democratic incumbent Larry Kissell in the fall and there is little doubt about who the Republican establishment wants on the ticket in November with Richard Burr and the party's other candidates for Congress and the General Assembly.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has been singing Johnson's praises since the primary, barely mentioning D'Annunzio at all. They are clearly worried that D'Annunzio's extreme views expressed in his disturbing Christ's War blog and his promise to dismantle most of the federal government will discredit the party's ticket and hurt the chances of Burr and other candidates.

But many of D'Annunzio's views come right from the playbook of the tea parties that so many Republican candidates attended. One of the D'Annunzio's supporters is former Congressional candidate and anti-immigrant zealot Vernon Robinson, who told a protest in Raleigh last month that supporters of President Obama's health care reform were "back-shooting, lying cowards."

Robinson was followed on stage by House Minority Leader Paul Stam, who proceeded to introduce the Republican members of the legislature who were in attendance.  The views of D'Annunzio and Robinson didn't seem so troubling to Republicans then.

And if Republican leaders are worried that D'Annunzio is so extreme that will hurt their chances, why are they being so cautious about distancing themselves from him and making sure that a dangerous candidate is not elected? The answer of course is that they want to have it both ways.

They want the support of the tea partiers and Christ's War readers without having to be associated with their views. But it is too late. Republicans worried about D'Annunzio's candidacy should have thought about that before they stood on a stage and pandered to crowds holding signs proclaiming that Obama is the anti-Christ.

And while they are at it, they could talk to two of their members of the General Assembly, Senator Andrew Brock and Rep. Bryan Holloway, who run the website WakeUpAmerica.com that calls "Barack Hussein Obama" the "face of socialism" and says that he is intent on destroying the constitution. Brock says Obama is a "radical left-wing socialist with a hidden agenda that could destroy the America we know…"

Wake Up America produced television ads that accused Obama of freeing terrorists, hiring communists, and dignifying dictators, all as part of his socialist agenda, claims that would be right at home on a D'Annunzio brochure.

Brock's website is like one giant tea party sign online or a collection of rants from D'Annunzio and Robinson, the ones that now seem to have Republicans worried.

D'Annunzio is not some crazy candidate that appeared out of nowhere to threaten the Republican chances in November. He came from the very movement and extreme wing of the party that Republicans catered to and cultivated for the last 18 months.

If they are worried about the D'Annunzio factor, they have only themselves to blame. Let's hope their disingenuousness doesn't come back to haunt us all.