Per Politico's Ben Smith, Ed Rollins, Bachmann's newly hired political adviser, let loose on the former Alaska governor in a radio interview today with Fox News's Brian Kilmeade, implying she's a joke of a candidate.

"Sarah has not been serious over the last couple of years," Rollins said. "She got the vice presidential thing handed to her. She didn't go to work in the sense of trying to gain more substance. She gave up her governorship."

Bachmann, he said, is the more established GOP candidate; he called her the 2012 field's "best communicator" since Mike Huckabee decided to skip the race.

"Michele Bachmann and others [have] worked hard, she has been a leader of the tea party, which is a very important element here," he said. "She has been an attorney. She has done important things with family values."

Source: AP