海角大神

She鈥檚 ba-ack!

That鈥檚 right, Christine O鈥橠onnell is back in the spotlight, brewing up another cauldron of controversy, with witch 鈥� excuse us, which 鈥� to promote her new book.

Problem is, it probably won鈥檛 work.

The book is "Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again,鈥� due out next week by St. Martin鈥檚 Press.

The controversy is her latest appearance on TV, with CNN鈥檚 Piers Morgan. He asked about her views on gay marriage, she stormed off.

"'I'm promoting the policies that I laid out in the book that are mostly fiscal, that are mostly constitutional," she said on the show. "That's why I agreed to come on your show. That's what I want to talk about. I'm not being weird. You're being a little rude."

The thing is, after her circus act of a campaign last year, Ms. O鈥橠onnell is no stranger to the virtues of weird and wacky 鈥� yes, it ultimately cost her in the polls during her Delaware Senate campaign, but the kooky ads and Bill Maher appearances (she was a frequent guest and often said stupid things that then went viral) also got her a lot farther than she ever would have gone otherwise.

Will it sell books? Her little CNN stunt alone earned O鈥橠onnell more than 550 articles the morning after. And her book hasn鈥檛 even hit the shelves yet. If it鈥檚 anything like her political cousin Sarah Palin鈥檚 book, she鈥檒l be cackling with delight. (Sorry.) Ms. Palin鈥檚 鈥淕oing Rogue鈥� reached the top spot on the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com sales rankings, get this 鈥� more than a month and a half before it hit bookshelves in November 2009.

But it鈥檒l take witchcraft for O鈥橠onnell鈥檚 book to follow suit. Even after the Piers Morgan publicity prank and the hundreds of news items thereafter, 鈥淭roublemaker鈥� is still only the 2,412th best-selling book . George Bush鈥檚 memoir, 鈥�Decision Points,鈥� which came out nine months ago, .

鈥淥鈥橠onnell鈥檚 book isn鈥檛 selling,鈥� .

No surprise. Mr. Weigel did some research and found that as popular as the Tea Party is with the GOP 鈥� and the media 鈥� it鈥檚 not popular in publishing. That is, the coven of Tea Party books Weigel researched haven鈥檛 sold well.

Rand Paul's memoir, "The Tea Party Comes to Washington," had sold 6,000 copies, according to Nielsan Bookscan. "Boiling Mad," a highly-touted study of the Tea Party by New York Times reporter Kate Zernike, had sold around 2,000. The best-selling Tea Party book Weigel could find was "Give Us Liberty," by FreedomWorks's Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe. 鈥淭hat had moved more than 20,000 units,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淣one of these books, though, was becoming a "Going Rogue"-sized hit.鈥�

And based on early reviews, it鈥檚 not likely 鈥淭roublemaker鈥� will be, either. , 鈥淲ashington Wire just read it, and recommends it only if you are eager for her side of the story on the infamous ad,鈥� adding that it 鈥渁t times reads like a guide on how not to make political campaign ad.鈥�

The book deals mostly with O鈥橠onnell鈥檚 regrets, including the infamous 鈥淚 am not a witch鈥� political ad, which O鈥橠onnell calls a mistake and largely blames Republican media strategist Fred Davis for. 鈥淸I had] an uneasy feeling about hiring Fred to help craft our response,鈥� she writes in the book. (Reached by the AP, Mr. Davis said only: "I wish her well with her book, and her future. That was a very unusual campaign."

O鈥橠onnell also spills plenty of ink on another regret, comedian Bill Maher and the many appearances on his show. In the book she says she was blindsided when Mr. Maher aired an old clip of her admitting "I dabbled into witchcraft." She makes it clear she felt betrayed by Maher, who she thought was a friend.

鈥淎 memoir by a 2010 candidate who attracted some tabloid gawks..?,鈥� . 鈥淥ne whose biggest revelation is that the candidate regrets saying 'I'm not a witch' in a TV ad? There's no evidence that actual humans want to read this as much as political geeks and TV bookers want to make fun of it.鈥�

And book bloggers.

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.

Join the Monitor's book discussion on and .