This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

All the world has heard about how Christine O'Donnell — the "not a witch" Tea Party candidate who lost the 2010 U.S. Senate election in Delaware — walked out on CNN's Piers Morgan Wednesday night.

What the world may not know is that O'Donnell — and, more importantly, her short-fused handlers — warmed up for that indignation by pulling a similar move on a Salt Lake City radio station.

O'Donnell was interviewed by phone Wednesday morning by the folks at X96's "Radio From Hell" show — and, as with Morgan, it wasn't the talking-points regurgitation O'Donnell and her publicists hoped it would be.

X96's Bill Allred launched the interview by asking O'Donnell — who is selling her new book, Troublemaker — about her infamous "I'm not a witch" TV commercial. O'Donnell acknowledged that the ad "was a big mistake" that happened because "unfortunately, I didn't listen to my gut."

O'Donnell tried to pivot from that "gut" comment to the subject of her book: The Tea Party movement, saying that "what's propelling this movement are the gut instincts" of middle-class Americans.

Allred replied that the 2010 election could also have proved that "the voters of Delaware trusted their guts and thought you were crazy."

O'Donnell tried to laugh off Allred's comment, and cited the historic Republican primary in which she defeated moderate candidate Mike Castle. Allred asked O'Donnell what her margin of victory was in the primary — which O'Donnell said was 5 or 6 percent — to which Allred said "but you didn't trounce him."

That's the moment O'Donnell's publicist hung up the phone.

This morning, as the "Radio From Hell" replayed the O'Donnell interview, Allred's co-host Kerry Jackson summed up the situation: That O'Donnell's handlers thought a Salt Lake City station would give O'Donnell a softball interview for like-minded conservatives.

Next time, O'Donnell — or her publicists — will do their homework better.

UPDATE: The Huffington Post has picked up on the X96/O'Donnell dust-up - and quotes a O'Donnell publicist who blames a technical glitch for the hang-up.