(REUTERS) — Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who rallied members of the Tea Party in their failed effort to defund Obamacare, lashed out on Saturday against members of the Republican Party who agreed to end the government shutdown.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee's comments during a speech in Des Moines come at a time of division within the party over the strategy conservative members of Congress adopted in forcing a 16-day shutdown of the federal government last month.
Polls have shown voters blamed Republicans for the shutdown.
Palin, who was speaking to hundreds of attendees at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's annual fall banquet, was joined by Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah. Lee, along with fellow Tea Party movement star Senator Ted Cruz, was instrumental in the ill-fated attempt to defund Obamacare, the popular name for the healthcare reform law championed by President Barack Obama.