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Sarah Palin raised $469,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22 bringing her total for the year to over $3 million, Tim Crawford, SarahPAC's treasurer, told TIME exclusively. Crawford attributed the surge of funds to energy surrounding the midterm elections, Palin's endorsements and her TLC reality show “Sarah Palin's Alaska.” Her second book, America By Heart, came out Nov. 23.

The PAC spent $64,000 buying advance copies of her books, “just as we did last year” with her first book, Going Rogue, Crawford said. “They're a great fundraising tool for us.” Palin is in the midst of a two-week cross-country book tour.

Overall the PAC spent $581,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22. A larger percentage than normal was spent on contributions to political candidates, $244,000, as Palin tried to help her 81-endosed candidates over the Nov. 2 finish line. Fifty-five of them won.

All of the $469,000 was raised online or through direct mail. The former Alaska governor has had only two fundraisers for her PAC this year – the last one this past summer -- compared to Mitt Romney's nine. Crawford expects to file his report to the Federal Election Commission this afternoon.

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In the busy year since she abruptly announced her resignation as Alaska governor on the eve of Independence Day, Sarah Palin has made lots of money and headlines

Last July, on the eve of Independence Day, Sarah Palin announced her intention to resign as governor of Alaska in the same abrupt manner that had come to epitomize her overnight appearance on the national political scene and subsequent rollout as John McCain's VP pick for the 2008 presidential election. Knee deep in financial troubles, embroiled in ethics complaints and in the middle of a nasty, public he-said-she-said fallout with team McCain, the Thrilla from Wasilla traded in a modestly paid government spot for the chance to "fight for what's right" without any fancy title. One year later, Palin finds herself $12 million richer, the "Mama Grizzly" of America's Tea Party movement, a buzzed-about 2012 presidential hopeful and front and center in the nation's political stage.

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Joe Scarborough, former conservative congressman from Florida, says its time for members of his party to get off the sidelines and express their true feelings about Sarah Palin.

"Republicans have a problem. The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected," Scarborough writes in a column for Politico out Tuesday. "And yet the same leaders who fret that Sarah Palin could devastate their party in 2012 are too scared to say in public what they all complain about in private."

Scarborough also took aim at the former Alaska governor for even considering a White House bid.

"What man or mouse with a fully functioning human brain and a résumé as thin as Palin's would flirt with a presidential run? It makes the political biography of Barack Obama look more like Winston Churchill's," writes Scarborough, later adding that Palin is pursuing a "dopey dream."

The comments come several days after Palin herself stoked speculation she is considering a run for president, with the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee saying in several media interviews that she is conferring with friends and families about the prospect and thinks she could beat President Obama.

But Scarborough writes that prospect is completely unfounded and faults Palin for comparing her resume, which now includes starring in a TLC reality show, to that of Ronald Reagan, the onetime Hollywood actor. Scarborough also isn't pleased Palin painted President George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara in a recent interview as out-of-touch "blue bloods."

"Perhaps her anger was understandable," a sarcastic Scarborough says. "After all, these disconnected "blue bloods" had nothing in their backgrounds that could ever make them understand "real America" like a former governor from Alaska who quit in the middle of her first term and then got rich.

"I suppose Palin's harsh dismissal of this great man is more understandable after one reads her biography and realizes that, like Bush, she accomplished a great deal in her early 20s. Who wouldn't agree that finishing third in the Miss Alaska beauty contest is every bit as treacherous as risking your life in military combat?" continued Scarborough, in reference to the elder Bush's tenure as combat pilot in World War II.

Palin has yet to respond to the comments.

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Former Governor Sarah Palin continued escalating her feud with Karl Rove on Sunday, offering a tongue-in-cheek response to the latest criticism from the former Bush strategist, that her reality-show persona didn't provide the gravitas required for a presidential run.

"You know, I agree with that," Palin said, during an interview with "Fox News Sunday," "that those standards have to be high for someone who would ever want to run for president like, um, wasn't Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn't he in Bedtimes for Bonzo, bozo or something? Ronald Reagan was an actor. Now look-it. I'm not in a reality show. I have eight episodes documenting Alaska's resources, what it is that we can contribute to the rest of U.S. to economically and physically secure our union, and my family comes along for the ride because I am family, family is us, and my family comes along on the ride to document these eight episodes for The Learning Channel. ... So Karl is wrong right there in calling it a reality show."

Earlier in the week, Rove, in an interview with the London Telegraph, offered another in a noteworthy line of thinly veiled, or completely unveiled, swipes at Palin, this time questioning the utility of hosting a reality television series.

"There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency]," Rove said, "and they require a certain level of gravitas, and they want to look at the candidate and say 'that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world'."

The point, in essence, was that viewers wouldn't or couldn't see Palin as a presidential candidate if her time was being spent prioritizing television contracts and book tours. And on Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace picked up the argument, making a prediction to Palin that she wouldn't give up the glamour and money to make a White House run.

"You know, the country is worth it though to make those sacrifices," Palin replied, in a statement that really lent itself to the impression that she would run. "When we talk about making money today, having a lot of fun today, having all this freedom, if the country needed me, and I'm not saying that the country does and that the country would necessarily want to choose me over anyone else. But I would be willing to make he sacrifices if need be for America."

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