Tag Archives: Michele Bachmann

What Will Michele Bachmann Do Next?

Uncategorized, , , , ,

As you know, Michele Bachmann, Congressperson for Minnesota’s Sixth District, has announced that she will not seek re-election to her seat in Washington DC.

Bachmann almost lost her re-election to challenger Jim Graves last year. I’m convinced that had the election been held a few weeks later, Graves would have won. Recently, internal polling data from within Bachmann’s campaign became known, and showed that as of a couple of weeks ago Bachmann was actually behind Graves. Bachmann’s response to this polling was an ad buy; the Bachmann campaign started up early with local ads, clearly indicating one thing and strongly suggesting another. For one, Bachmann had decided to run for re-election as of several days ago. She bought campaign ads. That’s pretty clear. Two weeks ago or less, Michele Bachmann was a candidate for re-election to the sixth district and was spending money on that campaign. This is a fact that must be taken into account in figuring out what is going on. The second thing this indicated was that she was nervous about the polling data and felt compelled to start early.

Then, suddenly, she announced that she would not be running. You don’t decide to run for re-election and actually craft campaign ads and buy air time for the ads and put on the air if you are not running. “I’m Michele Bachmann and I approved this message” means, very clearly, that she was in fact running for re-election. Why, then, did she suddenly stop running for re-election? Even with poor polling numbers, this does not make sense. The polling numbers were not abysmal. She was about five points behind, very close to the margin of error. This is not a number that in and of itself would recommend abandoning a campaign. Also, the numbers were known to her campaign before the ad buy.

There are two other possible explanations for her withdraw, I think. One is that something bad is about to happen and she is bugging out before that occurs. The other is that she noticed that there was another office up for election and has decided to run for it. Let’s examine those two possible explanations.

The most likely explanation for her withdraw is probably that her recent attempts to negotiate away a law suit being filed against her failed and she’s about to be dragged into her own little Watergate, or other civil or criminal legal problems loom that her campaign knows more about than we do at present:

Someone from Michele Bachmann’s 2012 presidential campaign team stole an email list off of Barb Heki’s laptop. This list was from the evangelical home school organization for which Heki played a leadership role… She sued.

…

Today, the court scheduled the trial.

… and later that day Bachmann made her video bowing out of the campaign.

Is this what the "other shoe" that may or may not be about to drop looks like?
Is this what the “other shoe” that may or may not be about to drop looks like?
There are other problems. The FBI is looking into Bachmann’s campaign, for instance. So, it is reasonable to guess that another shoe … related to any one of the pending law suits or investigations … is about to drop, and it is not a dainty ballet slipper but rather one of those big-ass Mickey Mouse boots the Arctic division of the Airborne Army wears when they jump out of airplanes onto glaciers.

A second explanation is that Bachmann noticed that the Junior Senator from the State of Minnesota, Al Franken, is up for re-election and, at the time she made her plans to announce her withdraw, had no serious challengers. This is the preferred explanation among local Minnesota pundits. Why? Not because it is the best explanation, but because it is the coolest explanation. Al Franken only barely won his seat during the last election, but there are very specific reasons for that, and these reasons simply don’t apply today. Senator Franken went from never having held elected office to being one of the most respected and effective Senators in Washington. How did he do that? He is a) very sincere about his public service and b) very smart. Well, also, his hard work and the excellent support from his family and staff and all that too. Bottom line: The people of Minnesota understand that Al Franken is a great senator and he will be re-elected.

Al Franken isn’t just a great Senator, but he is also one of those guys we watch for the entertainment value, and I’m not referring here to his earlier career as a comedian satirist. Have you seen him in action? Here’s an example. I would not have wanted to have been a grasshopper living in Little Al Franken’s yard when he was a little boy in Ednia, Minnesota.

That was Subtle Al. Here’s another:

Here’s Al with a very smart witness trying to trip him up. Starts at about 1:27:

Not in chambers, about Fox, and reforming our Math education system at the same time:

And here is Al Franken eating a lawyer before lunch:

For comparison, here is Michele Bachmann:

Can you imagine it? A Franken-Bachmann campaign? Pure Political Squeee. Bwahahaha to the Nth power.

So, you can see that no matter how unlikely it may be that Michele Bachmann would actually have quit her seat in the house in order to run against Al Franken, we insist on keeping it on the table as a possibility because, well, it is something to live for.

There is a third possible explanation for Michele Bachmann’s withdraw; A better offer from Fox or some other corporation. This has been suggested by various commenters but I think it unlikely. Yes, expect such a thing to occur at some time in the future, but I believe that Bachmann truly sees herself as a savior of The Constitution and will generally act with that motivation before other considerations. Of course, the first and third explanations can be linked. If she is facing high costs from impending legal battles, bowing out and getting a nice contract with Faux News would be the thing to do.

Finally, I would like to express my great relief that Bachmann is bowing out. It has been a great burden to me … as the person who got her political career started, feeling responsible all these years for having created this particular horror. Now, finally, I’ll be able to sleep nights.

Stay tuned. And, beware of falling boots.

Michele Bachmann Will Not Run For Re-Election (Updated)

Uncategorized,

Michele Bachmann is currently serving her last term and will not seek re-election.

She claims to have suddenly grown the opinion that there should be term limits on Representatives in the House, but that is not very likely the reason. It could be that she is behind in the polls, and it could have something to do with the impending criminal and ethics investigations. If it the latter, perhaps we should be expecting some news in the near future regarding these investigations.

Either way,

Maybe she plans to run for Senator against Al Franken?

OH please, please, please, let it be so!

UPDATE: Here’s Michele Bachmann’s YouTub video explaining how wonderful she is and stating that she WILL run for public office if she decides it is necessary for her to save the United States of America from itself. She also states that it is necessary for her to save the United States of America from itself, so do indeed expect her to run:

Is Michele Bachmann About To Go Down In Legal Flames?

Uncategorized

Michele Bachmann may be in some serious trouble.

For starters, it seems she may have used presidential campaign staff to support her book tour during her unsuccessful bid for the presidency last year. The Star Tribune reported on April 17th that

Congressional ethics investigators are examining whether top staffers in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign played an improper role in the 2011 tour to promote her personal memoir, two former Bachmann aides have told the Star Tribune.

Federal election rules, as well as House ethics rules, prohibit the use of campaign funds to promote or sell a candidate’s book or to support other business activities.

Also, her campaign may have stolen or otherwise inappropriately obtained an e-mail list of Iowa homeschoolers from one Barbara Heki, presumably for use in the Iowa phase of the campaign. Heki has initiated a law suit alleging that Iowa Senator Kent Sorenson stole the list from her personal computer. This has led to a criminal investigation by police in Urbandale, Iowa and the Iowa State Police, and is apparently being looked at by the Federal Election Commission and the Office of Congressional Ethics.

In addition, it has ben suggested that Senator Sorenson received $7,500 a month via the Colorado based consulting firm C&M Strategies, which is run by Bachmann’s fundraiser Guy Short. The money, or some of it anyway, may h ave come from Short’s other group, MichelePAC. This is apparently also a violation of ethics and campaign rules and/or laws.

The latest development makes this list of oddities suddenly very relevant. These alleged activities came to light in part from information provided by former Bachmann staffer Peter Waldron, a pastor from Florida. As this story has unfolded, there was a second witness to these events identified by the FEC known as “Witness A.” Now, Witness A has been identified as former Bachmann chief of staff Andy Parrish, and he is expected to testify, giving collaboration to Waldron’s claims which have been denied by the Bachmann camp.

According to the Star Tribune,

The six-member panel — made up of three Republicans and three Democrats — also directed the Secretary of the Iowa Senate, Michael Marshall, to get an update on the status of the police investigation in the Heki case.

Iowa Sen. Wally Horn, a Democrat who chairs the ethics committee, said the panel felt it needs to move forward to resolve the allegations or dismiss them. Waldron originally filed three complaints against Sorenson with the ethics panel in January. One of them, alleging improper business disclosures, has been dismissed. The other two complaints, alleging hidden payments and misappropriation of the e-mail list, are still pending.

Horn said he hopes to resolve the ethics complaints before the legislature adjourns next month. Meanwhile, two sources close to the Bachmann campaign have told the Star Tribune that congressional ethics investigators have questioned them about allegations that her presidential campaign played an improper role in her 2011 book tour.

And the, of course, there’s the whole dwarf-mud-wrestling thing.

Taking Bachmann Out of Congress

Uncategorized

Minnesota’s 6th congressional district is represented by Michele Bachmann, who moved from the Minnesota Senate where she was one of the first legislators in the US to introduce academic freedom legislation to silence professors at the University of Minnesota who were lecturing on climate change and evolution, to the United States Congress a few terms back. Bachmann rode on her national popularity as a major co-founder of the Tea Party to secure re-election against a series of reasonable opponents. But last year, four things happened. First, Bachmann’s unrelenting over the top craziness started to catch up with her. Second, she let her constituents down by running for President instead of representing her district and doing very very poorly in that effort. Third, the Tea Party popularity started to wane as its hapless members lost interest or, in some cases, became embarrassed. Fourth, a well funded candidate, new to the political scene but capable, ran against her. So, last November, Jim Graves came almost within recount distance of Michelle Bachmann. And that was with Bachmann outspending Graves 12-1.

Well, today, Graves has announced that he will run again. He figures that he came close enough last time to make it possible for him to do it again only get those 4,000 votes or so he needed last time.

“These days Congress is all about scoring political points rather than actually solving problems and Minnesota’s 6th District — my home — is losing out because of that more than anywhere,” … “I’m not interested in celebrity, only in solutions.”

Bachmann has responded to Graves as she responded to every one of his moves during the last election: Sending around a fund raising letter linking Graves to a highly subversive and anti-American organization known to most of us as the Democratic Party.

In related news, Bachmann has won the 2013 Daily Kos Republican March to Madness Tournament. By a landslide.

Michele Bachmann: Waiting for the other shoe to drop?

Uncategorized,

Michele Bachmann. Photo by Flickr User Gage Skidmore.
Or, maybe just waiting for a pin to drop, to break the silence? Bill Prendergast at Minnesota Progressive Project has floated an interesting, if somewhat complicated, hypothesis. He notes that Michel Bachmann has been very silent, out of the news, since the election which is now (though it seems like yesterday) nearly a month in the past. He suggests that the GOP establishment has shut her down, something they may have wanted to do for some time but would have been able to do because of her independent support from the coalition of players in the Christian Religious Right and the Batshit Crazy People who seem to be sprinkled around everywhere. He also suggests that Bachmann’s uncanny quietitude may be a test, that she is passing. Bachmann has been notably ignored by the GOP leadership in the House, which they still control, in the current round of doling out responsibilities. Bill Pendergrast’s idea is that Bachmann is attempting to demonstrate that she can do something no one really has ever thought that she could do: STFU for several weeks at a time, avoid making over the top outrageous statements that cause all sorts of trouble.

All interesting ideas. I’d like to add to this one small twist: Bachmann could have been overlooked for positions of responsibility by the GOP establishment because she is a woman. The GOP engaged in a Gettysburg Level attack on women (and others) over the last year, and were summarily defeated. This led me to recently suggest that the war on Gay Marriage, at least, had reached it’s “High Water Mark.” In the case of the War on Women, having lost that, the GOP establishment may be taking out their frustration on their own women, the members of their own party who happen to have two X Chromosomes.

Anyway, back to Pendergast’s point. When I read his post, I had to ask myself, being a scientist and all, if Bill was using the correct null model, or at least, the correct assumption. Might it be the case, I wondered, if CongressCritters are generally quiet this time of year, after the election? Is it possible that Michele Bachmann is not being unusually silent, just normal? As shocking as that prospect may sound, it is something that needs to be considered, to be fair, honest, and scientific. So, pursuant to that, I went back in time to the period in 2008 that corresponds to the last few post-election weeks, running a bit into December for good measure. It turns out, Bachmann was not being quiet.

And so, I give you here a sampling of post-election Michele Bachmann:

November 19th 2008
Bachmann says Franken stuffing ballot box, anti-American comments urban legend

Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on FOX’s Hannity & Colmes last night to spew some more great quotes to get everyone riled up. She knows what people hate to hear.

In her interview, she accused Al Franken of stuffing the ballot box. She then continued pushing the “ballots in the car” rumor despite it being proved false and clarified by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Then she said her statements on MSNBC’s Hardball were “urban legend” even as the host reads the transcript aloud to her. What is going on here?

November 19th, 2008
Bachmann rips Obama, Franken denies anti-American remark

Michele Bachmann, appearing Tuesday night on Fox News show with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, derided President-Elect Barack Obama as “more of the same” over reports that many of his new appointments are recycled Clintonistas.

The Minnesota Republican also accused DFL Senate candidate Al Franken of trying to “stuff the ballot box” in his recount struggle with GOP incumbent Norm Coleman.

All the while, Bachmann managed to reserve enough ammo to dismiss as an “urban legend” reports that she had suggested on a pre-election episode of the “Hardball” show with MSNBC host Chris Matthews that Obama and other members of Congress were “anti-American,” and that the media should investigate them as such.

Resident Fox liberal Alan Colmes, who read a transcript of Bachmann’s “anti-American” quote from her appearance on MSNBC, offered to have her watch the video clip of her remarks on his own web site. But the segment ended before Bachmann could fully respond.

Not, however, before Bachmann pummeled Obama over some of his recent presidential appointments, including the pick of former President Clinton official Eric Holder as Obama’s new attorney general.

Novemer 20th, 2008
Bachmann can’t stop talking about socialism

Rep. Michele Bachmann loves coming up with the zingers. Apparently she still loves talking about how the United States is slowly becoming a socialist nation. Run for your lives!

In her latest Fox News interview (which she won’t let us embed on our site) she continues to scare Americans that the Democratic House and Senate will slowly suck our country into socialism and ruin our lives.

There’s more, but that’s probably enough.

Yeah, it seems that Michele Bachmann is being, relative to herself, quiet.

Is Bachmann Sticking With Her Muslim Brotherhood Story?

Uncategorized, , , ,

A GOP PAC has produced a ridiculous ad supporting Michele Bachmann for re-election to Congress representing Minnesota’s 6th District. You’ll remember that Bachmann made national news when she declared that a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Minnesota 5th District Congressman Keith Ellison were plants inserted into high places in the United States Government by the shady organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood. At that time, Democratic Party (DFL) 6th District candidate, Jim Graves, joined the chorus of sensible voices pointing out that Bachmann’s comments were incorrect and inappropriate. The ad clearly states that not only was Bachmann not wrong, but that the same organization that planted these Muslim Manchurian Candidates into the US political system was responsible for the unrest in the Middle East. Ironically, while the cause of this unrest is complicated, that unrest appears to be in part due to the irresponsible prodding of extremist Islamic groups in the Middle East with anti-Muslim rhetoric, that prodding seemingly intended to create an ant-Obama “October Surprise” (in September). Here is the ad:

This ad comes at a time when Jim Graves has been shown in polls to be statistically even with (but a couple of points by count behind) Bachmann. So far, Bachmann has been relatively silent, which was probably a good move for her because she seems to have a hard time not spewing Crazy Talk when she doesn’t remain silent. This move by the GOP PAC, to underscore Bachmann’s crazy, is probably a good thing for the Graves campaign.

Notice that in the ad, they try very hard to get a picture of Graves, who is a calm, mild mannered, reasonable, thoughtful person, to have a crazy Bachmann-like look in his eyes, while at the same time making Bachmann not look so crazy. Unfortunately for the Bachmann campaign, it is a little late for that.

Michele Bachmann's Latest Crazy Talk

Uncategorized

She explicitly says, without any window dressing, that there are Americans, and there is Islam, and the Muslims are the enemy. No punches pulled here. And, she explicitly says that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are aiding and assisting the enemy.

This was at the so called “Values Summit” which, I think, they didn’t know was being video taped. I assume.

Michele Bachmann Could Be Replaced

Uncategorized, , , ,

For various reasons, it has been difficult for the Democrats in Minnesota (called “DFLers”) to unseat Republican Congressional Representative Michele Bachmann. This has been partly because the candidates put up were not properly selected (probably) and partly because the people in her district simply liked her. Personally, I think her district started to like her less before the last Congressional election but supported her anyway because of her celebrate. But I have another theory as well, which is that the Tea Party is done. Out of date. No longer relevant. Michele Bachmann’s district’s voters have tired of the Tea Party and Michele Bachmann is the Tea Party.

And there are polls to indicate that this may be the case. Jim Graves, Michele Bachmann’s DFL opponent in the Sixth District Race in Minnesota, is creeeping closer and closer to Bachmann’s numbers, and it is possible that this race could even up over the next few weeks.

From the Minnesota Progressive Project:

A new poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan indicates that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is more vulnerable to her Democratic challenger than previously believed.
The polling firm surveyed about registered likely voters in the Sixth Congressional district of Minnesota from August 29 to August 30. The results indicate only forty per cent of the voters in Bachmann’s politically conservative district rate her performance “Excellent/Good.” Thirty-five per cent of those polled rate Bachmann’s performance “Poor.”

Asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, forty-eight per cent of those polled indicated that they would vote for incumbent Bachmann and forty-six per cent indicates they would vote for her opponent Jim Graves, a newcomer to politics.

Minnesota Political expert Bill Pendergast gives his analysis of this here. That site is getting a lot of sudden attention so it may take a moment to load, give it time. Continue reading Michele Bachmann Could Be Replaced →

I am Iowan. I am barn.

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

I’ve known very few real Iowans. I know people who live there now but are from the Twin Cities, but I’ve only met a handful of native Iowans. One of them is a dear friend, most are only vague acquaintances. Six of them were landlubbing pirates of no value to humanity whatsoever.1 But I’m sure Iowans are mostly wonderful people who are well intentioned, hard working, intelligent, and are just as good as anyone else. Nonetheless, states have personalities and personalities have reputations, and people who live in states contribute to making those personalities and reputations. And for that reason I’m sure I’ll be forgiven for what I’m about to say. About your stupid state.
Continue reading I am Iowan. I am barn. →

Exorcisms are Affordable because of Michele Bachmann’s Generosity

Uncategorized, ,

This is not new but it is current. In 2009, Michele Bachmann donated several thousand dollars to an organization that carries out exorcisms mainly on teenagers who have bee posessed by multiple demons. This has become increasingly popular among Christians … the idea that demons posses people on a regular basis. Right now, at least three of the possible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination: Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have been endorsed by, or raised funds for, or have promoted or are actively promoted ministers and ministries that are established on the basis of demonic posession and exorcism.

Have a look at this recently reposted item by Bruce Wilson at Talk to Action. While you’re over there you might want to lok at Jack Hayford Backs Odd Theory: Sex With a Demon Drove Down Japanese Stock Market, which relates to my post yesterday.

Hat tip Glenn Burke.

Michele Bachmann promises to be a clown and kill teenagers

Uncategorized,

… And she still doesn’t know where anything is …

Michele Bachmann promised, in an interview associated with her announcement to run for President of the United States (POTUS) and Effective Leader of the Free World (ELFW), that she would become a professional clown and murder dozens of teenage boys and young men.

Or, perhaps, she is just confused …
Continue reading Michele Bachmann promises to be a clown and kill teenagers →