Rookie Congressperson Michele Bachman is making quite a Palin-esque name for herself. On Thursday, Palin in North Carolina foolishly gushed over how she loved appearing in “pro-American” parts of the country.. A day later on MSNBC, Bachman one-upped Palin in calling for an investigation of legislative colleagues who, like Senator Obama, are somehow “anti-American.”
Bachman is from Minnesota. Joe McCarthy was from Wisconsin. :-} Sam Stein makes the “un-American” connections and provides the video evidence over at Huffington Post.
Bachman today tried to tone down her outrageous blather. She ought to; if she survives her re-election, she could face censure in the House.
Two years ago, when Bachman was running for Congress, she had this to say about her campaign before a Minnesota Church:
God then called me to run for the United States Congress, and I thought “What in the world will that be for?”… Who in their right mind would spend 2 years to run for a job that lasts 2 years? You’d have to be absolutely a fool to do that. You are now looking at a fool for Christ. This is a fool for Christ…..
22 years ago, Bachman graduated from the Oral Roberts University Law School. (back before it closed and Pat Robertson bought it) Among the ORU law professors there then was one Anita Hill. (think Clarence Thomas).
I’ve got nothing against people of faith and convictions entering the public square – I welcome it. Ironically, Bachman first entered politics as a campaign worker for a Baptist Sunday School teacher then running for President — one Jimmy Carter.
Carter’s campaign book, “Why Not the Best,” might be worth re-reading in evangelical circles. Instead of invoking the mindless martyr-seeking business about being “foolish” for one’s faith, why not try a really daring concept — say, as in aiming to be “brilliant for Christ,” a “light” into the darkness?
*****
Update: A Minnesota publisher friend in Bachman’s district has kindly alerted me that Bachman’s opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, is a Methodist minister by background. Trailing until recently, Bachman’s MSNBC gaffes have done wonders for his campaign coffers. (see comments for more)
I also received this copy of a memo from Bachman’s opponent’s office… wherein they are obviously making much hay over Bachman’s nuttiness.
M E M O R A N D U M
TO: Media, Interested Parties
FROM: Minnesota DFL Party
RE: State of the Race: Bachmann’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend
In the last 48 hours, Republican Representative Michele Bachmann’s prospects of winning a second term have gone from bad to worse. Her outlandish comments in a Friday interview on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” have echoed throughout the country. The video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and coverage of her meltdown has appeared in media outlets throughout the country and world.
In the 24-hour period following Bachmann’s comments, Elwyn Tinklenberg’s campaign raised more than $450,000 from outraged donors throughout the country. Since yesterday, that fundraising success has continued.
The same editor friend also alerted me that Bachman was previously best known for her,…. grip on President Bush. For the video and slapstick comment, see:
http://wonkette.com/231082/no-means-no-michele-bachmann-feels-up-the-president
The memo also notes that Colin Powell also cited Bachman’s comments as among his reasons for coming out for Obama:
“This business, for example, we’ve got a congressman from Minnesota who’s going around saying, ‘Let’s examine all congressmen to see who is pro-America and who’s not pro-America.’ We’ve got to stop this kind of nonsense and pull ourselves together and remember that our great strength is in our unity and our diversity,” Powell said.
And lastly, I see she was also quite over-the-top last year in breathless proclamations about Iran having a secret plan to carve up Iraq….
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/02/23/bachmanniran/
Though come to think of it, those charges (as we’ve long noted here)could just as easily have come from Michael R. Gordon at the New York Times. (et. al.)
And oh by the way, about plans to divide up Iraq, anybody remember Joe Biden on that one? Gasp, and would that make him an “un-American” terrorist-sympathizer too?
Still better video of the Bachman-Bush kiss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfJepxPPBok
(and a slew of other youtube videos come up afterwards — including the “fool for christ” sermon)
If I might ask, what exactly does the proximity of Minnesota and Wisconsin have to do with this issue? Sure, Joseph McCarthy was a freshman senator from Wisconsin, but isn’t Wisconcin (and for that matter Minnesota) in Obama’s pocket? Weren’t both Hubert H. Humphrey (You know, the one that Jimma Carter called Hubert Horatio Hornblower at the 1980 Democratic Convention) and Eugene McCarthy both from Minnesota as well?
I also got a kick out of your quote by Colin Powell. Did anyone point out to him that Michele Bachman is a congresswomman and not a congressman? Anyway, I ran out and did some checking and found that he’s less than a year younger than John McCain, so maybe by Obama’s standards he’s just a dottering old fool who’s “out of touch”.
Sorry about the too-abstract geography quirk JES – levity. :-} My Minnesota friends have had many “unique” political figures of late to claim as their own. (the McCarthy’s often get conflated….)
Apart from geography, the link to McCarthy-ism is all-too-symbolic of the outrage at hand.
In any case, I can imagine Minnesota would be an “invigorating” laboratory in which to teach and write!
Think former Governor Jesse Ventura. (Bachman’s opponent served in his administration.)
Think Al Franken, the SNL comedian/commentator and next Minnesota Senator.
Consider too Minnesotan Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress (from a district more “white” and “Christian” than Vuhgil Goode’s in Virginia — as we’ve commented on here in the past)
And to keep tabs on it all, we have Garrison Keillor (Prairie Home Companion) right in the midst of the fun there in St. Paul.
“our great strength is in our unity and our diversity,” Powell said.
It’s not only bad grammar but also it makes no sense.
Try the sentiment this way Don, via Thomas Jefferson. In 1821, Jefferson commented to a Georgia rabbi that freedom of religion is the most effective antidote against religious conflict in society:
“[T]he maxim of civil government being reversed in that of religion, where its true form is `divided we stand, united we fall’.”
https://vintage.justworldnews.org/archives/002311.html
Thus, a paradox — our strength as a unified whole depends on its capacity to tolerate divisions on creed.
Retraction — it’s not bad grammar.
E Pluribus unum — I like it. Take it to the mint.
As long as it’s made clear that national unity comes from diversity of beliefs in toto. The problem is the slippery slope where it morphs into “United We Stand, If You’re Not With Us You’re Against Us” and other such reactions to nonconformity with the approved line (speaking of St. Paul).
In regards to Bachmann, she was referring to views, not creeds,
Re. Bachman, as a “fool for Christ,” it occurs to me that she might want to re-consult that Bible of hers, say at Prov 3:35: “The wise shall inherit glory, But shame shall be the legacy of fools”