Good Riddance to Bad Rubish - Michele Bachmann

Bill O'Reilly Takes Michele Bachmann to Task

Dear New Hampshire former Bachmann Staff / volunteers:

Seriously, what DID you expect? 

From the ABC News blogs:

Rep. Michele Bachmann said she was surprised to hear that her entire New Hampshire campaign staff had quit en masse today, even though they “had not been paid for a month,” one of the departing staffers told ABC News.

That Bachmann is a known nut-job, factually and judgementally 'challenged', by which I mean deficient, has been common knowledge for years.  There is no shortage of documentation about her behavior; she is as bat shit crazy as Orly Taitz.  She made her dumb statements - twice - last March in New Hampshire, which should have put you on notice.  Once is a simple, honest mis-speak; twice, from prepared material, is deliberate willful ignorance.

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Shame on you all for enabling her continuing delusions, and your own. Worse are those of you who fund those delusions.
An interview with her former Chief of Staff explains what kind of an elected representative Bachmann is (the most damning material is some 13 minutes into the video) :

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Michele Bachmann has now lost the staff of an entire state campaign.  Prior to that, she lost other key, senior members of her campaign.  She loses key members of her congressional staff on an unusually frequent basis.  She is temperamental and hard to work for, she is apparently chronically irresponsible.

Michele Bachmann is utterly 'unpresidential'; heck, she's not even up to the standards one would expect for any elected office, including Dog Catcher, much less Congress. She is clearly unqualified for the executive branch of government at any level.

She has a long history of losing staff, as outlined in this piece from the City Pages in Minnesota, back in July 2010, about the fifth chief of staff to leave Bachmann in four years:

But the news broke yesterday that, for the fifth time in four years, Michele Bachmann is without a chief of staff: Ron Carey is out. He lasted just five months. On top of that, fundraising guru Zandra Wolcott has also jumped ship. No explanation was given for either departure.

Carey had replaced Michelle Marston, who helped engineer Bachman's anti-health care reform protest in Washington, D.C. last year -- the one where Sean Hannity was busted by Jon Stewart for bogus video inflating the size of the crowd. The one that cost taxpayers $14,000.

After Marston's departure, one GOP congressman said Bachmann was having a hard time holding on to staff because of her notorious verbal hand grenades and fact-challenged rhetoric. "When your captain's crazy, it's time to find a new ship," the lawmaker said.

The churn started early in the congresswoman's career. Back in 2008 during her first term, Eric Black at MinnPost wrote: The only people still working for Bachmann's office who were around in the first quarter of her term are in lower-level positions, handling phones, scheduling and grants.

Then we have more recent interviews describing what it is like to work for Bachmann.

From CBS News:

The entire paid New Hampshire staff for Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has resigned, in another blow to the Minnesota congresswoman's foundering campaign.

Jeff Chidester, Bachmann's former New Hampshire campaign director, confirmed the mass exodus. "The New Hampshire team has quit," he said. "We'll issue a joint statement as to our reasons why."

Chidester's confirmation, made via email and voice mail to National Journal and CBS, followed a confusing day in which Bachmann insisted that reports of the staff departures were untrue. But Chidester said he left last week and informed "people that are closest to Michele."
"I'm sorry the national team is confused," he said. "They shouldn't be."

One of the aides who quit, Caroline Gilger, Bachmann's southern state field director, is joining the rival campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, a total of four staffers have left: Chidester, Gilger, Tom Lukacz and Nicole Yurek. Uncertain was the future of staff member Matt LeDuc.

Chidester is a longtime Bachmann friend and supporter and a well-known radio talk show host. Reached by email on Friday, Chidester told CBS/NJ that the staff will be issuing a joint statement. "We are more than a team, we have all bonded over the past few months," Chidester wrote. "This is one of the finest group of people I have every had the pleasure of working with. Each one of them is smart, dedicated, and committed to each other. We have not had an opportunity to talk to each other since the story broke, but once we do, we will release a joint statement."

Typically, Bachmann initially denied this factually accurate and correct story:

In an interview with Radio Iowa, Bachmann expressed incredulity over news of the resignations, first reported by New Hampshire television station WMUR. "That is a shocking story to me," she said. "I don't know where that came from. We have called staff in New Hampshire to find out where that came from and the staff have said that isn't true, so I don't know if this is just a bad story that's being fed by a different candidate or campaign. I have no idea where this came from, but we've made calls and it's certainly not true."

However, the AP also confirms the story.  Bachmann will try to deny it for awhile, then she will try to spin it that this is really all part of her plan -- or some equally lame excuse.

And ABC news, on their blog, added this:

Five staffers, including Jeff Chidester, a longtime friend and conservative talk-radio host, have left the Minnesota congresswoman’s campaign.

The departing staff members also included Nicole Yurek, Tom Lukacz, director of operations Matt LeDuc and Southern New Hampshire Field Director Caroline Gigler, as first reported by ABC affiliate WMUR.
Among those [others] to leave were campaign manager Ed Rollins, deputy manager David Polyansky and pollster Ed Goeas. Soon after, longtime adviser Andy Parish left the campaign to return to work in Bachmann’s Washington congressional office and spokesman Doug Sachtleben quit.

How presidential is it not to know this well in advance of it hitting the press?  How presidential is it to have such chaos in your congressional office?  How presidential, how fiscally responsible is it to continue a campaign this deep in debt, and sinking fast without a hope of gaining the nomination?  And most of all, how presidential, how Republican and how Tea Party is it, to be so consistently factually deficient, so lacking in reality in favor of ideology?  I believe I recognize this photo, it is from her interview with Chris Matthews, on MSNBC, the one where she called for a witch hunt to expose the anti-American members of Congress.  This isn't so much a bad photo, as it is the real Bachmann, the crazy woman on the far religious right.

Bye Bye Quadaffi, RIP and Good RiddanceAnd How the Right Was WrongAGAIN

HARRIS: Congresswoman Bachmann, on the same theme, you opposed the U.S. intervention in Libya. If President Obama had taken the same view, Gadhafi would, in all likelihood, still be in power today.
Moderator,
Reagan Library Republican Debate,
September 2011
quote courtesy of The Political Guide.com

Michele Bachmann is an embarrassment to Minnesota, because she is so damned ignorant, and so bigoted.

She will say anything, without understanding anything, much less everything that is necessary. If there were any more proof needed that this woman is not equipped to be a Congresswoman - not an effective, informed representative certainly - much less President, or even to be elected dog catcher, the following videos exemplify her failures of intelligence and education. Yet, she raised the money in the last election from the right to run a campaign that was more costly than any other member of Congress. Why is the right so willing to support stupid? Why does the right exalt ideology over substance? When will the right stop conflating idiot and ideology? The other candidates running for office on the right, especially for the nomination for the presidential race in 2012 are not much of an improvement over Bachmann.

Remember, this woman sits on the Intelligence Committee.  You'd think she would know as much as oh, the L.A. Times when they report the findings of the Intelligence community, but NO.  Maybe the Republicans had some vain hope that she would absorb some, by exposure. Apparently they were unaware of her dismal attendance record, if that was their hope. But hey! The Tea Party loves her!  She's pro-ignorance, and anti-science (apparently also anti-geography).

But it gets better.  Want to bet that Bachmann doesn't actually KNOW where Libya is?  Not that her ignorance would ever stop her from criticizing Obama or anyone else not on the far right.  There is this footage from the Republican debate-of-ignorance in Las Vegas.  The following is from the HuffPo:



 

The next time someone tells you the Republicans - or worse, the nut jobs in the Tea Party - are the party of ideas, point out that they aren't the party of ideas, and they certainly are not the party of FACTS.  They are, if anything, fact-aversive.

For example, on the demise of Quadaffi (which is a phonetic spelling, and therefore occurs in many variations) we have this from Michele Bachmann, from Politico:

"For more than 40 years, we lived with the Muammar al-Qaddafi regime and the atrocities he orchestrated. The world is a better place without Qaddafi. It is my hope that Qaddafi's reign of terror will be replaced with a government that respects the people of Libya and one that will be a good partner with the United States. Hopefully, today will also bring to an end our military involvement there, something I opposed from its beginning."

Michele Bachmann is a flip-flopper.  She doesn't know where key locations are, she doesn't understand the politics of these countries or movements, and she will say anything - apparently forgetting that her statements are on the record.   The web site, Political Guide.com however, does a meticulous job of tracking these flip flops, and has done so with Bachmann, tracking her statements while campaigning, which can be viewed at their site, but more importantly tracking her voting record on Libya :

Voting Record Restricting Funds for Use in Libya

On June 24, 2011 the House voted on a measure to prohibit funds for the Department of Defense (DOD) from being used for U.S. Armed Forces in support of the NATA Operation Unified Protector with respect to Libya, except for: (1) search and rescue; (2) intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; (3) aerial refueling; and (4) operational planning. The vote failed 180-238. Michele Bachmann voted against preventing funds from being used for military actions in support of the NATO mission in Libya.


Michele Bachmann voted against preventing funds from being used for military actions in support of the NATO mission in Libya.


Authorizing the limited use of US Forces in support of the NATO mission in Libya


On June 24, 2011 the House voted on a resolution to authorize the President to continue the limited use of U.S. Armed Forces in Libya in support of U.S. security policy interests as part of the NATO mission to enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973. The resolution states that Congress does not support deploying, establishing, or maintaining the presence of units and members of U.S. Armed Forces on the ground in Libya unless the purpose of the presence is limited to the immediate personal defense of U.S. government officials or to rescuing members of NATO forces from imminent danger. The resolution failed 123-495. Michele Bachmann voted against the resolution to limit the use of forces in Libya.


Michele Bachmann voted against the resolution to limit the use of forces in Libya.


Removing Troops from Libya


On June 3, 2011 the House voted to direct the President to remove troops from Libya. The vote was bipartisan for and against, but failed 262-148. Michele Bachmann voted in favor of forcing President Obama to remove troops from Libya.


Michele Bachmann voted in favor of forcing President Obama to remove troops from Libya.


Resolution Against Troop Deployment


On June 3, 2011 the House voted on a resolution declaring that President Obama could not deploy, establish, or maintain the presence of units and members of the United States Armed Forces on the ground in Libya. The vote passed 266-144. Michele Bachmann voted in favor of the resolution to declare that the President could not deploy troops.


Michele Bachmann voted in favor of the resolution to declare that the President could not deploy troops.

Clearly, President Obama in cooperation with our allies in NATO, had a clear vision of what was occurring on the ground in Libya as events unfolded.  He engaged us in a very limited involvement which lasted some eight months, and did not result in significant loss of life to the United States military, and which has been crucial in developing relationships with the new governments in Muslim countries in Africa.  Michele Bachmann doesn't give a damn about Libya; she is simply annoyed that once again, President Obama has been successful, and she has been caught being both stupid, and on the wrong side of history.

All of which qualifies her to go to work at the Faux Propaganda and Disinformation cable network after she is finished in Congress in 2012, but not for much else.

Because it IS FUNNY!

A second high five to Microdot for posting this on his blog the brain police.

As a Minnesotan who has lived in her district, I can aver that she makes more sense HERE than she does in her real speaking events -- and it's a lot funnier.



Encore, merci Microdot!  C'est deux aujourd'hui.

Woman Bites Dog, Brit Humor Looks at U.S. Politics

I've always liked British humor, although it can be far more scathing than what we are used to here in the U.S.; it has a delicious sharpness to the wit.

This struck me as insightful lampooning of American hypocrisy and folly on the topic of sex and sexuality, particularly given the homophobia on which Michele Bachmann made her political bones in MN, and nationwide, and from which she is now trying to backpedal - without alienating the right wing homophobes that have always been the foundation of her base.

I believe Michele Bachmann, who prides herself on 'being the tip of the spear in opposing the terrifying (to the religious right) so-called gay agenda', and who co-owns a 'pray the gay away' clinic, finds her own hypocrisy punctured like a balloon here on the sharp spear of British humor looking at American politics. 

Yes, it's rude.  It's very rude, particularly if you are offended by anything that suggests oral sex.

It's also funny.  Very funny, all the funnier for, if you'll pardon the pun, pricking her priggish hateful politics, and hypocrisy, since her husband Marcus is suspected of himself being gay, but still in the closet.  Too bad the photographer didn't catch a picture of Marcus taking that first bite....

I wonder if the right wing media will be giving Michele Bachmann as much grief over her use of mustard as they did when Obama was on the campaign trail and used mustard, but not ketchup on a hamburger.  Obama was accused of somehow being 'elitist' for preferring mustard.  Funny, how prejudicially the right looks at preferences of all kinds.

Bachmann went on to win the Iowa straw poll, which involves an astonishingly tiny number of votes, and which is indicative politically of absolutely nothing, in proportion to the hype accorded it.  Kinda like Bachmann herself, all hype, no substance.

From the UK media, the Telegraph:

Michele Bachmann tries out a local delicacy at the Iowa State Fair - a foot-long corn dog. Photo: Toby Harnden

On the eve of the Ames Straw Poll, the Republican candidates made a last push for votes at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines – a huge spectacle in which cattle, pigs and horses are on display as well as politicians and Iowans queue to for fairground rides and some of the most unhealthy food on the planet (I was going to try the Fried Twinkies but the queue was,alas, too long).
Sarah Palin, who is not on the Straw Poll ballot, made a high-profile appearance, as is her wont every time it seems she’s slipping out of the limelight, and was duly mobbed by the press. “There is still plenty of room for a common sense conservative,” she said, deliberately fuelling yet another round of speculation that she might after all enter the 2012 fray.
A characteristically avid and vocal band of Ron Paul supporters surged around their hero and his son Senator Rand Paul as they held forth beside an adjustable mattress booth. Paul, an uncompromisingly anti-war libertarian, is a highly improbable Republican nominee but Palin, amongst others, reckon he could finish top in the Straw Poll, which was won in 2008 by Mitt Romney, who is not competing this time around.
Tim Pawlenty, who has put more money and organisational planning into Iowa than any other candidate, attacked Bachmann and Romney at the Ames debate on Thursday night but today, his cowboy-booted foot resting on a hay bale, he sought to single out President Barack Obama. “Tell Barack Obama he has had his chance and it isn’t working,” he told the crowd.
Michele Bachmann, Iowa born and the favourite to win the Straw Poll, arrived half an hour late for her slot and then spoke for just over two minutes, saying that Iowans were “going to send the signal” to the rest of America just as they had in 2008.  “This is where Barack Obama got his start. This is where he’s going to come to his end, in Iowa.”
She beat a hasty retreat after being aggressively heckled by a young man who shouted that she believed homosexuals were “second-class citizens” and that she should not try to “pray away the gay”.
Driving away on a golf cart with her husband Marcus beside her, Mrs Bachmann stopped to buy a foot-long corn dog – a chicken and beef sausage in deep-fried batter. After applying mustard and allowing Mr Bachmann to take the first bite, she chomped into it with gusto.

Jon Stewart Defends Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann's Headaches

via Fuck Conservatives



Does she own guns, by the way?

Michele Bachmann's American History

via Dog Gone of Penigma

Michele Bachmann Imitates Sarah Palin

via Driftglass

It's Official - Bachmann for President

Call me a rainbow-seeing, skipping-through-the-grass, liberal optimist, but I say never in a million years will Michelle Bachmann become president. I don't care how many foster-kids she has, all that right-to-life crap is the worst form of misogyny which denies women basic human rights and autonomy over their own lives and bodies. All that nonsense about marriage being between a man and a woman is pure homophobia. The Tea Party Movement is a seething hate-cauldron, and she's one of the founders of it.

Michelle Bachmann for President

via TYWKIWDBI

Michele Bachmann expressed skepticism of evolution at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Friday.

"I support intelligent design," Bachmann told reporters following her speech at the conference, CNN reports. "What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don't think it's a good idea for government to come down on one side of scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides."

"I would prefer that students have the ability to learn all aspects of an issue," Bachmann said. "And that's why I believe the federal government should not be involved in local education to the most minimal possible process."

Bachmann Addresses the Troops

Could this be any more foolish? Not only has Obama proven to NOT be a threat to gun rights, this strategy failed miserably in 2008.

In a well-received video greeting, Rep. Michele Bachmann urged gun owners Friday to be as engaged in 2012 as they were during the midterm elections that gave Republicans control of the House.

“The right to keep and bear arms has to be protected because the Second Amendment is the final guarantor of all our constitutional rights,” the Minnesota Republican said in a pre-record message for thousands of activists at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting. “In 18 months, we’ll face one of the most important elections of our time. In 2012, we have the opportunity to repeal the current president and elect a Constitutional conservative who will protect our Second Amendment rights.”

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

A Palin/Bachmann Ticket

via Norwegianity

from the brilliant D.C. Douglas Blog

The Incredible Michele Bachmann

via Norwegianity

Unfortunately, the story doesn't hold water, as researcher Chris Rodda ably points out at OpEdNews.

So Rodda, who has a background in genealogical research, decided to do a little digging. Without too much trouble, she found that Bachmann is actually a fourth-generation American, not seventh, as she claimed. And that's just the start.

Bachmann's immigrant ancestors didn't make a pilgrimage straight to the promised land of Iowa. From Quebec, they went to Wisconsin. That's where the 1860 census found them. From there, they moved to the Dakota Territory.

Why is this woman so popular? Do the Obama-haters fear a second term so badly that they've become even blinder than usual?

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

"Very Presidential" Michelle Bachmann

via Norwegianity from The Washington Monthly.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire got off to a rocky start on Saturday morning when she misstated a key fact about the American Revolution in a speech to a group of local conservative activists and students. 

"What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty," the potential GOP presidential candidate said. "You're the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord." [...]

Three years ago when Sarah Palin kept putting her foot in her mouth, someone said to me "I think they're trying to lose," referring to McCain and Palin. Maybe that's what Michelle Bachmann is doing already.  You remember what George said. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Let's Blame Beck and Hannity and Limbaugh and Michele Bachmann

Trueslant.com has published an interesting article by Rick Unger about blame and responsibility. Referring to the hanging of 51-year old Bill Sparkman, a part time worker for the US Census Bureau, whom we discussed yesterday, Mr. Unger says it would be inappropriate to pre-judge the motive behind the murder before the FBI finishes its work. Nevertheless, with the word “fed” scrawled across his chest, it's probably safe to assume the crime was motivated by “anti-government” sentiment.

This latest shock to the national system will inevitably lead to yet another discussion about the influence incendiary broadcasters, such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, have on the minds and hearts of those who would commit such a horrible act.

But it’s not only the radio and TV talkers. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann recently bragged about how she was going to refuse participation in the census because she "does not wish to assist the president in his effort to create what she charges are ‘re-education’ camps where children would be indoctrinated in the Obama government’s official philosophy. According to Bachmann, such internment camps are the direct result of the national census, as she explained in an interview on FOX News."

If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the census bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations, at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I’m not saying that’s what the Administration is planning to do. But I am saying that private, personal information that was given to the census bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up.

The folks who irresponsibly scream "fire" in the crowded theater that is America need to be held accountable for this. Some say the person who commits the crime is 100% responsible for his or her actions, which leaves no part of the responsibility for anyone else. I look at it differently. The killer can be held responsible as well as the Becks and Bachmanns who incite them, call the percentages what you will. Don't forget Mr. Adkisson's Manifesto.

Nobody ever intended our public airwaves to be turned over to irresponsible voices. Maybe the time has come for the FCC to worry a bit less about wardrobe malfunctions and a whole lot more about those who would use our airwaves to make a name for themselves at the expense of the public they are suppose to serve – particularly when the expense comes in the form of blood.

What's your opinion? Many say Beck is in it for the ratings, what about Bachmann then? What's her motivation? Isn't the idea of shared responsibility something that makes sense? The ones who spout this poison are highly intelligent, talented people. On the receiving end you've got either extremely uneducated and unsophisticated people, Jim Adkisson for example, or the ones who are already cracked and just need a little encouragement, Timothy McVeigh for example.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.