
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a champion of the right wing and a key organizer of the recent Capitol Tea Party, wonders why Democrats attack her so much -- after all, decades ago she was a Democrat herself!
Bachmann told the St. Cloud Times:
In being forceful and fighting for the positions that I'm standing for, I obviously must pose a threat for liberals advancing their agenda. I say that because I grew up a Democrat in a Democrat family. My husband and I both worked on Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign. The first time I ever came to Washington was to dance at Walter Mondale's inaugural ball. It was a thrill for my husband and me, and we were both happy to work on behalf of Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter. We really believed in them when we were in college. So in some ways I don't understand why the Democratic Party would be opposed to me, because I stand for the same values that my parents stood for when we were Democrats.
holyhandgrenaid
November 23, 2009 10:44 AM
Well Rep Bachamann, It could be because your hyper-paranoid batshit insanity of today concerns us much more than any past affiliations you may have had with the Democratic Party.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
merlot
November 23, 2009 10:54 AM in reply to holyhandgrenaid
Here, here.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
ray reynolds
November 23, 2009 12:14 PM in reply to holyhandgrenaid
Maybe because you lie and will say or do anything (including telling crazies to arm and be dangerous)to push your positions?
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 12:38 PM in reply to holyhandgrenaid
Her parents talked the same batshit poop as she and were Democrat[s]? Bachmann has really gone around the bend if she beleives that.
And note the "college" crack: when she was steeped in an educational environment, she was for Carter and Mondale. But once she got out of that environment into the real world of political expedicancy and exploitation of stupidity she got a real education about the usefulness of bashing educated elitists.
(Did she go to college? With Sarah Palin?)
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Docb
November 23, 2009 1:18 PM in reply to holyhandgrenaid
points up the depth of her delusion... Could not be more apparent than this stupid statement...laughable and pathetic but typical.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Stroszek
November 23, 2009 10:45 AM
And this has been another episode of "Things Michelle Bachmann Doesn't Understand."
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
The Old Grouch
November 23, 2009 12:03 PM in reply to Stroszek
Could well be the longest-running series in human history.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
FreeRider
November 23, 2009 10:46 AM
What a nutbag. She should be respected by Democrats because used to believe in Democratic values and ideals even though she currently spends all of her time calling for McCarthy-like investigations of Democrats and accusing the Democratic president of plotting to put Republicans in concentration camps?
Makes perfect sense.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Pete Bilderback
November 23, 2009 10:58 AM
Well, count me as one Democrat who loves Michelle Bachmann. Michelle, thank you for your work on Jimmy Carter's campaign, but most especially thank you for clearly demonstrating the stark raving lunacy that lies at the heart of today's Republican Party.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Rich in NJ
November 23, 2009 10:59 AM
So what happened to her since the '70s, did she suffer a head injury?
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Matt Jones
November 23, 2009 11:27 AM in reply to Rich in NJ
Maybe too much Botox on the forehead causes brain damage - who knows.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
NotaGOP
November 23, 2009 11:48 AM in reply to Rich in NJ
You could ask the same question of George McGovern.
Then again, it is not that unusual for individuals at the extreme ends of the political spectrum to flip form one extreme to the other. Oswald Moseley was a member of the Fabian Socialists prior to his infamous founding of the British Union of Fascists. And then there is the American Lyndon LaRouche, who was a Trotskyist before he decided to found his own right-wing lunatic fringe cult.
Then again, in Bachmann's case we may actually have a case where an orbiting satellite lazer cannon run by extraterrestrials is actually controlling somebody
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 12:42 PM in reply to NotaGOP
McGovern is only seen as an extremist by extremists who don't know political center from Goldwater far-right, and don't know up from down.
US involvement in Vietnam was illegal, which made it wrong. Republicans and Nixon suipported that illegality. McGovern opposed it.
Then again, it shouldn't surprise that the uninidicted criminal class that calls itself Republican party would be hostile to the law-abiding.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
FreeRider
November 23, 2009 1:31 PM in reply to JNagarya
Yeah, because we all know that no Democrats supported the Vietnam War. Thank God, LBJ was a Republican.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 1:44 PM in reply to FreeRider
I didn't say that. I said:
US involvement in Vietnam was illegal, therefore wrong.
That involvement was supported by Nixon -- a Republican -- and the Republicans.
George McGovern opposed that illegality.
Ask yourself why you believe the law-abiding are extremists, and the lawless are reasonable and patriotic.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
FreeRider
November 23, 2009 2:42 PM in reply to JNagarya
Why would I ask myself why I believe something I don't believe?
Yes, Nixon supported Vietnam but you can't blame Nixon for Vietnam when Kennedy and LBJ are responsible for getting us into and escalating that war.
Vietnam was wrong, wrong, wrong. But there were Democrats in the WH and an overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress. Therefore, we own that turkey.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 3:03 PM in reply to FreeRider
I posted these facts on a different thread today, but I'll repeat them for your benefit:
1. During WW II the US and Ho Chi Minh were allies against Japanese occupations in Southeast Asia.
2. Post-WWII, President Truman supported the French in Indochina (which included Vietnam) with money and materiale.
3. Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist defending his nation -- divided in two by the Western powers -- against occupation during a civil war.
4. Eisenhower sent the first quasi-military personnel to Vietnam.
All of that was prior to the election of JFK, the ascendancy of LBJ, and the election of Nixon with a "secret plan" to end the war, which "plan" never materialized. Instead, Nixon prolonged the war in order to use the "peace negotiations" as an election issue.
How is any of that a negative against McGovern? How does that make McGovern an "extremist," as you originally asserted?
Don't you actually mean that McGovern was a Democrat instead of being a Republican, and that's all it takes to make the former an extremist and the latter a patriot? Even though the latter, and not the former, subverted democracy with Watergate, and subverted the Constitution in his criminal efforts to cover up that crime?
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
FreeRider
November 23, 2009 3:18 PM in reply to JNagarya
Ummm. Where did ever call McGovern an extremist??!!
Eisenhower had 900 "advisors" in Vietnam. Kennedy upped that to 16,000. He was punked into acting tough, something he foreshadowed while in the Senate when he strongly pushed the "Domino" theory.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 5:25 PM in reply to FreeRider
Ah, I see: Eisenhower didn't start the way down the slippery-slope of sending "advisors". That was the fault of a Democrat.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
FreeRider
November 23, 2009 6:37 PM in reply to JNagarya
Yeah. Goodness knows it was all Eisenhower's fault with those damn "900 advisors." {Rolling eyes}
If Obama reestablishes relationship with Cuba and we open an embassy there. Then if the next republican admin starts a war with Cuba, it will be all Obama's fault because he stated the "slippery slope" by having a presence there.
Get a clue! Vietnam will forever belong to Kennedy/LBJ. Even their most ardent supporters and closest aides don't deny that.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 7:04 PM in reply to FreeRider
Vietnam will forever belong to Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, and Ford.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
NotaGOP
November 24, 2009 12:17 PM in reply to FreeRider
My statement about McGovern had nothing to do with his stand on the Vietnam war. See my post below.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
midnight rambler
November 23, 2009 1:11 PM in reply to NotaGOP
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
NotaGOP
November 24, 2009 12:14 PM in reply to midnight rambler
I base my statement on the fact McGovern appeared in a commercial opposing the Employee Free Choice Act last fall, the same ones paid for by Walmart. He lost all credibility with me for that betrayal of progressive ideals.
He may not have been an extreme leftist like Mosley or LaRouche were (except in terms of South Dakota politics), but to go from an icon of the progressive wing of the Democratic party to an anti-union shill on Walmart's payroll is still the equivalent to Bachmann's flip from a Carter activist to notorious delusional right-wing loony.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Rich in NJ
November 23, 2009 1:18 PM in reply to NotaGOP
While I strongly disagree with you about McGovern, I agree with you about true extremists.
I went to high school with Joe Farah of World Net Daily. Back then, he was an extreme left winger who wore a Che Guevara patch on his jacket. Now, he is a wingnut on the right, pushing bither lunacy.
So politics can be more about psychology than ideology.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 1:47 PM in reply to Rich in NJ
I suspect it's becasue there's more money on the right than on the left.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Rich in NJ
November 23, 2009 1:54 PM in reply to JNagarya
I think that's true, but at least in Joe's case, he started moving to the right well before financial opportunities presented themselves.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 12:46 PM in reply to Rich in NJ
Well it was a statement to a publication named "St. Cloud Times".
#9 . . . #9 . . . #9 . . .
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 12:53 PM in reply to Rich in NJ
She was a Democrat until she got into a brawl with reality and reality lost.
And the "medical marijuana" clearly isn't helping her condition or prognosis.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
RedMolly
November 23, 2009 11:11 AM
Of all the completely batshit crazy things that Bachmann has said so far, this may be the most delusional of all.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
LeeJo
November 23, 2009 11:16 AM
Michelle is a little goofy.
What she stands for today has little or nothing to do with what Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale stood for in 1976 or stand for today. Her claim that she stands for what they stood for when they were elected to office is proof positive that she has no contact with reality.
One of the things I am most great full for in my life is that I live about a half a mile outside her district. On of the things that is most frightening in my life is that there will be redistricting in a couple of years.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 12:45 PM in reply to LeeJo
". . . a little goofy".
Admit it: you're in love with her, which subverts your objectivity and tempers your harsh view.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
TheraP
November 23, 2009 11:17 AM
Poor soul... Another day, same "victim"!
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
LeeJo
November 23, 2009 11:17 AM
Michelle is a little goofy.
What she stands for today has little or nothing to do with what Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale stood for in 1976 or stand for today. Her claim that she stands for what they stood for when they were elected to office is proof positive that she has no contact with reality.
One of the things I am most great full for in my life is that I live about a half a mile outside her district. On of the things that is most frightening in my life is that there will be redistricting in a couple of years.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
tonigo
November 23, 2009 11:18 AM
I really wish the reporter followed up and asked her what those values were. I would love to have read her response. I suspect it would have had something to do with Jimmy Carter being a religious man.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Dorn76
November 23, 2009 11:19 AM
Um, maybe because you're crazy.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Minne sconsin
November 23, 2009 11:43 AM
Well, Michele,
In your parents day, it used to be that many in the Democratic Party were opposed to rights for women. Or for blacks. Gays? Don't even think of it, we put them in prison or at least fired them from their job. After we beat them up.
But we've moved on to a better place now, a place that accepts women in positions of power. Like you. Even if you are batshit crazy.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
FreeRider
November 23, 2009 12:00 PM in reply to Minne sconsin
Her parents were Minnesota Democrats. Minnesota Democrats NEVER stood for what Bachmann stands for today.
Mississippi Democrats? That's a whole 'nother thing entire!
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 1:49 PM in reply to FreeRider
Someone give that woman a map of the United States!
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
chimpale
November 23, 2009 11:46 AM
I'm going to go out on a limb here, Michelle, and suggest that it might have something to do with your proclivity for saying just about anything that pops into that pointy little head of yours, except for the truth.
You're a little bit nutty, yeah.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 1:51 PM in reply to chimpale
Bachmann/Palin 2012:
A little bit nutty, and a little bit slutty.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
IowaKid
November 23, 2009 11:56 AM
Hmmmm this wouldn't have nothing to do with her misuse of taxpayers money for use are her recent tea party would it? Just saying.....
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
jeffgee
November 23, 2009 12:09 PM
Is it possible that she's alienating some of her constituents with the crazy talk?
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
ray reynolds
November 23, 2009 12:16 PM
Does anyone believe anything she says
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Waltz
November 23, 2009 12:18 PM
I don't know why any party would accept her.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
JNagarya
November 23, 2009 12:49 PM in reply to Waltz
She can come to my party, so long as she brings along her stash of psychedelics, and agrees to dance on the table, then get down and do some nude hubba-hubba with the host.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
WaitWut?
November 23, 2009 12:24 PM
Her comments disprove the old saying, "With age comes experience". In her case it needs to be, "With age comes insanity".
She had to be kidding, right? No one can be that clueless. Oh...waith. nm
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
o224hsday
November 23, 2009 12:29 PM
Well Michelle, it seems like a mere 53% of your district thinks that you don't have the values they want in a Congressional Rep.
Republican 187,817 46.41% Congressman Michele M. Bachmann
Democratic 175,786 43.43% Elwyn Glenn "El" Tinklenberg
-Farmer Labor
Independence 40,643 10.04% Bob Anderson
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Icon
November 23, 2009 12:42 PM
I'm not a partisan, but I have some speculative reasons why the Democratic party might not like you. I've avoided snide comments about your alleged lack of intelligence. While I personally doubt your intellectual capabilities, such statements are not verifiable.
A. You're a Republican. (And not a Democrat.)
B. You believe that many members of Congress are "un-American". (Bush-era rhetoric implies you're referring to the Dems specifically.)
C. You support teaching of intelligent design in public schools and believe evolution is a theory that has not been proven. (While it is true that no scientific theory can ever truly be proven, rational people favor teaching those theories that bear the weight of objective scrutiny. Gravity does. Evolution does. Intelligent design does not.)
D. You oppose increases in the minimum wage. (Which is an idea the Dems tend to like.)
E. You support a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and other recognition of gay relationships. (Which is an idea the Dems tend to oppose.)
F. You believe that LGBT people suffer from mental illness. (Which, in addition to being wrong, is also not an idea the Dems favor.)
So, if you were to pull a 180 and change those things about you, maybe they'd like you more. But you won't, because you're an idiot who has no respect for reality.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Publius Lepidus
November 23, 2009 12:51 PM
This has got to be a "Onion" piece! Surely she jests.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Jackster
November 23, 2009 12:59 PM
Your parents must be proud!
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
pv2k
November 23, 2009 1:01 PM
Her support wasn't for Carter/Mondale. It was for Jesus, whom Carter was also a believer.
Does anyone else notice that Bachmann's support didn't extend to Mondale/Ferraro? Nope. No real Minnesotan support there. 1984 is when Michelle switched to team Satan, Reagan/Bush. The Satan team of McCain/Palin didn't fair so well in 2008.
Of course this accounts for why Michele Bachmann has been so bitchy lately.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Winston Smith
November 23, 2009 1:05 PM
Fuck you, Michelle.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
trent1280
November 23, 2009 1:22 PM
Michelle who?
This creature combines the narcissism of Orly Taitz with the smarts of Tom Tancredo, and the good judgment of Mark Sanford and Helen Chenowyth.
What's not to like?
Who expects dignity or intelligence from a Representative, anyway? Anyone who believes the earth was created in 4004 BC has special knowledge denied to the rest of us, and we should respect that.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
mmanion
November 23, 2009 1:28 PM
Maybe it's because you say idiotic things like "I grew up a Democrat in a Democrat family" instead of in a Democratic one. No one who is or was a real Democrat would stoop to that ridiculous grammatical convention thought up by infantile neocons ala Rush Limbaugh. You make what you clearly believe to be an attempt to insult Dems while claiming to have common cause with them. Nice job bozo.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
slb
November 23, 2009 3:20 PM in reply to mmanion
+1
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
GTFOOH
November 23, 2009 2:23 PM
She's stupid! And that's one of the better things you can say about her.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Hidden Oak
November 23, 2009 2:29 PM
Not just the Democratic Party. Any sane individual with a brain in their head.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
foodchain11
November 23, 2009 3:43 PM
God, you just can't make up dumb! Sometimes all you can do is shake your head and walk away.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
OldenGoldenDecoy
November 23, 2009 3:47 PM
Ah ... horseshit . . .
This asshat was a Democrat at one time? Well give her a lollipop to jam in her piehole.
Just goes to show that even a hard-headed donkey who was once within the tent can go nuts and morph into a braying jackass ...
So what?
~OGD~
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
kenga
November 24, 2009 10:13 AM in reply to OldenGoldenDecoy
Well - so was Strom Thurmond.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
ejg3
November 23, 2009 7:50 PM
There are worse people than Bachmann who left Waterloo,Iowa-- John Wayne Gacy and Michael V. Townley are two who come to mind.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Nancy Irving
November 24, 2009 12:54 AM
"The first time I ever came to Washington was to dance at Walter Mondale's inaugural ball."
? Am I remembering wrong? Mondale was not elected, so was not inaugurated, so did she dance by herself in an empty room? Is she hallucinating?
Did she wake up alone in an empty ballroom? Was this so traumatic that she went around the bend?
Perhaps this explains Bachmann.
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?
Paullohan
December 1, 2009 9:46 PM
has anyone noticed that she said demoratic party?
Reply | Flag Abuse
Are you sure this comment violates TPM's Terms of Service?