When Politico reported today that Bachmann would air an apology, longtime Bachmann watchers here in Minnesota predicted that it would not be anything like an apology:
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has taped an advertisement apologizing for her televised comments calling Barack Obama anti-American, according to a Republican source familiar with her campaign’s decision.
Bachmann campaign spokeswoman Michelle Marston said the campaign will be airing a new advertisement this afternoon, but declined to comment specifically on whether Bachmann would be apologizing in the spot.
"You’ll just have to wait and see," Marston said.
(continued)
The ad did not contain any kind of apology at all for Bachmann's call for an investigation into anti-Americanism among members of Congress, or her slurs on the patriotism of Barack Obama.
Brownsox ran the ad on the front page of the Kos this evening but here it is again, with the text.
Here's the text of the non-apology. Notice: no "I'm sorry," no "I apologize," no apologies to Obama, her colleagues in Congress--or to the American people for suggesting that serving members of Congress harbor anti-American attitudes.
"Once again, our nation is at a crossroads and it's a time for choosing. We could embrace government as the answer to our problems or we can choose freedom and liberty. I may not always get my words right but I know that my heart is right because my heart is for you, for your children and for the blessings of liberty to remain for our great country."
Note that the mind of Michele (which is also the mind of her craziest supporters) is reflected in the ad. The crossroads in this nation according to them will force us to to choose between either government or freedom and liberty. You cannot choose, for example, better government PLUS freedom and liberty. It's either/or--her grass roots supporters up here see the federal government as a positive evil; as the natural enemy of freedom and liberty. That's the John Birch Society kind of conservatism that leads her to calls for investigation of anti-Americans in Congress.
But it's probably intended as some kind of Checkers speech; an attempt to acknowledge scandalous behavior without taking responsibility for it. She delivers the text in a breathy, urgent tone and talks in generalities. As with Nixon during Checkers, it's sympathy for herself that she's asking for--not forgiveness.
Meanwhile, Bachmann is using the incident to claim that she is being persecuted by liberals. She is raising money from the right on the basis of the past week's events. Karl Bremer of the MN Independent blog reported that she had already raised about $30,000 since last Friday.
That doesn't sound like much compared to the more than one million dollars that poured into Dem opponent Elwyn Tinklenberg's campaign since last Friday. But you have to remember that Bachmann had raised $2.45 million by Sept. 30 and currently reports $1.37 million in cash on hand.
It's a very red district; this is going to be tough. There is a third candidate, Bob Anderson, who's currently got about 8% of the vote. That eight percent may be to be critical in determining whether Bachmann will crawl across the finish line in ten days. Minnesota's Independence Party is probably most famous for sending wrestler Jesse Ventura to the governor's mansion here in Minnesota. The Independence Party decided to endorse Tinklenberg this year, probably because they understand that there is no role for them to play in this district if Bachmann is re-elected.
But Bob Anderson decided to run as the Independence Party candidate without their endorsement, and he's tying up that eight percent...
A Minnesota Public Radio poll released yesterday reports the race as a dead heat between Bachmann and Tinklenberg: Tinklenberg at 45%, Bachmann at 43%.
You can see Bachmann explaining her take on multi-culturalism here: "not all cultures are equal," is her view.
Now look at this. Can you see that? That's what I get, when I go to a website called www.mnvoter.com and enter my zipcode. It's a chart that tells me who voted the right way on issues of concern to the evangelical right (Bachmann) and who voted the wrong way on issues of concern to evangelical voters (Tinklenberg.) For these right wing evangelicals, Bachmann voted the right way, all down the line--and Tinklenberg voted the wrong way, all down the line.
Do not ask me why questions about "voting to expand offshore drilling" and "making tax cuts permanent" and "accelerated building of a border fence" are appearing in a Christian voters' guide. This is the kind of right wing conservative evangelical politicking that brought Bachmann into power and can keep her there.
The site that publishes these guidelines is the offspring of the Minnesota Family Council, which is the local ally of James Dobson's Focus on the Family/Family Research Council political machines.
So this is another thing we've been up against, throughout Bachmann's career. The national evangelical political machine and its local affiliates have made the evangelical faith as political as it can get, here in Minnesota. Over the past eight years, local evangelical radio has devoted uncounted hours broadcast time to promoting Michele Bachmann as the candidate of the "real" Christians--the right wing ones. The Minnesota Family Council has been instrumental in promoting her career for years; in 2006 James Dobson himself organized a get out the vote drive for her right here in the Sixth District: and bingo, this nut is in office.
Today Tony Perkins of Dobson's Family Research Council excoriated the national GOP for pulling funding support from Bachmann and another wingnut in Congress, Marilyn Musgrave. Perkins was a featured speaker at one of Bachmann's "stop gay marriage" rallies at the state capitol in St. Paul, a couple years back. Michele, as I say, is symbiotic with the national evangelical right.
Then there's the Wikipedia article controversy. The battle for control of that Wikipedia link has raged for more than two years, fought between Wiki editors who want to keep the entry current and accurate, and Bachmann supporters who regularly try to "scrub" the more embarrassing information out of it.
Despite that, the Wiki article remains one of the best readily available resources on the history of Bachmann's career on the web--at this writing. I strongly suggest that anyone who is interested in the career this politician read that article. It is long and detailed, one of the longest Wiki articles on any congressional representative or politician. But the facts documented in the article are cited to reliable third party sources. Dedicated editors keep the content up to date--the latest section describes the Chris Matthews Hardball debacle and the reaction to it. If you want to read the fascinating story of a fundamentalist demagogue's rise to power--read that Wiki article. Bear in mind that the attempts by Bachmann supporters to "scrub" it are on-going.
On the front pages of the big newspapers here today: practically nothing. There's one tiny, "you can't see it" snippet headline on the bottom of the front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, but it's not about her backtracking or apologizing or mounting more attacks on Obama on conservative radio. The snippet headline (as big as the top joint of my thumb) notes that "Bachmann, Tinklenberg essentially tied at poll." The paper's apparently decided that the story's not front page news, ten days out from the election--even though it continues to resonate on cable television and political reporting outside Minnesota.
Instead of the Bachmann story, today's Minneapolis Star Tribune (supposedly the liberal paper) did a front-page, full color photo story about possible ACORN voter fraud.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press had nothing at all on the Bachmann furor on its front page: their biggest front page story today was about specialty drinks you can find in the Twin Cities bar scene.
This is what they put on the front pages here, less than ten days before the election. I'm only telling you about these crappy papers because people keep asking me "how could the people in your district have elected this nut, Bachmann?" In journalism, what the papers and networks choose to "spike" (not cover) is every bit as important as what they actually print. They've spiked extremist statements by Bachmann for eight years, kept them out of their reporting. (We collect her recorded extremism at the Dump Bachmann blog, on audio recordings and videos, but the local papers don't print what we collect.)
The Star Tribune ran a horse race story tonight about the state of the campaign--on the Web. Perhaps it will appear in print tomorrow. In this story, reporter Pat Doyle moves up the reference to her call for an investigation of anti-Americanism in Congress a few paragraphs, instead of burying it at the end of the story. That's a big improvement, for Doyle. Thanks to those Kossacks who wrote Doyle letters last night after I published Doyle's email address.
For the latest poll of the race (released last night) and for information about how the national Republican party pulled their funding for Bachmann after her Hardball disaster, see my previous diary, here. You can also see Tinklenberg's latest anti-Bachmann ad there.
To contribute to Elwyn Tinklenberg's campaign, go here. He remains the last best hope of getting this nut out of office. If she gets in again this year, it's likely that she will keep this "safely Republican seat" as long as she wants to.