And during those dorm years, when I was busy studying, the Lord put in my heart, that if I would be diligent and I would be steadfast, He would take me to law school. And I thought, law school? I have no interest in going to law school. But I put that in His hands and I put in His plan, and I put it in His hands, and pursued that, and eventually He did, He took me to law school.
And I went to the first Christian law school that there was in the United States, down at Oral Roberts University, where they taught the law from a Biblical worldview.
And from there, my husband said "Now you need to go and get post-doctorate degree in tax law." Tax law? I hate taxes. Why should I go and do something like that? But the Lord says: Be submissive, wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands...
--State Senator Michele Bachmann, October 14, 2006, videotaped speaking at a church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
We'll have more of those divine directions to Michele as we roll on to election day. But tonight, the Minneapolis Star Tribune endorsed its candidate in this race: (continued)
...and that candidate is Elwyn Tinklenberg. To their credit, they reference Bachmann's "anti-American" charges in dismissing her:
Bachmann has little to show for her two years in office — three minor bills, one of which recognized the state’s 150th birthday. The incident earlier this month when she went on MSNBC’s "Hardball" and accused Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of possibly harboring "anti-America" beliefs and calling for the media to investigate her colleagues to see who was "pro-America or anti-America" just adds to the list of bizarre incidents and statements that undercut her credibility as a political leader.
Bachmann is a culture warrior for the far-right; clearly, that’s been her priority. This north-suburban district is hard hit by foreclosures and the economic downturn. It deserves a U.S. House representative who’s practical, focused and results-oriented: Elwyn Tinklenberg.
Well, it's been more than a week since Bachmann's Hardball fiasco, I've been watching like a hawk with binoculars--but I've only seen one (1) major local political pundit condemn her kooky call for investigation of Congress. Venerable, aged, old Minnesota liberal Nick Coleman ran a column on the 21st of October, ridiculing her remarks. (But instead of using his column space to tick off her various other insane statements, he turned it into a puff for her no-hope Republican challenger Aubrey Immelmann.)
We must have a dozen different regular "name" columnists on the payrolls of the biggest papers here in Minnesota--Nick's the only one to criticize her "born again" McCarthyism. The other locals--even the so-called liberals--haven't said a peep.
It's not that big name political columnists aren't condemning her. It's just that the big name columnists here in Minnesota won't condemn her. It makes you wonder: what, exactly, would this politician have to do to earn a reprimand from our local liberal columnists?
Apparently it's easy for a columnist to see what's wrong with McCarthyism, if he or she is not on salary here in Minnesota. Condemnations of Bachmann continue to roll in from around the country, (the New York Daily News, the LA Times, the Nation, the National Journal, the Austin-American Statesman (via the Houston Chronicle)...
Every other major local print pundit has been turning a blind eye, so far: and they're not likely to pick up the subject anytime soon--since the story is no longer considered fit for analysis as we approach election day.
There is one poor bastard out in the middle of the prairie up north, up in the tiny little townlet of Monticello, Minnesota--who's apparently willing to criticize her. But he's an editor, not a columnist. In the Monticello Times, he wrote:
Bachmann is far more conservative in her beliefs than (GOP Senator Norm) Coleman, granted. However, her own "attack ad" given in an interview with "Hardball’s" Chris Matthews has likened her to Joseph McCarthy, and has made her the crux of a former Secretary of State’s announcement to endorse the opposition’s candidate for the presidency...
...Bachmann is compulsive, sometimes to the point where she can be an embarrassment to even her most staunch supporters. She’s gone off on writing legislation to keep the conventional light bulb, drilling in Alaska and finding "anti-Americans" when she should be focusing on Wright County farmers, Sherburne County laborers and Stearns County students and soccer moms...
...Bachmann was skating by in a race with a relative unknown, and now finds herself in a virtual dogfight because of her sentiment that members of Congress should have their allegiances to this country brought into question by the media.
One final difference: (GOP Senator Norm) Coleman can be criticized for some of his decision-making, but he believes he has the best interests of all Minnesotans in mind.
Can Bachmann say the same?
Bravo, you brave little editor man, sitting up north in the middle of the reddest of Minnesota's red districts, endorsing Coleman (a sleaze) but drawing that line at endorsing Bachmann (a hater.)
Meanwhile, local bloggers continue to do the local print journalists' work for them, in the hope that they will some day publish a story about Bachmann sleaze that contains "news." Here's Karl Bremer of the Minnesota Independent reporting Bachmann's ties to a couple of sleazeballs who allegedly promoted one of the biggest fraud schemes in Minnesota history: the Petters/Vennes scandal.
The Minneapolis local "alternative" weekly (God how I've always hated that adjective) the City Pages, posts a good round up of press reaction to the Bachmann story, very like the one I've been diarying here for the past week or so. It has lots of links to commentary on Bachmann, links to everything but our own Dump Michele Bachmann blog--which has been on her case for years.
Here's a funny story from the staid old conservative journal, Human Events. (Human Events was one of Reagan's favorite publications.) The funny part is the author of the piece, conservative John Gizzi, running around trying to find out who exactly it was in the Republican Party--that pulled the plug on Bachmann's ad funding, after she called for an investigation of anti-Americanism among fellow members of Congress.
Gizzi finds that no Republican politician or player will own up to doing it, for fear of future reprisal. They keep directing Gizzi to an acronym, instead.
And who do these Republicans fear future reprisal from? Gizzi doesn't say, but the politicians who got stiffed by the GOP are both evangelical right wingers to the core (Michele Bachmann and Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado.) So it's safe to say that the GOP players who choked off their funding fear that they will end up on the religious right's shit list if their identity is made public.
The National Journal pieceI cited before has the poll numbers and the "situation so far" synopsis.
"I did not, nor do I, question Barack Obama's patriotism ...... I did not say that Barack Obama is anti-American nor do I believe that Barack Obama is anti-American," she told the St. Cloud, Minn., Rotary, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
Oct 24, 2008 GoErie.com
"It is amazing to me how the wind tunnel and spin can go around and around in an echo chamber," she said. "And this is simply a lie. I did not question Barack Obama's patriotism, I did not say he was anti-American."
Oct 21, 2008 Christian Science Monitor
"Remember it was Michele Obama who said she's only recently proud of her country. These are really anti-American views," Bachmann said.
Oct 18, 2008 Pioneer Press
"The people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large," Bachmann said.
Oct 18, 2008 ABC News (208 occurrences)
Of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "I'm not going to say if they're anti-American or pro-American," Bachmann says. LA Times
GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann was on MSNBC's Chris Matthews Hardball earlier today. When asked if Barack Obama had anti-American views, she responded "Absolutely. I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views." MPR Polinaut, October 17, 2008
Dem opponent Tinklenberg's television and radio spots continue to appear on the local airwaves, thanks to you. Here's your action link, if you've got ten or twenty bucks to throw around to defeat this nut:
http://www.tinklenberg08.com/...
UPDATE: Rec list, thank you.