Liberals dream about it, progressives demanded it--someone listened.
Paul Schmelzer of the Minnesota Independent reports that there is now in existence a "Bachmann/Palin in 2012!" website. (But Schmelzer suspects it's just a way to sell snarky bumperstickers.)
Almost every time I post something on the Kos about Bachmann, some wiseguy progressive writes in to yell:
"Palin/Bachmann in 2012!" (continued)
Well, someone must have thought that's pretty funny. Be careful what you wish for, is all I can say.
Here's the MNIndy article:
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/...
And here's the Palin/Bachmann website. (Hey, look at that, they're using Bachmann's "we're seeing the fulfillment of the Book of Judges" quote that I transcribed from a radio broadcast back in 2004.)
http://palin-bachmann-2012.com/
Next:
They're former Republican Senate Majority Leaders, former heroes of Bachmann's conservative GOP--but they were too "non-pro-freedom" for Michele...
So under the bus they go! "Non-pro-freedom" is the latest convolution I've heard from Bachmann. I guess that's something like "anti-freedom" or "soft on the freedom thing."
Who would have thought that? Bob Dole, losing an arm fighting for the forces of "non-pro-freedom" in WWII. Bill Frist, an evangelical voter's darling who fought to keep Terry Schiavo alive by diagnosing her via television--a "non-pro-freedom" candidate.
Their real sin, if you pay attention to Laura Ingraham's interview with Bachmann, is that they lost their respective elections. That is apparently how you tell a "non-pro-freedom" Republican from a real one. Bachmann's loyalty to fellow Republicans runs as deep as a Pravda editorial policy.
Here is a link to read about it:
http://trueslant.com/...
Next:
The congressional race going on up in upstate New York: I'm doing it as a Bachmann item because:
- Bachmann's chimed in on it
- in the last 24 hours, political pundit EJ Dionne has identified this race as one of those "bellwether" events that tells us what's going on in the national GOP and the GOP rank-and-file
and
- Dionne cites an astonishing poll result at the end of his piece.
Let's start with the astonishing poll result. Buried at the bottom of Dionne's piece is this:
(The national Republican party)is getting to be a small, comfy group. The Washington Post-ABC News poll this week found that only 20 percent of adults identify themselves as Republicans, the lowest single number in Post-ABC polls since 1983. Only 19 percent had confidence in congressional Republicans "to make the right decisions for the country's future." Even congressional Democrats got 34 percent on that question, and Obama scored 49 percent.
After a summer of rabid teabagging and shouting down and threatening at health reform town halls, after nearly a year of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Michele Bachmann making non-stop broadcast of conspiracy allegations against Obama and the Democrats--only twenty per cent of Americans polled are willing to identify themselves as Republicans.
That's astonishing. I've never seen the McCarthyite style backfire so spectacularly. The craziest and most irresponsible people in the conservative movement have had their way since the election of Obama--and this is the harvest for the GOP. The GOP has traded on dividing the country for decades--and they got their way. The country's divided, and their share is now twenty per cent.
This means that they're even losing some evangelical conservative voters, a base and pillar of the national party for the past ten years--a constituency that makes or breaks GOP presidential campaigns.
Too early to celebrate, but if the crazy talk continues to produce a reaction like this--the national Dems, liberals and progressives will have something to celebrate next year.
Now to that New York state election, and what it means. The local Republicans selected a Republican "moderate," Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava as their candidate. The right wing of the party rebelled and decided to back the Conservative Party's Doug Hoffman. As a result of the split, Democrat Bill Owens is in first place right now.
Hoffman is getting endorsements from the hard right. Dick Armey wants him, evangelical organizer Gary Bauer wants him, Glenn Beck and Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh want him.
And Michele Bachmann wants him, too.
Said Bachmann: "Hoffman is on the ascendancy, and we have to win this seat, and people need to get behind the winning candidate, and it looks like that's Hoffman."
With a string of endorsements like that, and twenty per cent of Americans willing to identify as Republican--how can Hoffman lose?
Dionne thinks it's the GOP committing seppuku, again.
Here's the Dionne piece, it's good. It gives you the Gingrich v. Armey take on the race; who'd have thought that Gingrich could ever seem like "the voice of reason" by comparison.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
Here's Hoffmann for Congress page, with the endorsements of the those who thirst for their own blood. (Hoffman's people think Gingrich's endorsement of the moderate will cost him the presidency in 2012! Oh, the humanity!)
http://www.doughoffmanforcongress.com/
Here's a Swing State Project blog piece that profiles the Palin/Bachmann endorsements of the right wing splitter--and Hoffman's suggestion that the press give him advance notice of any questions they may want to ask him.
http://www.swingstateproject.com/...
Action link: To contribute to Bachmann's Dem opponent Tarryl Clark...
https://services.myngp.com/...
And to celebrate that "Republicans are down to 20%" figure, here's a poll of my own for you to play with.