...but not in Minnesota. It was a Fargo, North Dakota paper that scored the "tin foil hat with little twinkle lights on it" point.
(UPDATE: "Rec listed," thank you very much, now let's see--uh, I want a new car, an orange car with the KOS logo on it, and a raise, and, uh, I want everybody to send a few bucks to Tarryl Clark, and uh... I want Angelina Jolie and--ACK! (strangler))
Sometimes I tell progressive and liberal friends that there are American conservatives abroad in the world who are capable of "speaking true" about matters of public concern.
The Fargo Forum (of Fargo, North Dakota) was founded in 1878. I have received assurances that these days it is "reliably red"--a Republican and conservative paper. Here is some of what they had to say about Michele Bachmann in wake of her visit to the state:
(CONTINUED)
...the fallout from the visit could very well be...to cause sensible North Dakotans to wonder why the state (GOP) and its marquee candidate--Governor John Hoeven for the US Senate-- would cozy up to Bachmann and her, frankly, loony ideas.
There's "that word" again to describe Rep. Bachmann--"loony." I can remember the day (prior to her entry into Congress and shortly thereafter) when I was castigated for identifying as such on blogs. PiPress columnist Craig Westover threatened to ban my comments his blog because I identified Ms. Bachmann as a "nut, liar and bigot." But now it is permissible for those aspects of Bachmann's character to be featured in newspaper editorials.
Why? Because that "loony" stuff is true, and newsworthy, and always has been--despite the determination of Minnesota political media to screen out that word and others in their regular print profiles of Bachmann.
The Fargo Forum gives several examples of the "loony" stuff. But I can't give you a link because they will charge you $2.50 to pull up the online editorial in their archive. (Colossal nerve, the editorial just appeared on February 12th of this year.) Here are a couple of extra paragraphs:
BACHMANN IS FUN, BUT NO FRIEND
...describing her as "conservative" doesn't do her justice. Nor is it fair to thoughtful conservatives, because she subscribes to a hat full of peculiar notions that could cause her to be mistaken for a mad hatter...
(Ed. note: Obvious, to the editors of this out-of-state conservative newspaper. How to reconcile that statement, with the fact that the obviously "loony" Bachmann is accepted by the MN political press and conservatives--as a conservative in good standing, even a "role model" for politicians?
The editorial give a very abbreviated list of Bachmann "goofy comments" and then proceeds...)
Her goofy comments aside, Bachmann's take on serious policies disqualifies her as a friend of North Dakotans. Her agenda would return North Dakota to a marginal economic outpost instead of its current role as a vibrant player in the nation's energy, research and agribusiness economies.
Facts like that are underappreciated. An extremist in office following a wacky worldview can do a lot of economic damage to the very Americans that they are supposed to be representing. They cost their constituents opportunities, prosperity, money--by chasing a fantasy ideology.
A lot of people don't see why it's so important to keep extremists out of office, out of policymaking. Believe it or not, that's true--a lot of people (including reporters!) simply don't understand why it's "a bad idea to let extremists into the government."
Here we have an example of a conservative editorial board, looking at other conservatives cheering "the loony"--and realizing: this trend could cost us big: in real money, real consequences, the real world.
UPDATE: A commenter says I should post the link even if they are going to charge you to read it. Very well, but I warned you, ka-ching, ka-ching:
https://secure.forumcomm.com/...
Here is a FREE link a commenter found:
http://74.125.47.132/...