Michele Bachmann rails about gangster government where people buy influence from friends in office. But though the Bush bailout of AIG left taxpayers stuck with a bill for $100 billion dollars, Bachmann voted against taxing the $100 million dollars paid to AIG execs as bonuses.
A Minneapolis City Pages item today notes that notes that "the Insurance sector pitched in $119,050 to Bachmann's campaign coffers ahead of the 2008 election cycle."
In the conservative mindset, Bachmann is a champion of the taxpayer against special interests. Well, their champion just cast a vote to throw away our money again. This is teabagging in action, how the "tea party philosophy" is actually applied by its darlings already serving in government.
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Today, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wasted no time in reminding Minnesota voters that Rep. Michele Bachmann -- a member of the House Financial Services Committee -- complained about those bailouts, yet voted against punishing AIG's for its tone-deafness.
"Bachmann voted to protect bonuses paid to AIG executives with American tax dollars," said Ryan Rudominer, the DCCC press secretary in a statement. "This morning, Americans heard that AIG executives are getting $100 million in bonuses despite still owing taxpayers more than $100 billion. While Representative Bachmann protects these outrageous Wall Street bonuses paid for by President Bush's bailout, Bachmann does nothing to help hardworking families. Clearly, Representative Bachmann is more concerned about Wall Street, than Main Street."
Nice catch by the Minneapolis City Pages. And they note that Bachmann opponent Tarryl Clark has been on the issue regularly and for some time.
Now that, is journalism. Here's the link:
http://blogs.citypages.com/...
Next:
The Minnesota Independent reports that Ms. Bachmann will be joining Minnesota GOP Governor Tim Pawlenty at the annual meeting of the influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)
This isn't the first time Bachmann was invited to speak before CPAC. The first time she was supposed to address them was in early 2007, when she had barely started out in Congress. (Bachmann was always being groomed for higher things, and the 2007 CPAC appearance was supposed to be her debut before a roomful of truly powerful players.)
Unfortunately, Bachmann had chosen the month before to "go off" with one of her nutty comments about how there was a secret plan to make a deal with Iran to form a new terrorist state in northwestern Iraq. (Really, that's what she claimed publicly.) Total fabrication, but the "bombshell" hit the newswires and Michele was disinvited from the CPAC event when the lie was exposed.
She wasn't big enough to withstand that kind of exposure then--but she is now, and she's a big hit at these CPAC things, telling Michael Steele "you be da man," etc.
Reporter Andy Birkey reminds us that CPAC has come under fire for accepting the sponsorship of the John Birch Society.
Back in the 1960s, conservative leader William F. Buckley read the John Birch Society out of the conservative movement for fostering a "psychosis of conspiracy." (Calling Eisenhower a "communist," that sort of thing.)
But a group like that is sure to love Michele, and apparently they don't trouble Pawlenty's well-known ethical sensibilities.
Nuttier and nuttier goes the GOP; nonetheless, they will remain the "go to" guys in event of Dem fails during local elections.
Link:
http://minnesotaindependent.com/...