Yesterday, Michele Bachmann did something that is very rare for her.
She took constituent questions in a live forum. The subject was health care reform.
First--for video of Bachmann at the forum, see the links here:
http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/...
Second: for excerpts from local press accounts reporting the forum, look through this link:
http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/...
Now, to see Bachmann's press people in action at the media table--look at the following, right below the jump.
It's a hoot, I think, when you consider that the people involved are charged with the job of talking to people with cameras:
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(By the way: I'm Bill Prendergast. I'm a Bachmann constituent and critic, I started writing about her as a theocrat and extremist way in 2003, when I was a columnist on the Stillwater Gazette and Bachmann was a mere State Senator. I also write and publish "False Witness: The Michele Bachmann Story," which is the comic book story of her career. So that's who's holding the camera and asking the questions. See below after the video for an explication of what you see on the video.)
My observations and guesses: the young women who remained mute at the press table once the camera went on were probably under strict instructions not to talk to anyone while a camera or recording device was running. Before the camera went on, they quite professional and friendly--after the camera went on: they went mute and stared straight ahead. (Remember: this was the media table/the press table they were working at. Bachmann staffers had to expect that there would be people with camera, that's why I'm assuming that these women were forbidden to talk to the cameras.)
Next: David Dziok, Bachmann's chief press guy from D.C.--was quite explicit about not wanting to be quoted on camera. As soon as I turn the camera on him, notice his gesture of dismissal and disgust. As soon as he gets the chance, he jumps back out of frame, thinking that I'll focus in on his colleague Rachel Horn. But I don't fall for that. I go right to Dziok and ask him why he won't answer a question on camera if he's her chief press rep. (Isn't that supposed to be his job?)
Local Bachmann press rep Rachel Horn, on the other hand, stays cool, doesn't jump around. Just waits for the question, answers it--bingo, we're done. She knows she's on camera, and even if she doesn't like it, she knows that you don't "run away" when a camera goes on. You see, if you're a press rep that "runs away" when the camera goes on--that makes the video too interesting, because people are interested in press representatives whose instinct is to "jump out of frame" when someone asks them a question on camera.
Who's that guy at the very end of the video who got the close up? That's Michele's husband, Marcus Bachmann, there at the edge of the stage. Marcus has mentored Bachmann's political rise since the earliest days of her career. He's also a Christian therapist who made a name for himself displaying people who had "de-gayed" themselves and come to Christ.
Cross-posted from the Minnesota Progressive Project.