Michelle Bachmann looking into the camera. (Larry Downing / Reuters)
An unqualified victory for hilarity:
Washington (CNN) – CNN has exclusively learned that Rep. Michele Bachmann will form a presidential exploratory committee. The Minnesota Republican plans to file papers for the committee in early June, with an announcement likely around that same time.
Bachmann is roughly as quotable as Michael Steele, and as electable as Sarah Palin, so this ought to be entertaining.
And yes, she's serious about this:
Meanwhile, CNN has also learned that Iowa Republican state Sen. Kent Sorenson has been hired to be Bachmann's political director for the state - and that Bachmann aides hope to have a complete team together for Iowa by this weekend.
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The three-term congresswoman hopes to also have political teams in place - very soon - in New Hampshire, home to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, and South Carolina, host of the first presidential primary in the South.
"I should have state directors in all those states within a week," Bachmann Chief of Staff Andy Parrish said.
A Bachmann candidacy, along with her special brand of lunacy, seems to be a bridge too far even for the Republican powers that be, so does she have any kind of shot at winning the nomination?
In a tea-infused world where Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell can be U.S. Senate nominees, and where candy thief Paul LePage is governor of Maine, what do you think?