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Title: Michele Bachmann Is The New Republican Party Pin-Up
Source: Telegraph UK
URL Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor ... w-Republican-Party-pin-up.html
Published: Oct 21, 2009
Author: Alex Spillius in Washington
Post Date: 2009-10-21 11:54:39 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 487
Comments: 5

The mother of five, who calls the president as a socialist, will appear in the 2010 Calendar of Great American Conservative Women, and is becoming a fixture on Right-wing cable news shows for her opposition to the Democrats' high-spending, bail-out agenda.

After just three years representing Minnesota's sixth district in Congress, the rising star is already being touted as a probable candidate to replace the Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota governor aiming for the party's 2012 presidential nomination.

The former tax lawyer and state senator has rapidly become a love-hate figure, and has been compared to Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and vice-presidential candidate.

Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, recently introduced Mrs Bachmann as "the second most hated Republican woman in the country, second to Governor Palin, which is a good position".

Both women's politics are conservative, home-grown and laced with libertarianism. Both are highly telegenic with a gift for controversy and, according to their detractors, for wildly inaccurate remarks or bizarre, nonsensical comments. Both have had action dolls made in their image.

At a recent forum in Colorado Mrs Bachmann, 53, issued the following call to action against the Democrats' plans to reform health care.

"This cannot pass. What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn't pass," she said.

She has also encouraged opponents of "socialised health care" to "pray to God" for Mr Obama to fail.

The 2008 election campaign brought her first national recognition, when she accused Mr Obama and some members of Congress of "anti-American views".

Criticised for invoking the spirit of Senator Joe McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign in the 1950s, she backed down, not least because Colin Powell, the former secretary of state under George W Bush, issued a stinging rebuke against "this kind of nonsense to see who is pro-America or not pro-America".

Like Mrs Palin, who now limits her contact with the outside world to a heavily clicked Facebook page – and a forthcoming autobiography – Mrs Bachmann portrays herself as an insurgent against Washington, working against "big government".

She wrote on her blog: "I'm a foreign correspondent on enemy lines and I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington."

The quandary for the Republicans is how far to embrace the more extreme views and loose cannon personalities of Mrs Bachmann as the party begins to prepare for November 2010, when all 435 congressmen and dozens of senators and governors are up for re-election, and for its own primary to determine who will challenge Mr Obama two years later.

Mrs Bachmann is part of a movement of "tea party" protesters – named after the Boston anti-British rebellion – libertarians and hardline conservatives who see Mr Obama as a challenge to America's fundamental values.

In a local radio interview last weekend, she said: "The people – we the people – are going to have to fight back hard if we're not going to lose our country. And I think this [the Obama administration] has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States."

But many moderates in the party fear such biting, partisan views could drive away the independent voters who have decided elections for the past 20 years.

They will hope she sticks to safer ground such as supporting bipartisan legislation on adoption and foster parenting, which she is an expert on having fostered 23 at home with her husband, a therapist who describes Jesus Christ as "the Almighty Counsellor".

Whatever the extent she is supported by the party's leadership, Mrs Bachmann is likely to keep the fact-checkers busy.

Politifact, a non-partisan project at the University of St Petersburg in Florida, analysed the truth of six recent comments. Three were given the worst rating of "pants on fire".

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#1. To: Brian S (#0)

As long as Palin is around, Bachmann goes nowhere politically. They attract the same base and Sarah has already locked that one up.

“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston

Sam Houston  posted on  2009-10-21   12:10:29 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Brian S (#0)

Jethro Tull  posted on  2009-10-21   12:13:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Jethro Tull (#2)

The State is liar and all who represent are also, it even bites with stolen teeth.

Lysander_Spooner  posted on  2009-10-21   12:42:23 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Jethro Tull (#2)

Bless me "mac daddy Sr. for I have sinned ... I lied countless times"

The U.S. Govt is a tyrannical butcher; U.S. taxpayers are accomplices to international murder and mayhem. If you satisfy your fears by bowing to this butcher, you forfeit your humanity and possibly your soul.

noone222  posted on  2009-10-21   12:47:31 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Lysander_Spooner, noone222, BS, all (#3)

Can someone please tell me who these FREAKS are?

Jethro Tull  posted on  2009-10-21   13:09:53 ET  (1 image) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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