Rollins Hammers Bachmann for McCarthyite Witch Hunt
Michele Bachmann is on another one of her hysterical witch hunts. First she demanded an investigation into politicians she deems to be “anti-American” and now she’s spouting crazy nonsense about the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating the American government. Her former campaign manager, Ed Rollins, rips into her for it:
I have been a practitioner of tough politics for many decades. There is little that amazes me and even less that shocks me. I have to say that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s outrageous and false charges against a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin reaches that threshold.
Her unsubstantiated charge against Abedin, a widely respected top aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, accusing her of some sort of far-fetched connection to the Muslim brotherhood, is extreme and dishonest.
Having worked for Congressman Bachman’s campaign for president, I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level…
I can assure Mrs. Bachmann, that Ms. Abedin has been thru every top clearance available and would never have been given her position with any questions of her loyalty to this country.
As a member of Congress, with a seat on the House Intelligence Committee, Mrs. Bachmann you know better. Shame on you, Michele! You should stand on the floor of the House and apologize to Huma Abedin and to Secretary Clinton and to the millions of hard working,loyal, Muslim Americans for your wild and unsubstantiated charges. As a devoted Christian, you need to ask forgiveness for this grievous lack of judgment and reckless behavior.
Of course, the idea that Bachmann could find herself on any committee with the word “intelligence” in the name is absurd enough. Sen. John McCain has also hammered her for this ridiculous bit of fear-mongering. But I can’t imagine why Rollins is at all surprised by this. Bachmann was doing this kind of thing long before he went to work for her. He’s right, but he’s also a hypocrite.
Chiroptera:
July 20th, 2012 at 1:44 pm
…but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level….
Wha…? A contemporary conservative admitting that McCarthy wasn’t an unrecognized hero? I can’t be reading this right.
Michael Heath:
July 20th, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Anderson Cooper’s been doing a fine job committing journalism on this story as well. I liked how he framed Rep. Bachmann’s assertions in the context that the public should demand and expect a far higher standard from members of Congress, and yet here we have Michele Bachmann.
jamessweet:
July 20th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
In some ways, it’s worse than McCarthy, because of the overt racial element.
Mr Ed:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Nothing shores up the base like the specter of an enemy. Seems the right has been using this play too often. Instead of talking substance or policy they fear monger the bogey man.
Gregory in Seattle:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
She needs serious psychiatric help.
raven:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:23 pm
I’m sure this will go as well as Michele Bachmann’s last witch hunt for anti-American senators and representatives. IIRC, all the Democratics were on the list.
After she gets done identifying all the secret Moslems (hint: They are all the Democrats) it will be on to the next group.
1. The Space Reptiles. It’s always the Space Reptiles.
2. Witches. This has been a popular target for human hunters for the last thousand years. Even today around a 1,000 (alleged) witches are killed in the world each year.
3. Atheists. I’m sure she has a list of 500 atheists in the state department.
And as always, all the Space Reptile employees, witches, and atheists will be…Democrats.
Bronze Dog:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:29 pm
The Republican party in general has been at the McCarthy level for a while, now.
And I’m ashamed to again remember that Texas got involved in spinning his reputation.
When I went to high school, McCarthy was cast as a villainous Red Scare propagandist witch hunter who trampled on the Constitution, opposed free speech, and was generally bent on saving America by way of destroying it. While the real Communist spies were occasionally getting lucky and stealing secrets, he was harassing Hollywood directors because when the script instructed an extra to “whistle something,” said extra whistled Das National without knowing what it was. In my adult years, when “Good Night and Good Luck” played old footage of McCarthy’s attacks on the media for their expose of him (without denying their accusations), some people complained that his “actor” was too unbelievably over-the-top, but I knew quite well that’s the sort of person he was. The only thing he lacked was a handlebar mustache to twirl.
Now he’s supposed to be some kind of hero? This is the kind of guy the wingnuts look up to?
Doug Little:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Damn, from the headline I thought I was in for more of a treat until I read it was Ed Rollins and not Henry. Oh well,
d cwilson:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Saying Bachmann “sometimes has difficulty with her facts” is like saying Keith Richards is a casual drug user.
slojocoma:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Yeah, this was my Joke of the Day:
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Michele Bachmann is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
democommie:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
If the the KKKfratboyz like Andy Schittfly and Miles O’Reek were working for the demoncrats they could do a “Bum fighter punches Crack ho!” video.
I know, it’s soooooooooooooo non-PC, fuck it, sue me.
No Light:
July 20th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Um. This sentence would be alarming on a ten year old-s report card, yet he’s talking about a fully-grown adult who he was backing for the presidency?
America, are you trolling your own citizens (and the rest of us) with this shit? Just tell the truth, and we won’t ground you or confiscate your WMD collection.
d cwilson:
July 20th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
No Light @12:
How do you think this shit sounds to us? I’m starting to think that the last decade has been one long episode of Punk’d. Any minute now, Ashton Kutcher is going to pop up and announce that all the teabagger craziness and hell, the entire Bush presidency, was all one big gag.
brian:
July 20th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Could it be that after years of exploration we’ve finally discovered the GOP’s minimum bar for acceptable political discourse, beneath which even the most cynical partisan hacks will not reach? If so, this would be nearly as amazing as the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
Marcus Ranum:
July 20th, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Michele Bachmann
Who?
I was hoping it was Henry Rollins that was giving whoever-it-is the hammering. When I watched his letter to Anne Coulter (whoever that is) I giggled for hours.
Raging Bee:
July 20th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Has Mitt Romney said anything about this?
How about Ron Paul?
Marcus Ranum:
July 20th, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Michele Bachmann is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
(spews tea)
Jordan Genso:
July 20th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
Personally, I’m thinking that the Republicans are loving that Michele Bachmann is pushing this. It gets to appease the base. It doesn’t make her look any worse than she already did. But most importantly, it provides all the other elected Republicans to look “moderate” by saying they disagree with her on this issue.
There was an article in my local newspaper today about our congressman (who is a Republican) disagreeing with Michele Bachmann on this issue. Now this congressman is extremely conservative, so this may be the first time in years that he’s able to portray himself as not a radical partisan.
I think the Republicans know that this story helps them more than it hurts them. They’ve finally found an issue they can point to in order to identify as “centrist” in an attempt to win swing voters.
“Vote for me, because I’m not crazy enough to agree with Michele Bachmann’s witchhunt. I’m therefore ‘bipartisan’, so all you independents can trust me.”
Donovan:
July 20th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
I wonder if this is the start of a trend. With Romney’s predicament, the Republicans may see that alligning with the batshit crazy base is not working out. Perhaps this behind the scenes defection is a sign that the political power of this round of dominionists and bigots is over and the Republicans are turning back toward the moneyed?
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant):
July 20th, 2012 at 4:27 pm
@Jordan Genso, #19:
I doubt it. More like “I disagree *wink wink* with her on this *wink* issue *wink wink*“.
ottod:
July 20th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Our guanophrenic Representative has conveniently posted .pdfs of the various letters she wrote demanding investigations at her web site. I’m still wondering why.:
http://bachmann.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=303218.
The letters to the IGs are all of the “Do you still beat your wife? When did you stop?” variety. I can’t imagine any reasonable reply that an IG might make. The extremely long letter to Keith Ellison explaining why the demands were made is a Cordon Bleu-level word salad. The only redeeming quality of all this is that the originals were apparently printed on recycled paper.
Dr X:
July 20th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
..Michele Bachmann is on another one of her hysterical witch hunts.
If you only knew what my increasingly wobbly, visual perceptual system saw at first glance. I was already thinking: Ed! This isn’t like you! But no, it was me. I might need a stimulant medication to quell some of that.
Ben P:
July 20th, 2012 at 4:47 pm
I think Zinc Avenger’s got it.
It allows other republicans to both make a shot at appealing to moderate/independant republicans by disassociating themselves from the crazy wing.
It also allows republicans to help their support with part of the crazy wing by making sly dogwhistle statements on the side. “Of course I have to condemn what Ms. Bachmann’s said or I’ll be persecuted by the liberal media.”
baal:
July 20th, 2012 at 4:59 pm
My political conspiracy mind was thinking that this bit of noise helps get the narrative off of the Romney
not paying taxes in 2008/2009lack of tax returns story and Bane Capital stories. Rep. Bachmann also needed to renew her “totally nuts” cred for the upcoming election in thesith6th District.F:
July 20th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Marcus Ranum
Yeah, this was my first thought as well.
Maybe someone could suggest to him to do an album with spoken-word tracks of Bachmann knock-knock jokes and such. That ain’t no woman, that’s Michele Bachmann.
It doesn’t fit the original angle, but it fits my impression of Bachmann not being a human, but some sort of Adherent of the Repeated Meme.
ArtK:
July 20th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
I didn’t know that Ed Rollins was given to ironic understatement.
Michael Heath:
July 20th, 2012 at 9:25 pm
ArtK writes:
Michele Bachmann isn’t Rollin’s first kook. If Rollins hadn’t developed a keen sense of humor prior to managing campaigns for Ross Perot and Michael Huffington, those kooks certainly provided the opportunity. I loved his mid-90s book on politics, Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics.
Doc Bill:
July 20th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
But, seriously, what does it matter?
What does it matter until the GOP leadership strips Bachmann of her appointments and drums her out of Congress?
It doesn’t matter a whit! Boner can stand up there and talk blah, blah blah, but until he takes action it’s all hot air.
The bottom line is that the Republican base believes and loves what Bachmann does. She does what they dare not do: express abject racism.
Oh, if only Michelle would go after the blacks! That would be sweet!!!
Disgusting.
left0ver1under:
July 21st, 2012 at 12:34 am
When I saw the name Rollins, I thought it meant Henry Rollins. His takedown of Ann Coulter is legendary, and I’m sure he could do the same to Bachmann:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgSBhlw-o9E
But knowing that the criticism came from Bachmann’s former campaign makes it even better.
fallingwhale:
July 21st, 2012 at 2:29 am
The Daily Show pointed out it took six loose links to get anyone linked to terrorism on the democrat side. It also pointed out that her bank/campaign donor was laundering money to terrorism putting her two steps from the thing she’s going on about.
StevoR:
July 21st, 2012 at 3:33 am
@10. slojocoma :
Michele Bachmann is a member of the House Intelligence Committee who?
StevoR:
July 21st, 2012 at 3:35 am
@19. Donovan says:
But have the Republicans ever turned away from the moneyed?
Konradius:
July 21st, 2012 at 3:38 am
@fallingwhale
While that is true, the campaign donation was for the total of 1000 dollars. It’s tenuous even if she did stuff for the deregulating of banks.
Forbidden Snowflake:
July 21st, 2012 at 4:38 am
Did they calculate anyone’s Bacon number while they were at it?
fallingwhale:
July 21st, 2012 at 4:45 am
@Konradius
The point is that Bachmann is far closer than friend of an associate of a friend of a dead father.
frankboyd:
July 21st, 2012 at 5:21 am
Oh lord… First rule of the American “left”: if you’re center-right, we’ll blacken your name, if you’re far-right, we’ll blacken your boots.
Don’t care about these ridiculous internal pissing contents, but it’s interesting that they mention Hillary Clinton – the ghastly woman taking cash on hand from the Pakistani military junta, and, much more recently, making nice with Egypt’s Muslim brotherhood President and ignoring the pro-democracy, pro-women’s rights protesters outside. So for all this guff about “secret connections” on the one hand and the shamanistic invocation of “McCarthyism” on the other seems utterly idle.
dingojack:
July 21st, 2012 at 6:51 am
Awww poor ol’ Cranky, he missed his ‘two minute hate’ today, so he’s come here to make wild allegations instead:-
a) “…Hillary Clinton – the ghastly woman taking cash on hand from the Pakistani military junta…”
Citations required.
b)(i) “… making nice with Egypt’s Muslim brotherhood President…”
And what should she do Cranky, tell the democratically elected Egyptian government that they are “outlawed forever, bombing starts in five minutes”?
B)(ii) ” … and ignoring the pro-democracy, pro-women’s rights protesters outside…”
Citations required.
c) “… So for all this guff about “secret connections” …”
Cranky fails reading comprehension, what a surprise!
d) “… shamanistic invocation of “McCarthyism” …”
You do understand the limitations of ‘Godwinning’, don’t you Cranky? Nah, didn’t think so.
Overall – I’ll give you an F-
Dingo
democommie:
July 21st, 2012 at 7:01 am
shorter dingojack:
Fucking troll Fucks Boils will be fucking troll.
dan4:
July 21st, 2012 at 8:34 am
@37: Frankboyd, the ghastly man, do you have any evidence that Hilary Clinton took “cash on hand from the Pakistani military junta?”
dan4:
July 21st, 2012 at 8:35 am
Yikes, meant @36. @37 was RESPONDING to @36, lol.
slc1:
July 21st, 2012 at 8:44 am
Frankboyd is a sockpuppet for Jerry Sandusky.
jayarrrr:
July 21st, 2012 at 10:11 am
What does this say about the people of her district? I’m talking the ones that send her to Washington. I have this mental picture of an area where you find bowls of paint chips on the bar in most taverns where the locals munch them like peanuts. A place where you go out to buy a father’s day card for Dad, Grandad, and your brother, and you buy only one card.
feralboy12:
July 21st, 2012 at 11:09 am
Something is not right with your blueprint, Frankboyd Wrong.
Chris from Europe:
July 22nd, 2012 at 5:58 am
Not just on the Democratic side, that’s roughly true for virtually any person. Search for six degrees of separation.
dave:
July 22nd, 2012 at 9:09 am
Indeed, clearly the mastermind behind all terrorist plots is:
Kevin Bacon!
dingojack:
July 22nd, 2012 at 9:37 am
If the population of the Earth is 7.5 billion persons (say) and the number people the average person knows is 250 (not an unreasonable number) –
Then it would take log(7500000000)/log(250) connections to join them all (assuming no overlap in the groupings) or ca. 9.8751/2.3979 = 4.1181.
We’re closer than you think!
Dingo
—–
ie I know 250 people (250^1), those people each know 250 people (250^2)… 4 connections will lead me to know 3.9 billion people, 5 to over 976.5 billion. but the wider the group in practice the greater the chance of overlapping connections so 6 degrees is probably closer to the mark.
Rip Steakface:
July 22nd, 2012 at 10:09 am
It’s true, X-men: First Class says so.
dingojack:
July 22nd, 2012 at 10:16 am
Muslims terrorists having anything to do with Bacon? I don’t think so!
:) Dingo