All eyes would be focused on Minnesota if Michele Bachmann tried to challenge Al Franken for his senate seat. Franken knows how to do the sober statesman with the occasional pointed barb just perfectly, and would be an excellent foil for the often deranged Bachmann — I also think Franken’s personality meshes very well with the electorate in this state, while Bachmann is a weirdo who only fits her exquisitely gerrymandered House district…which she came very close to losing in the last election.
Bachmann would go splat against Franken, and the big bonus: she’d lose her House seat as well.
Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please? Pretty please with sugar on top?
Yes, yes, yes. Great idea. She may have a sufficiently over-inflated ego to do something this stupid. So, yeah, go for it Michelle, love to see it.
If this happens, I hope that Franken and his supporters keep the focus on what Bachmann says and does without resorting to gendered insults. If that happens (not with Franken himself, I hope but it will on the internet, you know it will) the Republicans will run with it. Any hint that Franken doesn’t live up to his progressive reputation will be proof that he’s a hypocrit.
Of course, Franken doesn’t need to do anything other than provide a sane platform, point to his own record and remind people of what Bachmann has said on just about anything.
#3 sambarge,
I wish I could be as optimistic as you. Providing a sane platform, pointing to a successful record and reminding people of the opponent’s idiocy doesn’t work nearly as well as it used to.
Re that facebook page name.
Can we find a way to stop the world and oblige them?
The world could become a slightly better place, at least the US part of it.
Maybe there is a Flying Spaghetti Monster after all!
If it can be made to work for someone who was almost a political nobody against Allan West in Florida, I think the odds are good that it can be made to work for Al Franken in Minnesota.
One can only hope.
Now if someone could figure out how to get rid of one of my senators…Inhofe.
So, you have a Comic running against a viciously stupid joke ?
Its up to you, Minnesotans: do all you can to encourage Bachmann to run, run, run.
Are we SURE she couldn’t run simultaneously for her Congressional seat? (Although without a 12-to-1 funding advantage as in 2012, she likely couldn’t win…)
I think the Republican establishment would be smart enough to sink her at the primary stage. Then again, this is the same establishment that let Palin onto the national stage.
Bleah. Did I end two consecutive sentences with the word “stage” in different meanings?
Given the penchant the current GOP has for booting conservatives from the party for doing things like talking to Democrats, I doubt that. The way to win primaries in the GOP is to position yourself to the right of all your opponents. And Michele is so far to the right that she makes Rmoney look liberal. I suspect that if she goes for it, barring an on-stage gaff too big to be ignored, she would win the primary despite the opposition of the same GOP establishment.
And the same groups that stage-managed Rmoney’s swing to the right. And stood by while Haily Barbour was ushered off the stage.
At this stage, I’d say yes.
Perhaps a coup d’etat against poor writing style is something I could stage.
Rey:
Sorry. Humour attempt fail.
How is it that gerrymandering has persisted for so long in the USA? It used to be a serious problem in certain states here in Australia, but we seem to have summoned up the collective will in recent years to deal with it.
Probably the one race for which an SNL sketch would be a redundancy.
Because there’s a national census every ten years, after which the 435 congressional seats are reapportioned among the states. The districts each congress person represents are determined by the state legislatures. If one party controls the legislature then they ensure the districts will elect a maximum number of congressional representatives from that party.
RAPE NOW BAD
– Republican Party of Springfield.
It would depend on state law; there’s nothing in the Constitution or, as far as I know, federal law to prevent it.
Og: I was still just making fun of myself.
“while Bachmann is a weirdo…”
this is an insult to weirdos.
Intellectually this is Bambi vs. Godzilla. But it promises to be much more entertaining.
Also, Bachmann is from a part of Minnesota colonized by evangelicals and has a very high per capita income. It’s OK to be viciously insane there – she blends. The whole state is another matter.
Not only did Minnesota elect Frankin, but also Paul Wellstone before him. Amy Klobuchar is also a progressive-leaning democrat. I’m not seeing any realistic threat here.
Let the onslaught from the political attack hamster begin.
I’m a little peeved that P.Z. wrote: “Franken knows how to do the sober statesman”. Sure, Franken’s a comedian, but he’s pretty serious when it comes to politics, and he’s a pretty sharp guy. He’s not an outright clown like our previous president.
“deranged” (that one from PZ), “sane”, “insane”.
Yeah. No. Talking about the collective irrationality of the Tea Partiers, religious right or Republican Party in terms of (in)sanity is very easy to slip into, something I’ve only recently been trying to stop doing myself, but it’s not just ableist, it’s unhelpful in trying to understand that type of socio-culturally generated irrationality – which is the really dangerous kind – and so being better able to oppose it. Bachmann is not insane, although if she believes what she claims to believe, she is deluded – but it’s a collectively constructed and maintained delusion, which has political, economic and psychological functions for those constructing and maintaining it.
@19 – OK, so the process is controlled by the legislature which has a vested interest. I’m pretty sure that in Australia electoral boundaries are determined by a disinterested non-government body (the Australian Electoral Commission?), but I could be wrong.
Rey:
One of the ways I can tell that I have reached a bad stage in my depression is by watching how often I apologize. I tend to get really paranoid about offending people and apologize for everything.
Ogvorbis: sending hugs and e-booze.