Bye-bye Bachmann


And Minnesota smiles in relief (we’re very reserved, so no loud cheers). Michele Bachmann will not be running for office again. You should watch her “I am not a crook!” video.

She tries to claim that the decision is solely because she has a principled belief in term limits. It’s not because she only squeaked by in the last election, oh no: she could beat any candidate, she claims. It’s not because her slackness with campaign funds has her under an ethics investigation. Then she rambles on with far right wing talking points — we have to stop oppressing the banks with crippling regulation, we have to hunt down the Muslim jihadists, yay Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, etc. She closes by promising to be willing to jump in and serve the country (please, right wing think tanks, hire me!) and deploring the fact that she’s sure the liberal media will distort her motivations.

And of course the final bit is glurge for god.

You should know that Bachmann is the biggest liar in congress. Use that fact in assessing her statements.

Also, keep in mind that her chances of winning any political office are now dead. Her secret to success was to run in the wackiest, most conservative, most ridiculously gerrymandered district in the state — she’s not electable any place else, and she’s just announced that she’s abandoning her electorate. Goodbye and good riddance!


Oh, how interesting. Bachmann claims she’s leaving the race because she believes in term limits, but it’s not true: she’s said the opposite before. Even when she’s leaving, she can’t help but throw out one more big lie.

Comments

  1. great1american1satan says

    This is the only Michele Bachmann video I ever want to watch:

  2. Lofty says

    I suppose her political death will be temporary, just like that of her hero, JC. Watch out for the Republican Zombie Apocalypse for they will undoubtedly Rise Again.
    Pardon me while I put out some mystic symbols to ward off the Mad Monk for he be a danger.

  3. blf says

    Apropos of nothing much, Batshite was who the thugs sent to the funeral of the UK’s own wicked witch, Trasher.

  4. timothybrannan says

    Such fantastic news. Hopefully this means the beginning of the end of the stupid Tea Party.

  5. TGAP Dad says

    I thought “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” was most appropriate for the occasion, but I’ll try to tone it down just a little. How about a taste of Three Days Grace?

  6. helensotiriadis says

    i believe that the president of the united states may serve for 10 years, not 8, which would allow for coming into the office out of necessity and then being elected twice.

  7. bahrfeldt says

    It should also be noted, even Ms. Bachmann’s statement that the law limits a president to eight years in office is wrong. If a president takes office with less than half of the term remaining, like LBJ did in 1963, he (or she) may legally serve two additional complete four year terms. If he takes office with more than two years remaining in the term, like Jerry Ford in 1974, the constitution limits the president to one additional term.

  8. Ogvorbis: ArkRanger of Doom! says

    I wonder if she already has a full-time contract with Pravda Faux Newz?

  9. says

    Given Bachmann’s well-documented craziness, I wonder what is going on in her addled brain. Does the Minnesota Drama Queen expect an avalanche of teabaggers to rend their clothing, throw campaign dollars at her, and demand she run for U.S. Senate against Franken? I have difficulty believing that this is anything other than a stunt.

  10. Ogvorbis: ArkRanger of Doom! says

    blf:

    Have you been drinking the MDP’s concoctions again?

  11. says

    If Bachmann had run again, odds were pretty good a Democrat would’ve taken the seat. Now that she’s off the ballot, it seems like she’ll just be replaced by another Tea Party clown who hasn’t stunk up the joint yet.

  12. Ogvorbis: ArkRanger of Doom! says

    I have difficulty believing that this is anything other than a stunt.

    I think that she made this decision because she realizes just how many laws she broke during her Presidential campaign and needs to focus all of her intellect, education, wiles, and willpower towards staying out of jail (or paying a big fine (which (for a teabagger) may be considered worse than jail?)).

  13. David Wilford says

    I think it’s called getting out while the getting is good and lining up a gig on Fox News, and taking the time slot formerly occupied by Sarah Palin. Ka-ching!

  14. tfkreference says

    Between this, the pope’s reaching out, and Florida’s backing off on voter suppression, I have to keep checking the calendar to see if it’s April 1 (the weather in Minnesota is March-like, so that doesn’t help).

  15. tubi says

    On the local news this morning they interviewed a PoliSci professor and asked him who he thought the GOP would put up to run against Jim Graves. His first suggestion was Mary Kiffmeyer, the former Secretary of State for MN, and currently my state senator. She’s a curmudgeonly old lady whose recent claim to fame is having introduced the marriage amendment that failed last fall. she also voted against marriage equality earlier this month.

    So you’d think that would be a problem for her. Except that every one of the state reps and sens that cover some part of District 6 is a Republican. In a year when the GOP got hammered throughout the rest of the state. Two of them, one rep and one sen, voted for marriage equality, the rest were all adamantly opposed. I worry that my neighbors may be just batty enough to elect Kiffmeyer.

  16. robro says

    I just saw the news. No time to delve into it, but came here immediately to do a little victory dance. I’m from California, so I can whoop it up for all you reserved Minnesotans.

  17. says

    As much as I loath the woman I would rather have seen her go down in flames in her customized district so we could all dance on the corpse of her political career.

  18. blf says

    Between this, the pope’s reaching out, and Florida’s backing off on voter suppression…

    And in further weird-but-welcome events, Illinois Bans Abstinence-Only Sex Education (from Ed’s blog): “Under the new law, if a school offers sex education it must include information about contraception. The governor is expected to sign it.”

  19. Alverant says

    Will the ethics investigation continue? This could just be a way of avoiding jail time.

  20. says

    Please permit me to express my joy:
    “Thank you Jesus, Thank your Mary, I will certainly by today’s sunset, light a pink candle at thy feet for obliging me. But then you have not yet given me my other wish, – palin for bear lunch”.

  21. busterggi says

    I don’t see how she could have time to be in Congress what with her having been elected POTUS last year. She was right? Jesus didn’t lie to her did he?

  22. Rieux says

    Helensotiriadis:

    i believe that the president of the united states may serve for 10 years, not 8, which would allow for coming into the office out of necessity and then being elected twice.

    That’s not quite right. U.S. law places no (direct) limit on the number of years that a person may serve as President. What it says (in the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) is that (1) no one may be elected President more than twice and (2) no one who has served more than two years as President of the term that someone else was elected to may be elected President more than once.

    This makes it practically impossible for one person to serve more than 10 years as President. But formally speaking, it is in fact entirely possible, because there are ways of attaining the Presidency that don’t require one ever to be elected to that office. If, say, I’m elected Vice President every four years, but the President elected on my ticket (I’d need a series of different ones) simply resigns before Inauguration Day every cycle, I could be President as long as I live. And that’s without being elected to that office even once, and therefore without even approaching the limitation in the 22nd Amendment.

  23. wcorvi says

    Oh, MAN, PZ, why did you do this to me? Why did you put this video at the top of the morning’s post? I was just eating breakfast, and almost lost my cookies over it.

  24. koncorde says

    @25 the Rothschilds wouldn’t be so blatant in their machinations… [/NWO]

    Back on topic – I take it she will still be representing the Tea Party in some format, and will likely still do her own “response” to the nation type broadcast because she is hardly the type to give up the limelight so easily. She may even end up getting it sponsored, and can do a double header with Palin on Faux.

    I also expect that, regardless of the outcome of the ethics investigation, barring actual jail time she will pull a Palin and announce completely the wrong result.

    Also, I was never more offended by the woman than he attempted witch hunt of Huma Abedin & Keith Ellison.

  25. says

    What the fuck is it with the sexism on this thread?

    blf @ 3; TGAP Dad @ 5 using the sexist slur ‘witch’
    bahrfeldt @7 limiting the US presidency to ‘he’s
    Zeno @ 11 using the sexist slur ‘Drama Queen’

  26. maverick.librarian says

    Great news that she is gone. Now let us hope that the district that elected her in the first place does not send another wackaloon that is as bad or worse. After all, they are still pretty gerrymandered, aren’t they?

    Best, and keep on blogging.

  27. says

    Remember the satirical article before the Minnesota vote on same sex marriage that “reported” she’d leave the country if it passed? Maybe she saw it and thought she had really said it……

  28. David Wilford says

    @29, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District swings R+10 percentage points, so yes, it’s practically a lock for the GOP, at least in off-Presidential year elections. For that reason I expect the GOP primary will likely be won by someone about as nutty as Bachmann, but at the same time someone who won’t be so nutty as to risk losing the election to the Democratic candidate.

  29. playonwords says

    @ibis3 agreed about witch althogh technically it is not gendered. He’s is difficult to avoid though careful structuring can often allow the substitution of they or their. Drama Queen is more homophobic than sexist.

  30. blf says

    Ibis3, “Wicked witch” is a common way of referring to Ms Thacher, a former PM (Prime Minister) of the UK, at least among those who strongly disagree with her policies. And there was a campaign to get the Wizard of Oz song Ding! Dong! The Wicked Witch is Dead to the number 1 position on the UK pop music chart the week of her funeral (which almost succeeded).

    Sexist? Perhaps. (Albeit witch has a history of also referring to males.) Suggest an alternative that neatly encapsulates just how vile are the policies advocated by one, and implemented by the other.

  31. robro says

    David — They are also not likely to elect someone who will be in the national spotlight as Bachmann was, at least not immediately. So, her replacement may be another nutty as banana bread Republican, but most of us won’t have to listen to the noise.

    Any speculation that Bachmann is headed to a Fox commentary desk? They seem to really go for this type of…um…uh…intellect?

  32. tfkreference says

    A commenter from her district noted after the election that the advantage of her winning was that she doesn’t do much besides make noise (like sponsoring bills to repeal Obamacare). Her opponent would have been vulnerable in ’14. He’s already running, so I guess we’ll see how that plays out.

  33. says

    playonwords:

    1. Defence by etymology? seriously? “Witch” as an insult is used almost exclusively to denigrate women. No more need be said about it.
    2. In the sentence before, bahrfeldt used “he (or she)” which is a bit better than leaving of “she” altogether. Other options abound and take little thought, not “careful structuring”, so, yeah, sexism completely unnecessary and indefensible.
    3. a) Homophobia is a subset of sexism. It’s punishing men for being “like women” (i.e. lowering themselves) and women for being “mannish” (i.e. not knowing their place as a lesser being).
    b) You’re wrong in this case. “Drama queen” originated as a slur for teenage girls. As I pointed out in a thread a few days ago, it’s the modern equivalent of “hysterical”.

    Finally, what the fuck was your point in posting your comment? The only conclusion I can come to is that you want to condone and mitigate sexist crap instead of condemning it.

  34. bahrfeldt says

    ibis @ 28- Upon quick review I have one “he” and one “he (or she)”.

  35. says

    Ibis3, “Wicked witch” is a common way of referring to Ms Thacher, a former PM (Prime Minister) of the UK, at least among those who strongly disagree with her policies.

    Um. Yeah. I knew that. So? Are you saying because it was used prominently as a slur against a particular woman (the first woman PM in the UK and there hasn’t been one since), that it loses it’s sexist connotation? Did it not occur to you that it was used against her because not only were her policies crap and harmful, but that she was a woman whose policies were crap and harmful? Does that mean that nigger is okay to use now that critics of Obama have used it against him (and surely there’s someone who’s used it in a song about him)?

    Using sexist slurs against public women contributes to a hostile environment. If we want more women in politics, we have to treat them like human beings, not a reviled subspecies.

    And there was a campaign to get the Wizard of Oz song Ding! Dong! The Wicked Witch is Dead to the number 1 position on the UK pop music chart the week of her funeral (which almost succeeded).

    Um. Yeah. I knew that. And?

    Sexist? Perhaps.

    No. Not perhaps. Unequivocally.

    (Albeit witch has a history of also referring to males.)

    When slurs that are usually used to denigrate women are used to insult men, that doesn’t magically turn them non-sexist. Rather, it’s doubling down. If a man is called a witch (or bitch or whatever), you;re saying he’s not only bad in whatever way, he’s also female which is inherently bad.

    Suggest an alternative that neatly encapsulates just how vile are the policies advocated by one, and implemented by the other.

    Not my job. But with over a million words in English, I’m sure you can come up with something that has no splash damage.

  36. says

    Zeno @ 11 using the sexist slur ‘Drama Queen’

    “Drama queen” originated as a slur for teenage girls.

    Really? I know “drama queen” from back in the seventies or so, when it was used as a put-down for overwrought people of both sexes, although most commonly by gay guys with respect to the more histrionic among their peers. It doesn’t carry a strong gender connotation today, if indeed it ever did.

  37. David Wilford says

    @40, I heard that phrase back in the 1970s and that’s pretty much my experience too. These days I prefer using “drama llama” as it alliterates nicely and since I also have had a llama spit on me (it’s like being slimed) it does capture how someone can spit their drama on others.

  38. says

    @ bahrfeldt Yeah. First you said ‘he’ with ‘she’ as a parenthetical afterthought, then you just used ‘he’ (i.e. limiting the presidency to males/those identifying as “he”s). I got that. The first is far better than the second, but even better would have been “they,” some other gender neutral pronoun, “s/he”, “he or she”, “she or he”, “the president” etc.

    I’m not trying to beat you up over it, but you don’t need to get defensive either. These things I’ve pointed out are microaggressions which should be acknowledged and avoided in the future.

  39. jimmyfromchicago says

    Like Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint before her, she’s figured out that now’s the time to cash in on the wingnut welfare gravy train. I wonder what she’s going to do: Fox talking head, lobbyist, author…?

  40. anteprepro says

    I know “drama queen” from back in the seventies or so, when it was used as a put-down for overwrought people of both sexes

    You do realize that it being a “put-down for both sexes” doesn’t fly, right? Just look at the insults that are also terms for female genitalia that are a “put-down for both sexes” after all…

  41. mothra says

    Great news that Bachman is on its her way out. Things will certainly improve once its she’s gone. While we do not yet know which warlock, witch rethuglican will replace her fill the district 6 congressional seat, he, she, it they will likely not be such a firebrand.

  42. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Like Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint before her, she’s figured out that now’s the time to cash in on the wingnut welfare gravy train. I wonder what she’s going to do: Fox talking head, lobbyist, author…?

    Taunt kids from under her bridge?

  43. David Marjanović says

    You should know that Bachmann is the biggest liar in congress.

    From there, emphasis added:

    “Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, who have five children and have opened their home to 23 foster children, live in Stillwater, Minn., and own a mental health care practice.

    *headdesk*

    “Under the new law, if a school offers sex education it must include information about contraception.

    Yeah, if.

    “Wicked witch” is a common way of referring to Ms Tha[t]cher

    And why, do you think, was exactly this term chosen?

    These days I prefer using “drama llama” as it alliterates nicely

    It doesn’t alliterate (fortunately). It simply rhymes. :-)

  44. A. R says

    Ibis3:

    Homophobia is a subset of sexism

    I’m calling bullshit on that one. Please tell the many, very masculine gay men that they are being like women, and that that is the reason society discriminates against them.

  45. says

    You do realize that it being a “put-down for both sexes” doesn’t fly, right? Just look at the insults that are also terms for female genitalia that are a “put-down for both sexes” after all…

    Yeah, and I don’t use those freighted terms and I wasn’t excusing them. It doesn’t refute an argument to present a case where it manifestly doesn’t apply.

  46. anchor says

    Hallelujah, and good riddance.

    I’m not sure what manner of creature that thing will ultimately be replaced with, but one must always find such a development in positive terms.

    Who knows? Maybe Minnesota voters in her district will have at long and ghastly length discovered by now that her ilk is not to be repeated…but I’m not holding my breath over that possibility.

  47. says

    Homophobia is a subset of sexism.

    I think Ibis3 has a point here, even if “subset” overstates the case. A lot of gay-bashing explicitly refers to the supposed femininity of the homosexual male, starting with “sissy” and working your way down from there. There’s no question that the bashers consider it a powerful insult to impute female characteristics to a man, thus clearly establishing their sexism. I suspect it’s especially deranging to homophobes when they encounter the hyper-masculine gay men with gym-sculpted bodies because they transgress the notion that masculinity is the exclusive province of straight men. The homophobes prefer gays to be more readily bashable and they don’t know how to deal with physically strong gay men.

  48. David Wilford says

    @52, how do you think Bachmann was elected in the first place? She ran as the unhinged facts-be-damned candidate in the GOP primary back in 2006 and won because that’s what GOP voters wanted and that’s exactly what they got. I’m certain that we’ll see a replay of that in the 2014 GOP primary and there are candidates like Matt Dean who once said he hated Neil Gaiman for quote “pencil-necked weasel who stole $45,000 from the State of Minnesota” unquote. He apologized later, kinda, sorta, not really. So I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.

  49. koncorde says

    @49 Wicked Witch was used to describe Margaret Thatcher because she shared qualities with the eponymous Wicked Witch from the series of books by Frank L Baum.

    Rather than sharing qualities with the Good Witch, Glinda…

  50. A. R says

    Zeno: Absolutely, I think that sexism and homophobia support each other, rather like two columns connected by cross-braces. If we consider the origin of sexism as we know it today (probably around the time of the development of agriculture), having many children would have been an advantage, which sets us up nicely for the “women as incubators” trope. Thus non-reproductive sex would have been considered bad, a concept reinforced by religion. Gay sex is of course non-reproductive, and thus evil. (Note that male-male intimacy is not explicitly prohibited, but the act of anal penetration is in Abrahamic religions). Therefore, we could consider homophobia and sexism to have the same roots, but we cannot, in my opinion, consider one to be the product of the other.

  51. says

    The most positive thing I can say about Bachmann is that she was so busy trying to further her career, she often ignored her current job, and missed many, many votes.

    I would be pleased if more Republicans went this route.

  52. playonwords says

    Ibis I was agreeing with you about “witch” sorry if you could not take the time to comprehend that I was regretting the negative connotation and also the gender now attached to an otherwise useful word.

    “She/he” or “he/she” or “he or she” is just as clumsy as restructuring the sentence to use they or their, it can be done but is not easy or particularly easy to read. It is a problem with the language and sometimes you have to cut the users of that language a little slack because humans are not perfect.

    Agreed that some homophobia expressing hatred of effeminacy is related to the devaluation and outright degradation of femininity but that is not all there is to homophobia. About “Drama Queen” I first became aware of the term in ’70s – ’80s London (although I have a vague idea that Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick used the term as a part of “Polari” in the ’50s and ’60s) and it was most definitely used regarding homosexuals and primarily by homosexuals. Later it was gained more common usage to describe histrionics by any person but particularly men. I’m sorry if you have only come across the term as used about adolescent girls again it shows we are 2 countries separated by a common language.

  53. qwerty says

    As a gay male, I want to thank Ms. Bachmann for her long time effort and support of the failed gay marriage amendment. Both amendments (one was a thinly disguised voter suppression amendment) in the most recent election did nothing but energize the opposition which resulted in the democrats controlling both state houses. This, in turn, led to the legalization of gay marriage.

    I honestly think she brought this upon herself and her party whether that be Republican or Tea Party. Without the one man – one woman marriage amendment on the ballot, I doubt the democrats would have taken both houses. So, thanks Michelle for supporting this when you were a state senator.

    Anyhow, she won’t be missed by most Minnesotans. Even some members of her party will be glad to see her leave.

  54. David Wilford says

    @60, the ones to also thank for are those DFL state senators who twice blocked the proposed constitutional amendment against same-sex civil marriage. They succeeded in delaying the amendment and gave more time for public opinion to swing against it. The Republicans also wrong-footed themselves into putting an amendment up for a vote in an election cycle that favored the Democrats (Presidential years help boost Democratic voter turnout) and it backfired on them spectacularly, and it’s wonderful to see the issue now settled on the side of fairness rather than prejudice.

  55. David Marjanović says

    If we consider the origin of sexism as we know it today (probably around the time of the development of agriculture)

    Evidence?

    Note that male-male intimacy is not explicitly prohibited, but the act of anal penetration is in Abrahamic religions

    Uh, “thou shalt not lie with a man as thou liest with a woman” is really vague, you know. It means whatever Humpty Dumpty wants it to mean, no more, no less.

    And to put a sentence in parentheses but then take its period out and put it behind the closing parenthesis – that is an abomination.

  56. Ragutis says

    I’m guessing there’s bad news coming from the ethics investigation When they were talking about this on Morning Joe, someone brought up that this was pretty sudden. As of last week, she was already making big ad buys for the next election.

  57. anchor says

    @David Wilford, who admonishes:

    “So I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you”

    Cripes. Haven’t I said so?

    Hopes??? Are you kidding? Cheeses fucking rice crispies.

    Are we to engage in another idiotic redundancy war?

    no thanks.

  58. A. R says

    David @62: I will be happy to provide sources when I’m not posting via iPhone. Also, remember that the Babble is a translation, and translations are influenced by their translators. Can we trust the KJV to give us an accurate idea of what the author meant? No, and in this case, the Hebrew is likely less vague. I’ll have to check through some more modern translations later. Finally, when did pointing out typos become a valid tactic in debate?

  59. says

    You should watch her “I am not a crook!” video.

    Such efficiency is to be admired. It took Nixon over a decade to go from “you won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore” to “I am not a crook.”

  60. David Wilford says

    @64, sorry for adding on unnecessary doom and gloom to what you said.

  61. unclefrogy says

    s for the use of witch I does this mean?

    Witch-king of Angmar

    uncle frogy

  62. unclefrogy says

    sorry let me try that again
    as for the use of witch, what does
    Witch-King of Angmar mean?
    uncle frogy

  63. David Marjanović says

    Also, remember that the Babble is a translation, and translations are influenced by their translators. Can we trust the KJV to give us an accurate idea of what the author meant? No, and in this case, the Hebrew is likely less vague.

    Would surprise me in this case – the original Hebrew is full of vague euphemisms.

    Finally, when did pointing out typos become a valid tactic in debate?

    What? Debate? Tactic??? I just said it’s an abomination, since we were talking about presumed abominations. And I know lots of people who take the period out consistently and deliberately, for (presumably) some reason, so I had no reason to think it was a typo.

  64. great1american1satan says

    I’m with Ibis!

    And I’m sad nobody mentioned my video link at post one.
    Those Bad Lip-Reading videos are pretty damn funny.

    I bid Michele Bachmann’s horrible self a non-sexist good riddance. Toodles!

  65. mikeyb says

    Her jehovah god was right about the last days – these are the last days for Bachmann – she is a self-prophet!

  66. throwaway, extra beefy super queasy says

    g1a1s

    And I’m sad nobody mentioned my video link at post one.
    Those Bad Lip-Reading videos are pretty damn funny.

    It had me laughing out loud. I think bad lip reading takes incredible talent. Or a lot of time. Or both. Regardless, it was the most cognizant she’s ever appeared.

  67. Ichthyic says

    If Bachmann had run again, odds were pretty good a Democrat would’ve taken the seat. Now that she’s off the ballot, it seems like she’ll just be replaced by another Tea Party clown who hasn’t stunk up the joint yet.

    YES! you get at least part of what is happening here.

    The charges filed against Bachmann are at the behest of the GoP itself. this is how they get rid of people they no longer consider valuable, while maintaining an open spot for a replacement they think better fits with their current goals.

    It’s why she was able to cop a deal against the ethics charges against her simply by agreeing not to run for re-election.

    this is standard GoP politics.

  68. Ichthyic says

    Any speculation that Bachmann is headed to a Fox commentary desk? They seem to really go for this type of…um…uh…intellect?

    based on her, uh, position statements… it wouldn’t surprise me to see her get an invite to participate in the Heritage Foundation.

  69. says

    Rachel Maddow presented the best roundup I’ve ever seen of Michele Bachmann’s talent for being so fucking wrong you have to laugh.
    http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#52040554

    18 minutes of the best of the best screw ups by Bachmann — or the worst of the worst if you, like me, sometimes find Michele Bachmann a reason to despair for all of humankind.

    Maddow’s commentary is priceless.

  70. says

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/michele-bachmanns-holy-war-20110622?print=true

    Matt Taibbi on Michele Bachmann.
    Excerpt:

    Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing. Don’t laugh.

    It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children’s show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing “launch” instead of “lunch” inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.

    Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. “It’s your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!” she gushed. “You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard.”

  71. says

    More quotes from Matt Taibbi:

    … In modern American politics, being the right kind of ignorant and entertainingly crazy is like having a big right hand in boxing; you’ve always got a puncher’s chance. And Bachmann is exactly the right kind of completely batshit crazy. Not medically crazy, not talking-to-herself-on-the-subway crazy, but grandiose crazy, late-stage Kim Jong-Il crazy — crazy in the sense that she’s living completely inside her own mind, frenetically pacing the hallways of a vast sand castle she’s built in there, unable to meaningfully communicate with the human beings on the other side of the moat, who are all presumed to be enemies.

    Bachmann’s story, to hear her tell it, is about a suburban homemaker who is chosen by God to become a politician who will restore faith and family values to public life and do battle with secular humanism. But by the time you’ve finished reviewing her record of lies and embellishments and contradictions, you’ll have no idea if she actually believes in her own divine inspiration, or whether it’s a big con job. Or maybe both are true — in which case this hard-charging challenger for the GOP nomination is a rare breed of political psychopath, equal parts crazed Divine Wind kamikaze-for-Jesus and calculating, six-faced Machiavellian prevaricator. Whatever she is, she’s no joke….

  72. Anri says

    to the froggy one:

    sorry let me try that again
    as for the use of witch, what does
    Witch-King of Angmar mean?

    It is the title given to the then-current guise of the greatest representative of evil and darkness in the world at that time.

    …so, tentatively, “Not A Compliment”, yes?