The Bachmann Files: From Scandal In Scandia To Farm Subsidies

WORK IN PROGRESS

This is certainly not a comprehensive list of Michele Bachmann’s gaffes and exploits, but it does give insight to Bachmann and Bachmannites.

If anyone has additional links, please feel free to refer to them in the comments section. Thanks.


1. During a televised Hardball appearance in 2008, Bachmann told Chris Matthews,

"I'm very concerned that (then-candidate Barack Obama) may have anti-American views. That's what the American people are concerned about. That's why they want to know what his answers are... I think the people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large, the people who are radical leftists. That's the real question about Barack Obama... I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they pro-America or anti-America. I think people would love to see an expose like that."

Subsequent to these inflammatory remarks, the Republican National Committee suspended $1M in advertising they had planned for Bachmann

2. The Census:

The 2010 census will likely determine whether Minnesota loses one of its eight U.S. House seats; population determines seat allocation. Political experts agree that a few thousand people not filling out census forms may be all it takes for the state to lose a congressional advocate in the nation’s capital. If Minnesota were to lose a congressional seat, Bachmann’s district appears to be candidate for absorption. Bachmann has been careful to say that she’s willing to tell the census how many people live in her household, the basic information that will determine whether Minnesota keeps a congressional seat. But that’s a message that’s easily lost in her fear-mongering; Beck didn’t help when he pantomimed flushing census documents down the toilet.

3. McCarthyism:

I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that.

4. “Armed And Dangerous” on Cap & Trade. Perhaps her most clueless gaff - it shows that she shows uses judgment in chooses phrases for her speeches and flings around catch-phrases willy-nilly.


5. Americorps Program = Re-education Camps

During an appearance of the Sue Jeffers show, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) claimed that the recent expansion the Americorps program is a dream comes true for those who want to rid America of capitalism because the Americorps program is really reeducation camps for young people.

BTW: her son joined an Americorps program. Go figure.

6. Bio-partisan economics same as Mussolini’s fascism:

"Let's remember really what this is. This has a lot in common with Italy in the 1930s and they way Italy dealt with economics," she said. "It still continues private ownership of business but government is in control."

7. The French culture is “going away” 

On the face of it, Bachmann observed, “multicultural diversity … sounds wonderful. But guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal. And ... those who are coming into France, which had a beautiful culture, the French culture is actually diminished, it’s going away.”

8. On evolution:

“There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design.”

9. On Terry Schiavo:

There was brain damage, there was no question. But from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.”

10. Fears of a “global currency”:

“I’m very concerned about the international moves they’re making, particularly … moving the United States off the dollar and onto a global currency, like Russia and China are calling for.”

11. Unscientific attack on global warming:

“Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”

12. Senseless link of Democratic Presidents to swine flu:

“I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.”

13. On the sinister intentions of Obamacare:

“Does that mean that someone’s 13-year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have [her] abortion, be back and go home on the school bus? That night, mom and dad are never the wiser.”

14. Another premise on the evils of the Obama Administration:

Bachmann then continued, in her own words: "We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves."

15. Her heels were suspiciously killing her. 

April 8, 2005: When Bachmann tried to force a floor vote to create a state constitutional amendment to ban civil unions for gay couples, the Senate told her to take a hike. So she did -- outside to the Capitol grounds, where she spent an unknown amount of time lurking behind the shrubbery, spying on the rally OutFront Minnesota organized to protest her homophobic legislative tendencies. Her excuse: she was just sitting to rest because her heels were killing her.

Right.

16. Ebonics is not her strong point:

There's nothing more embarrasing than a middle-aged woman speaking ebonics, proven when Bachmann big-upped the chair of the Republican National Committee during the CPAC conference last March. You go on with your bad self, gurl! Ugh.

17. Wherever goes Israel, so goes the United States: 

 “I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States.

18. One of the primary contributors to Bachmann’s campaigns has been Club for Growth, dedicated to ferreting out RINOs and seeing that they are properly chastised or ousted. The other major contributors have been: Hubbard Broadcasting (major Minneapolis media expanding to other cities), Target, and TCP Financial, a holding company for one of Minnesota’s largest banks.


19. Playing one fear off the other:

“It’s clear that a bill that is silent on eligibility means a bill that includes illegal immigrants.”


NOT TRUE. NEVER HAS BEEN.


20. On control of our food supply:

"President Obama said we can't eat as much food as we want and think the rest of the world will be okay about that -- as if that matters to freedom-loving Americans," said Bachmann. "Well, we just heard last week that the Federal Government now under the Obama administration is calling for a re-ordering of America's food supply. What's that going to mean? Now will the White House decide how many calories we consume, or what types of food we consume?"

21. Now Nostradamus:

"I said I had very serious concerns that Barack Obama had anti-American views," she said. "And now I look like Nostradamus."

22. Foreclosures are the homeowners’ fault:

A Minnesota Independent investigation reveals today that Minnesotans in Bachmann’s district face the worst effects of the foreclosure crisis — but she’s doing the least about it. Bachmann calls homeowners “irresponsible”

23. Bachmann and Bradlee Dean:

Rep. Michele Bachmann will be headlining a fundraiser in November for controversial ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH).

Based in Annandale, Minn., the group has made a name for itself as an anti-drug Christian punk rock band that organizes motivational student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. But over the last several years, parents and school administrators have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself, claiming that the group is not transparent about its Christian mission. And since schools pay using public funds, some are concerned that the group is violating the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.

23. Then, of course, there’s the famous Bathroom Hysteria Scandal in Scandia!

24. Historical mangling #435: Bachmann claimed that Franklin Roosevelt started the Great Depression by signing an Act that, in actuality, Herber Hoover signed.

25. There are some birther-type concerns about Bachmann’s bar exam and her University’s accreditation at the time.

26. Recently, Anderson Cooper hacked away at the issue of the farm subsidies Michele Bachmann's family has been receiving a number of years:

So, when the congresswoman says she has never gotten a dime from the farm, she's contradicting her own disclosure filings. It's possible her disclosure filings have been wrong year after year or maybe her recollection is wrong.

In any case, you saw what happened when we asked her about it this evening. We invited her on the program tonight. She declined. Did the same thing last night. She did, however, appear on all five network morning shows today, where not a single interviewer asked her directly about the family farm and her statements about it. Sunday, when CBS's Bob Schieffer asked the right question, he got even less of an answer than we did. Mrs. Bachmann simply changed the subject.