Michelle (Joe McCarthy in a Dress) Bachmann Strikes!

By Lee Russ

Friday, October 17, 2008 at 08:23 PM

On today's Hardball, Repub Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota actually said this, in the course of a rambling accusation that appears to equate :liberal" to "leftist" and "leftists" to "anti-American":

I'm very concerned that he [Obama] may have anti-American views.......the American media should...take a great look at the views of people in congress to find out are they pro-America or anti-America.

You can find the video of her saying this here. You can find the video of the follow-up by Matthews with Katrina vanden Heuval and Pat Buchanan here. Note Buchanan's apparent inability to understand Matthews's point that when Bill Ayers never said that he wished he had "done more" he meant more to stop the Vietnam war, not more bombing. But forget Buchanan. Think about Bachmann.

What a concept she is and what a concept she has. vanden Heuvel does a good enough job explaining why her statement should scare us all, so I'm not going to belabor that. My point is what the F*** is wrong with this woman, and how in the world did she ever get elected to Congress? Is there a serious chance that she's going to get reelected next month? Are Minnesotans that far gone?

Her statement about Obama apparently came during a momentary memory loss, since she is described in the St. Cloud Times just yesterday saying that "'If the presidency would somehow go to Barack Obama, I would welcome him to the 6th District as well,' she said after the debate. 'As a matter of fact, I would put my hand on his shoulder and give him a kiss if he wanted to.'” And again ignoring the absurd ignorance of history andlogic and freedom inherent in her statement about investigating Congress to find out who's anti-American, she wants the media to do it? The same media that she and her crowd have spent so much time demonizing with their claims that the media is irretrievably biased toward liberals? Which she just equated to anti-Americans? She wants the anti-American media to investigate Congress to find out who's anti-American!

This woman appears to be unhinged, literally unhinged. Something's clinically wrong there and the people around her who care about her ought too quit supporting the pathology and get her some help.

Today's Joe McCarthy reprise is far from her first fling with the outer orbits of sanity. Such moments are far too frequent to chronicle exhaustively, so here are two short examples (the most rudimentary search will turn up many more):

In 2005, while serving in the Minnesota State Senate, she was captured on film crouching in some bushes to get a peek at a gay and lesbian rally on the state house grounds. Folks, she was elected to the U.S. Congress after these pictures were made public.

More recently, she voiced her opinion that people like Nancy Pelosi want to "save the world" via their environmentalism, and ridiculed the effort because "We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that." The "someone" is Jesus if you didn't already figure that out. Jesus = no need for environmental action on global warming.

Sanity, wherefore art thou among the fringiest of the far, far fringe that spring full blowin' from the bosom of their religious cocoon?

I have to say to Congresswoman Bachmann that I agree with the need for the American media to take a "great look at the people in congress," but to find out not who has anti-American beliefs, but who is such a raving loon that their presence in a body like the House of Representatives is a deep and enduring embarassment for all America. And based on Buchanan's performance during the follow-up, we might want a similar sanity investigation for our revered television pundits, as well.