Bachmann heads off Palin

Thoughts on ladies of the right

Few girls that can hold a candle to half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin, but there is one who is catching up. Not the Nevada women who wanted to settle problems using the Second Amendment. Not the one who wanted to use chickens to pay doctors like in the old days. Not the one who claimed she was not a witch.

Not Michelle Malkin (née Maglalang) the American conservative blogger and political commentator, though she backs any person who ever misspoke. President Barack Obama is not her favorite leader of the free world. All these ladies get time with Shawn Hannity because of his softball questions.

(In advance of Sarah Palin’s interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Slate’s David Weigel proposed a new definition to the neologism “Hannitize”: “to clean up a messy situation with a softball interview.” Hannity is the go-to interviewer for right-wing women and men following a scandal or controversy.)

But the one character that is doing her best to “out do” Ms. Plain and take over the spotlight of ego-driven politicians is Representative Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the de-facto promoter of one of the Tea Party groups.
Ms. Bachmann claimed in a speech last month that she left the Democratic Party and became a Republican because she was horrified by the portrayal of the Founding Fathers in Gore Vidal's 1973 historical novel “Burr.” "I reached out to the 85-year-old author. Called the novel a “snotty book,” she said.

Gore Vidal’s portrait of our Founding Fathers in “Burr” is a historical novel. It emerged during the mayhem of the Civil Rights Movement; controversy over the War with Vietnam; followed closely by President Richard Nixon’s resignation. It was a time when the government’s image was one few trusted. Vidal said it was that way with the Founding Fathers. They were human just as we are, filled with jealousies, agendas and disgust of one another. This surprised some readers but not to the extent it seems to have had on Ms. Bachmann in her Freshmen college experience.

She boasts of how that trashy book by Gore Vidal made her storm out of the Democratic Party and unite with “God’s Own Party.”

Not so very much longer through an assistant, Vidal offered a written statement in response to Ms. Bachmann tirade. He wrote her: "She is too stupid to deserve an answer."

I have yet to hear Ms. Bachmann’s thoughts on Michelle Obama, but the right-wing media attacked the First Lady for wearing a red dress to the White House State Dinner last week. It was their opinion Ms. Obama wore a read dress to, honor "Commie Red China." The right wing has a history of seeing political messages in Michelle Obama and other administration figures' attire.

Some of Ms. Bachmann’s best, listed by various writers, are: Sen. Harry Reid is trying to get kids gambling early. There is an African American genocide going on in this country. Her extreme love of Mountain Dew is weird.
Ms. Bachmann earned CNN's "Wingnut of the Year" title for all the inane things she said in 2009, especially this Sean Hannity-enabled quote: "Where tyranny is enforced upon the people, as Barack Obama is doing, the people suffer and mourn." She went on to declare President Obama is in bed with terrorists. Her paranoia runs deep.
And the folks of her Minnesota district keep on re-electing her to Congress. I always thought Minnesotans were elegant and neat like the Garrison Keller.

Now she is making plans to run for president in 2012. I wish her well, it will be entertaining on the campaign trail to hear more of her astute perceptions on how to save America.

This is a good time to add a bit of levity to this week’s opinion piece. My old buddy, Dr. George R. Wilson, Jr., former president of the Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary, sent me a birthday card that was probably written with me in mind: “You’re not really old till you pick up the remote control --- hold it to your ear and wait for the dial tone.”

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