TPM: In the tradition of Michele Bachmann, here's Mike Jungbauer

Eric Kleefeld of Talking Points Memo follows the Michele story, via MNIndy. It seems like ages ago that I warned readers that once Bachmann's career took off, she'd inspire imitator politicians using the same sleazy gags. (These include hatemongering, abuse of the name of God for political gain, etc.) Kleefeld and MNIndy report that Minnesota State Senator Mike Jungbauer is pulling Michele's "God wants me in this election" gag--to get the big bucks.

Minnesota GOPer: God Called Me To Run For Governor -- And To Raise A Miraculous Amount Of Money
By Eric Kleefeld - August 10, 2009

Check out this declaration from Minnesota state Sen. Mike Jungbauer, who is now running for the Republican nomination for Governor: That God called him to run -- and he's setting out to achieve a literally miraculous level of fundraising...

...So God has called Jungbauer to run for governor, and to raise a lot of money -- but not necessarily to win and be governor? Talk about mysterious ways.

And yes, Jungbauer's state legislative district is inside Michele Bachmann's Congressional district.

Jungbauer's claim (God told me to run for governor and raise a lot of money, but not necessarily to win) is not so strange as the reporter here thinks. Michele told worshipers at the Living Word Church much the same thing during her first run for
Congress (we got it on video.)

It seems that there is a fine line that people manipulating conservative evangelicals must not cross. It is "okay" for them to claim that God called them to run for office--it is "not okay" for them to claim that God told them they are going to win office. What's the difference? Well: if the speakers claims that God wanted him to win, and he loses--that would not make God "look bad," but it would make the "speaker" look bad (claiming false divine messages) and it would make any church or evangelical media supporting that speaker "look bad" (for supporting the speaker for clearly lying about what God told him.)

So it's safer to say that God told you to run, and limit God's opinion to that. Why God would hold back the info about your ultimate electoral fate, is a mystery that does not concern these voters.

So Michele claimed that God told her to run for State Senate, Congress, etc. She won those. Former Senator Norm Coleman also told the public that God wanted him to win, but God also said that his dad shouldn't have had sex with that tramp in back of that pizza joint. In neither of those Coleman cases did God get His way.

And now have this guy Jungbauer. Michele was kinda-sorta on the cutting edge with this "God told me to run" gag; I don't think anyone is allowed to pull it without approval of Michele's backers on the evangelical right. But we learn more about Jungbauer from the MNIndy piece:

...Announcing his bid for governor Saturday, the East Bethel Republican said that he sees himself in the top three of a crowded GOP field and that achieving lofty fundraising goals will prove God is on his side...

...His statement echoes that of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who in a 2006 speech said God had told her to run for Congress.

As governor Jungbauer would stand by a no-new-taxes pledge (with possible exceptions) and alter state ethics laws that have dogged him...

I don't think you can really "pledge" *NO*-new-taxes and at the same time add "with possible exceptions." That's kind of like "pledging" NO adultery, but "with possible exceptions." And if you announce that one of your political priorities is to get rid of the ethics laws they used to bust YOU--you are indeed going to need divine help with the fund raising thing.

But we have to remember that we are dealing with very complex, roll-of-the-dice evangelical morality here.