Michele Bachmann Speaks at Overpriced Teabagger Convention

As we pointed out yesterday, the Strib was unable to get a press pass to the event. Now City Pages reports that many rank and file teabaggers will be unable to afford the high ticket price for this event.

Remember last week, after the Democrats told C-Span that they would not allow its cameras to record the House and Senate conference committee as it hashed out differences in health care reform legislation, that Rep. Michele Bachmann called bullshit? She warned that the Democrats who control the process wanted to avoid public scrutiny.

Will she now castigate teabaggers for what appears to be a desire to avoid public scrutiny at the National Tea Party Convention scheduled for February in Nashville?

Only a few, favored members of the media will be able to get credentials to cover an event whose patrons hope to use it as a springboard for altering the national political landscape.

"No word on who or how many," writes Kevin Diaz in the Star Tribune. "This from the people who brought us last summer's media-saturated Town Hall meetings."

Convention spokesman Judson Phillips told the Dump Bachmann blog, "I don't want the sessions disrupted and overrun with the media."

Bachmann, and Sarah Palin, who is fresh off her deal to pontificate on Fox News, are scheduled to appear at the convention.

Tickets for the event cost more than $500. According to Politico, 600 are available, compared to the 9,000 available for last year's Conservative Political Action Conference.