One of the many ways that Glenn Beck is raising money to pay for his upcoming rally at the Lincoln Memorial is an online auction. People are bidding big bucks on items such as breakfast with Beck and Sarah Palin on the morning of the rally, and a helicopter ride to visit Beck at his home. But one auction item that hasn't gotten any attention at all is the private tour of the Capitol Building with Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton and everyone's favorite tea party congresswoman, Michele Bachmann. As the bidding on this item came to a close on Monday, the high bid was at $27,500.
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In order for Barton to give one of his revisionist history packed private tours of the Capitol, he has to get a member of Congress to host it. So, here's my question about this auction item: Is Michele Bachmann's use of her access to the Capitol Building as a member of Congress to host an event to raise money for Glenn Beck an ethics issue? In looking at the House rules on the involvement of members of Congress in "Events With Outside Entities," it certainly seems like this one, for several reasons, might cross the line.
Sounds a lot like the time Bachmann was caught using the Minnesota Senate chambers as a backdrop for a testimonial for a commercial business - Karl Bremer article and video of Bachmann's weasel-worded defense in this DB post.
Back to Bachmann and Barton...
Bachmann's relationship with Glenn Beck's favorite pseudo-historian David Barton goes way back to her days in the Minnesota legislature...":
Chris Rodda wrote about Bachmann and Barton in a 2009 Huffington Post article called "The Idiocy of Texas and the Threat of David Barton". Rodda mentions Bachmann:
Another example of Barton's grossly exaggerated role in a state's curriculum development involves everyone's favorite nut of a congresswoman, Michele Bachmann. Back in September, when Barton had Bachmann on his radio show -- introducing her as "a rock solid lady," and a "real class act" -- he brought up his previous encounters with her, including this:As a matter of fact, I worked with her on history standards up in Minnesota -- doing some history legislation, and making sure that they could not censor religious references from history books.
So, what was Barton referring to here? Well, back in 2005, when Bachmann was still a senator in the Minnesota legislature, she and some of her fellow legislative wingnuts had bought -- hook, line, and sinker -- the wildly distorted story and propaganda about California banning the Declaration of Independence in public schools because it mentioned a creator. So, although existing Minnesota history standards already contained the use of the Declaration and other historical documents with religious content, Bachmann co-sponsored a completely unnecessary piece of legislation to "permit" these same documents that were already being used in the state's schools to be used in the state's schools, actually citing the bogus story about California banning the Declaration of Independence as a reason her unnecessary legislation was of the utmost importance. Barton's big role in all this? Well, he appeared before the Minnesota Senate Education Committee in support of Bachmann's legislation. Similar legislation had already been introduced by Minnesota state representative Mark Olson in 2001, and Olson, during a House Education Policy Committee hearing on his bill, had also brought in David Barton.
Of course, without the real explanations of the circumstances surrounding Barton's role in these state history education related proceedings, and relying only on the deceptive way in which Barton describes his involvement, anyone unfamiliar with him would think he sounds like somebody who has lots of legitimate experience in developing history curriculums and is sought out by other states for this expertise.
But, the biggest problem with Barton meddling with our country's textbooks is not his lack of qualifications. It's the fact that he's a big fat liar who will distort, misrepresent, and even fabricate historical events to further his Christian nationalist agenda and political ideology.
Read the entire post... for more about the Religious Right's revision of history go to Chris Rodda's website.
The article mentions that Bachmann appeared on the Wallbuilders Live show. Here in two parts is an excerpt where the host spoke with Michele Bachmann about her theocratic agenda, The entire September 1, 2008 podcast can be found at the Wallbuilders Live podcast archives
Part One:
Part Two:
This picture is from Rep. Mark Olson's campaign literature from 2006 shows Olson and Bachman with David Barton at the MN Legislature:
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