The Shadow

LOCAL SLEUTH LAMONT CRANSTON CLEARS THE AIR ABOUT MICHELE BACHMANN’S ALLEGED SUPPORT FOR RAISING TAXES

By Karl Bremer © 2010

Local sleuth and wealthy young man about town Lamont Cranston today called a press conference to explain the mysterious happenings at the 2008 Game Fair in Anoka, where thousands of attendees and two of Minnesota’s leading outdoor writers were led to believe that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann supported an increase in the state sales tax to support the outdoors and the arts.

“It was The Shadow,” Cranston said, as a collective gasp emanated from the anxious crowd of reporters assembled in the State Capitol.

Cranston, accompanied by his faithful sidekick Margo Lane, explained:

As reported on the http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/2010/09/big-taxin-michele-bachmann.html DumpBachmann blog Sept. 12, Bachmann has been attacking her opponent Tarryl Clark for supporting the “Legacy Amendment,” a constitutional amendment that was passed overwhelmingly by Minnesotans—and by voters in the 6th Congressional District—and raised the state sales tax by .375 percent on such items as State Fair corn dogs and children’s back-to-school crayons and backpacks. Clark’s support for the popular amendment has led Bachmann to dub her opponent “Taxin’ Tarryl.”

But an Oct. 23, 2008 column by Star-Tribune outdoor writer Dennis Anderson reported that Bachmann herself publicly supported the amendment at the Game Fair sportsmens’ extravaganza in Anoka that year.

“In fact, Coleman and Bachmann support the proposed amendment, as do most, if not all, of the Minnesota congressional delegation,” Anderson wrote. “Coleman, Bachmann and Franken spoke in August at Game Fair in Anoka of their support of the Clean Water amendment. Coleman and Bachmann also displayed blaze orange "Sportsmen vote yes" placards in their Game Fair booths …”

However, in a Sept. 12 St. Cloud Times article, Bachmann apologist Sergio Gor flatly denied that Bachmann supported the Legacy Amendment:

“The Clark campaign said this week that Bachmann also supported the sales-tax amendment, citing a newspaper article from 2008. But Bachmann spokesman Sergio Gor said she never supported the tax,” the Times reported.

When informed that Bachmann claimed he was lying about her support for the amendment, Anderson responded in an email:

I'm telling the truth, as a thousand or so other people can attest. She expressed her unqualified support for the amendment over the PA system at Game Fair in August 2008. (Star-Tribune outdoor writer) Ron Schara was the interviewer … Of course, that doesn't mean she didn't tell other people just the opposite.

Schara, one of Minnesota’s most revered outdoor writers and host of the tv show “Minnesota Bound, concurred:

“I did ask Michele if she supported the constitutional amendment,” Schara said Tuesday. “She very clearly said yes.”

During that interview, Schara also said Bachmann was wearing a “Vote Yes” button distributed by Sportsmen for Change-Minnesota, a group that lobbied for passing the amendment.

Many others supported Anderson’s contention that Bachmann supported the amendment as well.

Ken Martin, who led Vote Yes Minnesota, another group organized to support passage of the Legacy Amendment, told the Star-Tribune this week that Bachmann “indicated her strong support” for the amendment to enthusiastic applause from the Game Fair attendees. Martin’s group then trumpeted her apparent support as evidence that, despite some Republican Party opposition, the measure had bipartisan support in the Minnesota delegation in Congress.

Paul Austin, executive director of Conservation Minnesota, which also backed the amendment, told the Star-Tribune that Bachmann's expression of support was “widely discussed” among sportsmen's groups. “We thought, wow, that's great,” he said.

And the Star-Tribune reported that “Game Fair organizer Chuck Delaney said that while he didn't hear Bachmann's remarks, her presence at one of the nation's largest sportsmen's events was taken as tacit endorsement of the amendment.”

“These people are asking for the votes of sportsmen,” he told the newspaper. “So I'm sure they wouldn't come out here if they're against anything that sportsmen are for.”

In fact, Schara told the Star-Tribune, for whom he wrote for decades, Bachmann's booth at the 2008 event displayed a blaze orange “Sportsmen vote yes” placard, and that he “vividly” remembers the congresswoman wearing a “Vote Yes” button prepared by Sportsmen for Change, which led the campaign to pass the amendment.

Don McMillan, president of the Minnesota Outdoor Heritage Alliance, told the Star-Tribune: “I don't understand why there would be a dispute about it. She had a sign in her booth supporting it.”

But Bachmann mouthpiece Sergio Gor continued to insist that his boss, widely known for her truthfulness, never supported the amendment.

The placard all these people reported seeing in Bachmann’s Game Fair booth, Gor claimed, was simply a misunderstanding. “A lot of times people just come up and throw stuff on our tables,” he said. “If we don't take it off in time, someone can ... snap a picture or see it there.”

So how did thousands of Game Fair attendees and some of Minnesota’s leading sportsmen and outdoor writers come to believe that Bachmann supported the Legacy Amendment, sported a “Vote Yes” sticker and displayed a “Vote Yes” sign in her booth?

“The invisible Shadow has the ability to cloud men’s minds, and make them see and hear things that didn’t really happen,” Cranston explained to the throng of reporters. “He wanted Minnesota’s sportsmen and sportswomen to vote for Michele Bachmann, so he convinced them that Bachmann supported one of the most important ballot initiatives to ever come before them.”

But how did The Shadow infiltrate the Game Fair?

“He assumed the body of Ron Schara’s famous black labrador, Raven,” Cranston continued. “That way, no one would suspect his presence and he could go about his business of lies and deceit.”

“Well, now that that’s cleared up, we can get on with the business of re-electing my wife, Michele,” Marcus Bachmann told reporters as they gathered up their notepads and cameras.

But as the media began to shuffle out the door, their heads shaking in disbelief, a chill crept over the Capitol press room and a dark voice came out of the rafters:

“Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of Michele Bachmann?” the voice boomed. "The weed of lying bears bitter fruit. Lying does not pay. The Shadow knows.”