Eva Young, a co-founder of DumpBachmann.com — perhaps the most comprehensive anti-incumbent blog and one that dates back to Bachmann’s days in the Minnesota state Senate — says she spends nearly an hour per day writing. Her blog’s been mentioned on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” and Young has even had an opportunity to debate Bachmann in a radio interview.
Liberal television host Ed Schultz devoted more than a quarter of his MSNBC show on Wednesday night to Rep. Michele Bachmann -- an unusual amount of time even for Schultz, who perennially takes swipes at Bachmann in his "Psycho Talk" segment.
Noting that the Ed Show was "live from Minneapolis," Schultz explained that, "On the eve of Thanksgiving, I want to talk about the biggest turkey in the Congress, Michele Bachmann."
Schultz said the "roads are filled with anti-abortion and pro-gun billboards" in Bachmann's home district just northwest of the Twin Cities and "there are huge megachurches in this part of the country. I guess you could say that this is Bachmann country."
He then separately interviewed three guests about Bachmann's rising stature in the Republican Party: Matt Snyders of City Pages, Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen and Republican Strategist Ron Christie.
Christie criticized Snyders' recent cover story on Bachmann for the City Pages, explaining that he told the show's bookers he did not want to talk about the article, which he cited as an example of conservative women being "demonized."
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The most immediate impact of the change is that Dr. Maureen Reed, who was seeking the endorsement of both the DFL and IP in her race for Congress in the 6th District, will completely focus on the DFL process, according to her campaign manager, although he said that she was already focused on the DFL before the IP policy change.
Perhaps of more interest to Bachmann-race watchers, in my conversation with Reed's campaign manager about the change, it became increasingly clear that Reed will run in a DFL primary if, as seems likely, state Sen. Tarryl Clark is the DFL endorsee.
First the IP rule change: In 2008, the IP experimented with cross-endorsement, giving itself the option of endorsing DFLers or Republicans in races where the party did not have a strong candidate of its own and where one of the other candidates took positions friendly to IP principles. The party ended up endorsing two DFL congressional candidates -- Elwyn Tinklenberg in the 6th District and Steve Sarvi in the Second. It was not a good experience. Both cross-endorsed candidates lost (Tinklenberg to incumbent Repub Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sarvi to incumbent Repub Rep. John Kline).
The cross-endorsements "didn't provide any tangible benefit" to the IP nor the non-IPers they endorsed, Uldrich said. Neither candidate touted their IP endorsement much and neither gave particular emphasis to the IP platform issues that attracted the IP to them, Uldrich said.
Specifically, Uldrich said, the IP is looking for candidates who will talk about the hard but necessary choices (tax hikes and/or benefit cuts) necessary to get entitlement spending under control. At the IP convention, Tinklenberg told the IP that he would make an issue of it in his race, but IP'ers felt that he never did.
The cross-endorsement in the 6th District turned into a particular muddle because of Minnesota election law. Minnesota forbids any candidate from appearing on the ballot with two party designations or on two ballot lines. (Some other states, like New York, that have durable smaller parties, allow this.) In 2008, Bob Anderson of Woodbury, who makes dental crowns, sought the IP endorsement but lost to Tinklenberg. Anderson then ran in the primary for the IP nomination. State election law prevented Tinklenberg from running for two nominations in the primary. Anderson, who was unopposed, got on the ballot as the IP nominee and ended up getting 10 percent of the vote, quite impressive for a political unknown with no campaign budget.
(Debate still rages over whether Anderson's 10 percent cost Tinklenberg the election. Anderson has a right-leaning libertarian streak and might have received votes that otherwise would have gone for Bachmann. But Anderson got little media attention and was excluded from several prominent debates, so it's questionable how many voters knew anything about him. Some voters may have used him as a protest against the other two choices. And everyone knows someone named Bob Anderson.)
Uldrich said the fact that Anderson got 10 percent as the IP nominee, despite the fact that the party had endorsed Tinklenberg, was another sign that the cross-endorsement strategy wasn't working.
I just spoke to Anderson, who is clearly thinking about running again. He said that if he decides to run, he will seek the IP endorsement. But if he fails to get it, he will not run in the primary. Instead, he would consider seeking the nomination of another minor party or trying to get enough petition signatures to get on the ballot as an independent. Uldrich gave Anderson a minute to address the convention Saturday. He said the party did not seem that excited about backing Anderson and reserves the right to make no endorsement in the 6th District race, but that will be up to the 6th District convention.
Today, folks across the 6th District are working hard to stay in their homes and keep their jobs. Families are gathered around the kitchen table, trying to pay their bills and save just a little bit for retirement or to send the kids to college.
So with all this work to be done in Congress and here in Minnesota, where was Michele Bachmann this weekend?
Riling up her national conservative followers in Palm Beach, Florida.
According to the Washington Independent, Bachmann was a speaker at the Freedom Center's "Restoration Weekend," “a pricey four-day Palm Beach celebration of conservative ideas,” alongside Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, and Newt Gingrich.
It's time for a Congresswoman who will actually do the job and whose first and only priority is to fight for the people of Minnesota, not the conservative power-players of Palm Beach.
Tarryl Clark will always put us first. Just as she has in the State Senate, Tarryl Clark will go to work every day to fight for the people of her district - not promote her own personal agenda or build her national celebrity.
It isn’t a secret that some within the GOP establishment prefer keeping Michele Bachmann arm’s distance away. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Michele wore that as a badge of honor. Nonetheless, the establishment snipers persist like they did in this City Pages hit piece:
But more importantly, many worry that those and similar remarks are detrimental to the national Republican Party’s credibility, which is why not everyone inside the GOP is thrilled at the prospect of Bachmann becoming the face of their party. One senior Republican strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity, concedes that there’s some trepidation within the GOP establishment.
“I can tell you she has a few quiet detractors within the Republican Party,” says the strategist. “Put it this way: There’ve been some who’ve raised an eyebrow over the things she’s said.”
The problem with the GOP, both locally and nationally, is that strategists like this coward won’t fight for their principles in public. They’d rather be quoted anonymously than fight on the battlefield of ideas. It’s quite likely that they don’t like fighting for their principles because their principles are constantly shifting and/or indefensible.
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