New York Times:
There is not infrequently an inverse relationship on Capitol Hill between visibility and the clout to shape policy, cut deals and otherwise make a lasting mark. Ms. Bachmann learned that lesson this month when she ran for her party’s No. 4 position in the House as a self-styled leader of the Tea Party movement, only to withdraw when it became clear she was attracting little support — even as her willingness to promote an unfounded report that President Obama’s trip to India would cost taxpayers $200 million a day kept her front and center in the cable-politics mosh pit.
Ms. Bachmann, first elected in 2006, said she was eager to work with her party — “I’ve heard nothing from the leaders other than espousing the principles of the Tea Party and their fervent commitment to stand by those ideals,” she said — but she is also willing to shake things up, and is working to organize Tea Party-affiliated Republicans into a voting bloc in the House.
“I think the Republican leaders have gotten the message, and if they haven’t, I have not been afraid to be vocal in the past and I won’t be afraid to be vocal going forward,” Ms. Bachmann said in a telephone interview. She mentioned her opposition to President George W. Bush’s $700 billion Wall Street bailout in 2008, and explained, “I’ve been willing to take on my own party, my own leadership, my own president before, so I would be willing to do that again, if I felt there’s a principled reason to do so.”
Ms. Bachmann said that the day after the election, she “woke up to members of Congress calling me and urging me to run for” the leadership position, but she “found out fairly quickly I was not the leadership pick.”
Senior House Republican staff members said that while the party’s leaders were eager to have a woman and a Tea Party member in their upper ranks, they were concerned about Ms. Bachmann’s high rate of staff turnover and were not sure she would be willing to deliver the party’s message rather than her own. They were also concerned about her high-profile faux pas, like the claim about the expense of Mr. Obama’s Asia trip or the time on MSNBC’s “Hardball” when she suggested that Mr. Obama might have “anti-American views.” Both of those statements put fellow Republicans in the uncomfortable position of having to either defend her or distance themselves from one of their own.
The dead tree edition included this snippet. The online edition does not:
Senior House Republican staff members said that while the party's leaders were eager to have a woman and a Tea Party member in their upper ranks, they were concerned about Ms Bachmann's high rate of staff turnover - she has burned through all of her top aides at least once - and were not sure she would be willing to deliver the party's message rather than her own. They were also concerned about her high-profile faux pas, like the claim about the expense of Mr Obama's Asia trip or the time on MSNBC's "Hardball" when she suggested that Mr. Obama might have "anti-American views." Both of these statements put fellow Republicans in the uncomfortable position of having to either defend her or distance themselves from one of their own.
Why was this snipped out of the Online Edition?
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