...but Michele still has friends in Texas, too...

...namely, "Texas for Sarah Palin," who are outraged that Michele has been named in an ethics complaint.

Their post has everything in it: "Obama goon squads," "networks of Democrat operatives," "Obama's fascist takeover of auto dealerships," Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and (of course) Joseph Stalin.

The Democrat Party, using networks of local blogger operatives, successfully bogged down the Alaska state government with a series of bogus "ethics" complaints and FOI requests, all designed to destroy former Gov. Sarah Palin. Now the party of Hope and Change is using the same strategy in Minnesota:

"Three Minnesota bloggers filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Michele Bachmann this week, claiming the Republican violated House franking rules in an email to constituents."

Sound familiar? In the early stages of using the strategy, Obama's goon squads seem to be concentrating on on states that have attractive, conservative women of faith in public office:

The bloggers say Bachmann advocated for the National Automobile Dealers Association, which is a political organization. They say that violates House franking rules, which stipulate that members can only refer readers to government resources and private groups doing public policy programs such as the Red Cross.

We believe it is of no small significance that the dealers association (N.A.D.A.) provided legal and other support to those Chrysler and GM dealers who believed they were being unfairly shut down when Obama's fascist takeover of the two automakers required the corporations to close large numbers of their dealerships.

You have to read more to get to the part about Joseph Stalin, but believe me, he's in there.

Earlier today we pointed out that to some Texans down in Corpus Christi, Michele Bachmann serves as the weather vane pointing to the next big trend in crackpot politics. But to Texans for Palin that suspect the Dems of lingering ties to Stalin, Michele is a paradigm of sanity. It seems as if the stellar state of Texas is just one big Sixth District of Minnesota, at heart...

Bachmann notorious in Texas

This one, interesting mostly because of the editorial's funny "news headline":

U.S. president turns out to be American

It’s official: Barack Obama is a native-born American. He has a vote of Congress to prove it.

Language in a resolution celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming the 50th state declares that the 44th president of the United States was born there. It passed the House unanimously with 158 Republicans voting for the measure — even Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who briefly sought to block or delay it.

So, will that quiet a silly accusation, lacking any factual basis, that has only grown in intensity since it first surfaced in the presidential campaign? That Obama was not born in the United States and thus is not really a citizen and thus is president illegally? No, but it may push it out to the lunatic fringe, where it can join other wacko conspiracy theories from the grassy knoll to 9/11 being an inside job...

The editorial was produced by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, down in Texas. It goes on to explain the whole "birther" thing to its readers. (No mention of the "deather" thing that our readers have come up with to explain Bachmann opposition to health care reform. I think that's brilliant, by the way: Bachmann as an advocate of "cradle-to-grave conspiracy.")

The point is that the editors of this newspaper expect Michele Bachmann's name to register as an "indicia of the nuttiness of an idea" even in distant, conservative Texas. That's good for the Dump Bachmann side, not bad. Every time we read her name in a non-partisan forum outside the state--allusions to kookiness are sure to be close by.

That means that our side is winning the national fight. (We weren't just a couple of years ago.) No matter how popular she is with conservatives, the rest of the world knows that she's a nut, liar, and bigot--they've seen it on video.

Our problem is and has always been the local fight, not the national one. Our problem is the election.