by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
To be sure, there is no shortage of nuts in the United States Congress. But one Congressional nut in particular is so much goofier than her colleagues that she deserves special recognition.
Michelle Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota, is serving her second term in Congress. With any luck at all it will be her last.
Congressman Bachmann, a Christian fundamentalist who rose to political heights by terrorizing local school boards and promoting the teaching of
creationism in private and public schools, is either dumber than a stump, too dense to be embarrassed by her strange pronouncements, or she has no shame - or, more likely, a combination of all three.
She made a splash in the national news last year when she told Chris Matthews on
Hardball that certain politicians, including Presidential candidate Obama, did not appear to be good Americans. That Palinesque remark helped her opponent to raise a pile of money at the last moment, and almost cost her the election.
A few weeks ago Ms. Bachmann displayed her ignorance of history when she compared the current economic mess to the Great Depression of the 1930's. She talked about how the "roaring 20's" were great years presided over by Republicans (Coolidge and Hoover), and the economy went into the crapper in the 1930's due to Franklin Roosevelt and his support for the Hoot-Smalley (sic) Tariff.
It was actually the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, named after the two Republicans who drafted it, and it came into effect under the Hoover administration. Herbert Hoover was President of the United States when the economy tanked. It was the Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, who was able to roll up his sleeves and get to work fixing things. He proposed a strong economic program that included a national jobs effort (WPA), retirement insurance for older Americans (Social Security), and insurance for money kept in public banks (FDIC).
Nice try, Michelle.
Then a few days ago she started rattling nonsense about swine flu, saying that the last time there was an outbreak was in the 1970's when Jimmy Carter, also a Democrat, was President. She thought, for some strange reason, that the virus was related to the U.S. Presidency and the particular party that happened to be in power. That's silly enough on its face, but to make it worse, she was wrong about who was President during the last swine flu outbreak. It was Gerald Ford, a Republican!
Michelle, I suggest that you call your good friend and fundraiser, George Bush, and ask him how to use the Google.
Now, Congressman Bachmann, has gone on the record saying that the upcoming census is too invasive, and that her family will only provide the number of people in the family - nothing more. She said that by law that's all that has to be provided.
Wrong. The fine for not answering all census questions is $5,000.
Michelle, if you are going to break the law anyway and answer only the questions of which you approve, why not double down and not even fill out your census form at all? In fact, if enough of your constituents would do the same - your seat could be eliminated and reassigned to someplace like California or Vermont where where the voters would be much more likely to select someone with at least a hint of a brain.
But if your seat is not eliminated and you file for a third term, you can count on me to send in a campaign contribution - to your opponent! To do less would be clearly unpatriotic.
