Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is in a league of her own. While she has some kooky and extreme colleagues in the House, no one can see what’s not there with quite the same clarity. After all, this is Michele Bachmann’s world, we just don’t live in it.
This week, Bachmann is making waves with a far-fetched, McCarthyesque conspiracy theory about “deep penetration” of the US government by the Muslim Brotherhood. She’s so far over in right field that John Boehner, John McCain, and her former campaign manager Ed Rollins – among many others – have condemned the effort. She still has Glenn Beck though.
In fact, Bachmann may be the closest thing to Glenn Beck we have in Congress. Let’s take a look at some of her previous strolls down conspiracy lane:
- Death Panels Are on the Way: Bachmann claimed that Obama’s key heath care advisor “says medical care should be reserved for the nondisabled. So watch out if you’re disabled.” “If you’re a grandmother with Parkinson’s or a child with cerebral palsy, watch out,” she continued.
- Re-Education Camps Too: Bachmann lashed out against the national service program Americorps, claiming that it was leading toward Communist-style “re-education camps for young people.”
- Census Could Lead to Concentration Camps: Speaking on Fox News, Bachmann said she refused to fully complete her census form because the government could use the data to create concentration camps, like with the Japanese internment during World War II.
- Obama Leading Us to a One-World Currency: Bachmann has raised alarm bells about Obama’s plan to “give up the dollar as our currency and we would just go with a One World currency.” She even pigeonholed a very confused Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner on the conspiracy.
- Un-American Members of Congress: Bachmann announced that she was “very concerned” that Obama “may have anti-American views” and called on the media to do a “penetrating exposé” on the members of Congress to “find out, are they pro-America or anti-America?”
- The Soviet Union Never Fell: Bachmann is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, but it doesn’t show. Last year she said Americans are concerned about “the rise of the Soviet Union,” and last month she referred to Vladimir Putin as “the Russian, Communist president.” Say what you will about Putin and Russia, but Soviet and Communist they are not.
- HPV Vaccine Causes Mental Retardation: Following one of the countless GOP presidential debates, then-candidate Bachmann told Fox News that there are “very dangerous consequences” to using a popular, safe and effective HPV vaccine. She recklessly passed along this anecdote: “There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result of that vaccine. There are very dangerous consequences.
- Obama Is Intentionally Making Americans Poor: Bachmann knows why most Americans have seen their incomes go down. It’s not the tough economy that Obama inherited, and it’s not tax cuts for the wealth. No, it’s “all attributable directly to Barack Obama’s principles.” It’s not “by accident we’re seeing people struggling and we’re seeing redistribution of wealth,” she said.
I could go on, but you get the point – Bachmann is a true-believer. Unlike some of her colleages, she’s not just saying this stuff for tactical advantage. She drinks the Kool-Aid and loves how it tastes. What remains to be seen is whether she’ll finally lose her perch on the Intelligence committee.
