First of all: an issue that's tailor-made for "Michele Bachmann, White House aspirations demagogue":
Bachmann backs "God" at Capitol
Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are ganging up to block a lawsuit seeking to scrub "In God We Trust" from the wall of the new Capitol Visitors Center.
In all, 41 House Republicans have signed onto to an amicus brief opposing an attempt by the Madison, Wisc.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation to remove the inscription, which also includes the words "one nation under God."
That's from Politico. Notice how Bachmann gets top billing in the headline, not the supposedly senior Boehner or Cantor. (The publicity strategy is working, working...) (continued)
This one's right up Bachmann's alley. You wouldn't know it from reading the plethora of media profiles on her these days (including one from New Zealand!) but Bachmann's core strength is not the Glenn Beck teabaggers (who love her) but the national religious right (which has been instrumental in her astonishing rise for at least nine years.)
Bachmann thinks: "You want to take "In God We Trust" off the wall? Then I will tell people that you are persecuting Christians, and it doesn't matter how small your group is or how unpopular that opinion is: I will present this as a key issue in American politics, I will include all Democrats and liberals and progressives as signing on to your opinion and describe you as a threat to the very foundations of America. And thank you very much for this publicity opportunity--it's another political career goldmine for a demagogue like me."
Of course separation of church and state is a core issue for some people. They can see the constitutional issue here very clearly. Unfortunately for those of us who think that demagoguery is crap politics, the political payoff on this one will be shelled out to conservative alarmists and demagogues, not people who believe in separation of church and state. The masterminds behind this protest are Jay Sekulow's ACLJ, which broadcasts on evangelical radio stations around the country, defending us from these liberal "attacks" on Christianity.
Here's the link:
http://www.politico.com/...
Interesting speculation by Eric Ostermeier over at Smart Politics on a possible Senate face off between Bachmann and Senator Al Franken.
(Disclosure: Eric Ostermeier is one of the many, many Minnesota political journalists I have "had words with" regarding coverage of the Bachmann phenomenon.
In Eric's case, the issue was his penchant to attach headlines to his Bachmann coverage that would gladden the heart of Bachmann campaign staff. You know, stuff about how her supporters are just 'grass roots," "regular folks." They're not, they're angry proto-fascists who believe that the president of the United States is a tyrant and is leading the country into economic Marxism.
So I don't think that Eric and SmartPolitics should be describing such voters as "grass roots, regular folks." At least two of his headlines could be pulled right off the SmartPolitics website by the Bachmann campaign as evidence of widespread support for her crazy agenda.)
Eric Ostermeier is a "numbers" guy. He doesn't really examine the truth of Bachmann's extemist claims or the nature of her agenda--he reports the latest numbers on her, as far as whether it's a good thing to have extremists in government: he seems to have no opinion at all.
But he's written a piece about the numbers, so he's right at home here.
Ostermeier's text here is a Rasmussen poll that supposedly shows that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's Minnesota voter approval rating is comparable to that of Senator Al Franken. (It depends on reading the exact wording of the poll findings, which I suggest you do for yourself. The link is below.)
To Ostermeier, this suggests a possible future matchup between Franken and Bachmann for a Senate seat. To many political bloggers here in Minnesota, a Bachmann for Senate campaign seemed unthinkable: they dismissed Bachmann as kook and weirdo with no appeal outside the very conservative 6th district.
Only a few months ago, I wrote that Bachmann could not win in a race for governor or senate "at this writing." And I think I was right, at that time. But it is no longer "at this writing," and the Rasmussen poll is in. If you believe the Rasmussen findings, it's clear that Bachmann's "national" conservative strategy (based on television and broadcast appearances) are now influencing voters here in Minnesota--not just in her district.
Of course, some Minnesota politics watchers will try to dismiss the findings by dismissing Rassmussen (for conservative bias.) But I find it easy to believe that Bachmann could now be scoring in the Franken range here in Minnesota for two reasons:
- Bachmann has national forces behind her, as I have been pointing out since 2003. They are very powerful national forces with sophisticated political strategists, their own media, and their own on the ground political organizations here in Minnesota. My liberal and progressive colleagues regularly underestimate Bachmann as a political force because they just don't want to deal with that reality. And the professional media here in Minnesota has never reported on that reality (they think it would "get them in trouble" or something)--so people who depend on our professional political reporting here in the state remain clueless about her real strength.
- The second reason that Bachmann is showing strong is more obvious: she's breaking the rules about how you build a following as a Congressman. The traditional wisdom states that you build a secure base in your district by using your vote in Congress to "deliver for the district" (jobs, local economy, bringing in business, etc.) and by staying close to your constiuency--taking its political temperature, staying on top of local issues.
The strategy of Bachmann and her political mentors doesn't depend on that traditional wisdom at all. Bachmann doesn't stay close to her constituents--her district is deeply divided and her telephone conferences with voters screen out constituents with tough questions. She hasn't delivered any significant legislation in all her years in politics, she hasn't repealed any significant legislation. She doesn't deliver for the district; indeed she came into office promising not to deliver for the district, and the district's economy has suffered as a result. (This year it still had the highest home foreclosure rate in Minnesota.)
But she thrives, despite that, building a national (not just local) constituency. The old rules don't apply, if you've got the hierarchy of the national evangelical right behind you--plus a presence on conservative broadcasting that is regularly mentioned in the same breath as Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.
And Bachmann has a conservative voting record that is entirely heartless--that endears her to the Club for Growth and the Taxpayers' League and all those business Republican organizations that survive the conservative election debacle.
So there you go: if you've got those, the basis of your success is national (based on media, conservative rhetoric, and promotion and not actual achievement) and you can safely ignore your district. So it's paying off--a "media alone" candidacy can work, for right wing conservative demagoguery will see you through and carry you up, up, up into the Sarah Palin fame.
You think that this doesn't really matter, because Sarah Palin's candidacy imploded? Oh, you poor kid.
Here's the SmartPolitics article on a possible Franken/Bachmann matchup in the future (thanks, Chris):
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/...
Here's the original article about the Rasmussen poll (yeah, I know, Rasmussen stinks except on election day, they're doing conservative spadework, but I don't find it hard to believe that there are still a lot of conservatives in Minnesota):
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/...