The Christian Right claims to represent God’s moral agenda in American politics. The Tea Party claims its candidates will return integrity to government. Anyone who is intimidated, energized, or appalled by these claims ought to read the pdf documents at the link below. (It’s a collection of evidence related to the recent Heki v. Bachmann lawsuit, posted online by the Iowa Republican.)
http://theiowarepublican.com/...
In these documents former "Bachmann For President" campaign staffers Barb Heki and Pastor Peter Waldron (and others) detail allegations of serious misconduct by Michele Bachmann and some of her senior staffers during and after her presidential campaign. Heki and her husband sued Bachmann and some of those senior staffers and consultants, accusing them of making the Hekis victims of "libel and slander, invasion of privacy, computer trespass, conspiracy, etc." (There's also a criminal charge of theft being investigated by local police in Iowa.)
It's fortunate that these documents survive. Because Bachmann (or one of her allies) apparently managed to settle the Heki lawsuit at the very last minute, "making it go away." This stopped a public trial, circulation of testimony by the press…and thus stopped the very serious damage that would have done to Michele Bachmann’s credibility with her national and local political base.
But we still have access to the ethics complaint and to some of the records used to initiate the lawsuit. These Bachmann insider accounts suggest that practices like "conspiracy, theft, defamation, etc." were condoned and in some cases carried out by Michele Bachmann and some of her senior personnel...and carried out as part of running a Republican Tea Party/Christian Right presidential candidacy. This is very instructive and entertaining reading.
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But why should you bother to read forty-one pages of court documents about a right wing demagogue, if conventional political wisdom says she's "over?" Why read this file concerning Michele Bachmann, who's since announced that she won't seek re-election?
Well -- because this pdf file will be very useful in the future: useful to any citizen or activist who wants to challenge the leadership claims coming from the American Right.
Any voter or author or activist who's longed for reliable behind-the-scenes evidence of the ethics of Tea Party candidates... anyone who's ever sought reliable evidence of the day-to-day morality actually practiced by the Christian Right and its leaders... will find that evidence in these documents.
It's lurid. If this file was a cheap 1960s exploitation film, the ad lines in the movie trailer would be something like:
"You will see: a Tea Party candidacy... throwing its own live supporters under the bus!"
"You will see: the strange and weird morality actually practiced by a conservative hero and her minions... a morality very different from Christian, scripture-based morality they preach to deluded volunteers, voters, and small donors!"
Of course if you're a Kos fan it's unlikely that you ever had any respect for the integrity of the Christian Right or the Tea Party. Even so: you can use the documents at the link when you find yourself engaging any individual who continues to advocate on their behalf. (That individual may be a friend or a relative, an acquaintance or a co-worker...or a political opponent...or a potential voter.)
I've found that people who are convinced of the trustworthiness of the Christian Right, the Tea Party, and their spokespeople are unlikely to be persuaded "by this or that author; by this or that print article." They dismiss that sort of stuff as liberal or secular propaganda -- no matter how well-founded the evidence; no matter how objective the presentation.
But in the brief pages of the Heki v. Bachmann file we have damning testimony from right wing insiders-- from campaign staffers employed by and close to Michele Bachmann, one of the leading lights of both the Christian Right and the Tea Party. Any persons with more than half a brain who read these pages will be have to concede -- if only to themselves -- that faith in the morality of the Christian Right or the political judgment of the Tea Party movement is absurd.
Readers will be forced to that conclusion because these papers evidence behind-the-scenes policies condoned by a wildly successful hero of both of these conservative "reform" movements, a hero who was then operating at the height of her national influence and support. At the time in question leaders of the Christian Right and Tea Party had been promoting Michele Bachmann as a political role model and hero for years. The Christian Right had been publicly endorsing Bachmann's character and personal morality (without qualification) for nearly a decade, via their local and then national media and activist venues.
But the picture of Bachmann character presented by these campaign staffers is positively Nixonian. So here we have proof to persuade even the most fervent supporters. The Christian Right -- and the Tea Party -- enthusiastically promoted a politician and political team that lied, deceived, and covered up as a matter of ongoing policy. Faced with that fact: what responsible person would continue to trust in the opinion and counsel of the Tea Party or Christian Right?
Some would object that this evidence comes from "disgruntled former employees" and is therefore suspect. But that objection fails. Because Michele Bachmann herself has vouched for the character, integrity and trustworthiness of the chief complainant (as soon as she ended the lawsuit.)
I hope you will copy the file, read it, and then pass it along to interested parties. It's shorter (and better) than a lot of comic novels about American politics--"a presidential campaign in Republican Iowa...claiming to represent Jesus Christ and true Christianity in American politics, but run by Dr. Strangelove."
Here is the LINK, again:
http://theiowarepublican.com/...
Post script:
This is my first post about Bachmann on the Kos in a long time. I began cross-posting regular "Bachmann update" diaries here at the Kos after she entered Congress in 2007, because I believed at that time that she was positioned to become a national player in conservative politics. And I was researching, writing, and publishing on the subject of Michele Bachmann and her batshit politics in various forums since about 2003, long before her rise to national prominence (Michele and I lived in the same small town in Minnesota; the one where she began her political career in 1999.)
I still post about Bachmann regularly on the Minnesota Progressive Project blog--but I stopped cross-posting "Bachmann update" items to the Kos after she lost most of her significance as a national political force and announced that wouldn't seek re-election to Congress.
For reasons I explained in the diary above, I'm back today to direct you to this link to the Waldron complaint and the Heki v. Bachmann file. As I say, these will be useful in rebutting claims of superior judgment coming from Tea Party figures; claims of moral authority coming from the Christian Right. These continue to haunt American politics even as Michele Bachmann's career nadirs.