Tracking Minnesota Politics Since 2005
How are they going to explain this one? From El Tinklenberg:
With record unemployment, real wages declining, and living expenses and fuel costs strangling budgets, more families than ever are relying on credit cards to make ends meet. The average American family now has nearly $10,000 of credit card debt, and most of their interest rates already seem like highway robbery. It just makes sense to ensure that consumers are protected from abusive rate increases and interest charges.
Last week we found out that Michele Bachmann was in the process of moving in the middle of her attempt to get reelected.
Today, the Pioneer Press’ Dennis Lien had a post that indicated that Bachmann’s campaign had no comment. It has since changed:
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is selling her Stillwater house and moving south to the Woodbury area, her office confirmed Monday morning.
“The congresswoman is putting her house up for sale and will be moving to the Woodbury area, of course still in the district,” Bachmann press secretary Stephen Miller said.
No big deal, right? Wrong. Woodbury happens to be in the farthest little corner of CD6. Not only is it even farther away from Saint Cloud, it’s a stone’s throw from both the current CD4 and CD2. Is someone preparing for redistricting?
As the Minnesota Independent reports (quoting abridged, see link for full story):
Rep. Michele Bachmann slammed Congressional Democrats for not passing tax credits for solar and wind energy.
BACHMANN: They’re so strange Laura, they won’t even pass the tax credit for solar and wind right now. I mean, they claim to be the big solar/wind people, they won’t even pass that.
The Democrats did pass such a bill in the House, but without Bachmann’s help. In May, before her newfound campaign issue, she voted against it.
The Saint Cloud Times published a detailed letter to the editor contrasting Bachmann’s words to Bachmann’s record. It concludes:
So when Bachmann embarks on the campaign trail touting her newfound support for renewable energy and conservation, tune out the sound bites and examine her voting record instead.
It will tell you a whole lot more about Bachmann’s energy policies than her recent smoke-screen tour facilitated by the White House.
MPR’s Palinaut reports that Bachmann will be on Larry King Live tonight. I wonder if she’ll accuse Democrats of doing things they didn’t do but she did.
Editor’s Note: This diary has been promoted from the new MNpublius Diaries page. This is the third of nine articles in Jeff’s Daily Liberal Mapping Project. These articles examine Minnesota’s voting patterns precinct by precinct, with data from the 2006 election. Perhaps you missed my analysis of CD8 and CD7?
In this edition of the Daily Liberal Mapping Project, we finally get to a race with a serious Congressional campaign — the 6th Congressional District. CD6 is the former district of Republican Mark Kennedy and currently held by Republican Michele Bachmann. Elwyn Tinklenberg, a moderate Democrat, is challenging Bachmann for the seat. RealClearPolitics recently called Bachmann one of the most endangered representatives in the country, and but CD6’s conservative voting patterns mean a tough race for Tinklenberg. Handicapper Stuart Rothenberg labels the race “favored Republican”.
Continue reading ‘Precinct by precinct: Hope for Tinklenberg in CD6 [promoted diary]’
Earlier today, we noted the emerging scandal surrounding an R rated fundraiser in Las Vegas and how the money it generated trickled down to Erik Paulsen and Michele Bachmann. The DCCC has gotten into the act, sending out a release slamming Paulsen and Bachmann for their hyprocrisy.
“Michele Bachmann and Erik Paulsen have spent their entire careers pushing an extreme right-wing agenda that has been out-of-touch with the views of everyday Minnesotans. Yet at the same time as they say they are pro-family, they take money raised from Casino owners partying at a strip club,” said Carrie James, regional press secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “The hypocrisy of this is astounding– a do as I say, not as I do approach to leadership.”
If Paulsen and Bachmann keep their stripper money, it will seriously undermine their credibility for the rest of the campaign.
Boy, Minnesota Republicans are taking money from all sorts of shady characters. First you have Norm Coleman and the Stevens/VECO stuff (Aaron has been all over that story). Now, it turns out that Erik Paulsen and Michele Bachmann have taken thousands of dollars in contributions linked to…wait for it…a strip club.
The story starts with Texas Congressman Pete Sessions. Dump Michele Bachmann has the details:
Pete Sessions (R) from Texas and his leadership PAC, People for Enterprise, Trade, & Economic Growth (PETEPAC) held a little party at a Las Vegas “Club” back in March of this year…
This is how the club’s owner, Ivan Kane, describes his brand of burlesque.
Ivan Kane: The key component would be to have girls who were dancers taking their clothes off, not just girls taking their clothes off.
Classy.
PETEPAC has contributed $5,000 to Erik Paulsen and $2,500 to Michele Bachmann. As DMB points out, the hypocrisy here is rather striking. Minnesota Republicans make a big stink about some jokes Al Franken told and then they go out and actually exploit women to raise money. Way to go guys.
With the race up in CD6 heating up, the excitement surrounding the Tinklenberg is cautiously growing. I think everyone has already heard the conventional wisdom on this race: Michele Bachmann is a total crazy running for reelection in a year that is awful for Republicans and even worse for Bush Republicans (the only person who’s gotten closer to Bush than Michele is Laura) but Bachmann has a hold on the 6th that is tough to beat. It seems counter intuitive to suppose that such a right-wing maniac is secure in her seat in a year like this, but Bachmann, for all her faults, has done a fairly good job of convincing the 6th that she’s their crazy, and sometimes that’s what counts.
This race, however, should not be discounted. Sure, El would probably be a Congressman if he had won the endorsement in ‘06, and it’s tougher running against an incumbent, but this is a worse year for Republicans than even ‘06 was and El’s a strong candidate now for all the same reasons he was then. Plus, as Grow points out on MinnPost.com today:
Recall, Bachmann defeated Patty Wetterling by 8 percentage points, 50 to 42. BUT there was a third candidate in the race, John Binkowski, of the Independence Party, who picked up 7.8 percent of the vote. This time around, the IPs endorsed Tinklenberg.
When you add Wetterling’s 127,144 votes and Binkowski’s 23,557 votes, Bachmann won the district by just 548 votes.
“Surely there are 548 people who have gone beyond the notion that everything is free,” said Tinklenberg.
This is just getting started…
Looks like Michele Bachmann won’t have the same relationship with John McCain that she had with George Bush.
Swanson was one of those who got the microphone last night and asked McCain, a fellow former naval officer, what he thought about U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s plan to reduce gas prices to $2 per gallon.
McCain raised his eyebrows in surprise and said, “I eagerly look forward to seeing that. I’ll try to read it tonight.”
It wasn’t entirely clear that he knew who Bachmann was, although he expressed his admiration for her. McCain is opposed to drilling in Alaska, one of the tenets of the Bachmann proposal. He said that in the end, the only way we can force down prices is to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
I have trouble believing this actually happened:
Politico: You’re doing a handful of rising-gas-price press conferences this weekend. What’s your take? What are your solutions?
Bachmann: It’s the No. 1 issue we may hear about from people back home… . As a matter of fact, in the parade we were at last weekend, people were shouting from the sidelines: “Drill in ANWR! Drill in ANWR!” One woman was sitting in one of those lawn chairs, and she had a piece of cardboard, and she had written on it, “Down with global warming freaks.” I mean, these people are just ready to find someone to shake and say, “Help me with my gas prices.”
Chanting “Drill in ANWR?” Really?
Americans United for Change unveiled a new ad today skewering Congresswoman Michele Bachmann once again for continuing to vote against SCHIP proposals. For those who don’t know, SCHIP stands for “State Children’s Healthcare Insurance Program” and would get 3+ million kids off the uninsured rolls. The plan is relatively cheap due to the low cost of insuring kids. Some might say that we have a moral imperative as a modern nation to insure the health of our innocents, but then again some say this is a back-door to bringing Stalin back from the dead and instating him as the Dictator-for-life of the Union of American Socialist States… I’m going to go with the moral imperative side.
Take a look:
Other facts:
Congresswoman Bachmann voted against Children’s Health Insurance. [HR 976, Vote #906, 9/25/07; passed 265-157]
Congresswoman Bachmann refused to overturn Bush’s veto. [HR 976, Vote #982, 10/18/07; failed 273-156]
Congresswoman Bachmann voted against a revised SCHIP bill. [HR 3963, Vote #1009, 10/25/07; passed 265-142]
Give her a call if you’re into getting sick kids medicine: 320-253-5931
Given her undying support for the President and his war, her opposition to giving kids healthcare, and her penchant for calling on media outlets to pull items that illustrate those two points I though I should draw her attention to this Sack cartoon:
Personally (as always), I think it does a nice job of illustrating two truths.
Michele Bachmann is feeling the heat over her vote against SCHIP. Americans United For Change is running this ad urging Bachmann to vote for the veto override later this week.
The thing is, its possible that Michele didn’t mean to vote against SCHIP. The House voting machine has befuddled her before.
Unfortunatley for Minnesota and the nation, this time Michele meant to vote the way she did. She defended her indefensible vote in a Strib op-ed last week.
Yet another reason to replace her with El Tinklenberg.
The woman is a non-stop embarrassment. Eric Black has the goods:
When a bill strengthening the independence of the inspectors general offices of the executive branch flew through the House last week by a vote of 404-11, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-MN, was one of the 11 “nay” votes.
She later inserted into the Congressional Record a brief statement indicating that she had meant to vote “aye.”
Her brief statement, which you’ll find at the bottom of page H11203 of the Congressional Record, reads:
“Mrs. Bachmann: Mr. Speaker, on rollcall vote 937, I was recorded as “nay.” It was my intention to have voted “yea.” I would like the RECORD to reflect my support of H.R. 928.”
Whoops. I guess those damn voting machines can be confusing, with their three buttons and all.
Black has contacted the Kissymonster’s office to find out what caused her to change her mind after the vote, but my guess is that he’ll never hear back. Those of us with long memories recall that Bachmann’s current Press Secretary, Heidi Fredrickson, instituted a ban on communication with Black when he was at the Strib and she was working for Mark Kennedy.
Anyway, I have my own theory as to why Bachmann changed her vote. Its all part of her secret plan…
It would appear that George Bush is a bigger threat to the institution of marriage than the homosexuals.
“The President and I enjoy a great relationship. When he was, when he and I were back visiting the collapsed bridge, he reached over because he wanted to give me a kiss when we were down at the site and I had pulled back and he said ‘What’? you know, “you don’t want to embrace?’ and I said, you know, the people of Minnesota love you, Mr. President, but I think one kiss was enough.”
This was Bachmann on the Dave Lee show on WCCO this morning. You can find audio of the whole interview here.
I think Michele Bachmann is claiming that George Bush has a secret plan to win her heart.
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