Bachmann's Money Machine Doesn't Make Her A Presidential Contender

But her latest contradiction shows how badly she wants to run

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's war chest had a great first quarter. Between the $1.7 million raised for her re-election and another half-a-million from a political action committee, the leader of the Tea Party Caucus finished ahead of every presumptive Republican presidential contender in fundraising for the first three months of 2011. And it shouldn't be surprising. She won re-election last year after raising $13.5 million, more than any other candidate for the House last season.

The Daily Mail wants to make out with her

As a quick aside, The Daily Mail ran the Bachmann fundraising story with this headline:

The lede and the first few grafs set up a story about how all other presidential hopefuls, including the President himself, should start preparing to tangle with her in 2012. But the story they deliver is that Obama -- who raised $1.5 million at a single fundraiser last week, has several similar events planned in the next few months, and raised $750 million in his 2008 campaign -- probably won't lose a money fight with Bachmann, if she runs in 2012.

But I digress. Where the Daily Mail failed, The Christian Science Monitor succeeded in explaining what exactly will determine whether she runs and how successful she will be if she does.

On the minus side for Bachmann, she has a fairly thin political resume... She can be polarizing. And she has a tendency to misspeak... Still, she has nothing to lose by running for president, analysts say. She can liven up the debates and carry a torch for the small-government, low-tax tea party movement. And if she falls short of the nomination, she can still run for reelection to the House. “She will be a well-funded candidate; that isn’t her problem,” says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. “Her problem is that most Republicans are going to understand that if they nominate her, they have a small chance of winning in November.”

Her staunch opposition to President Obama makes her a logical choice to run against him in 2012. Her fundraising abilities make that a possibility. But her chances of actually beating him, even if she puts up a really good fight, seem insurmountably slim -- unless you write headlines for The Daily Mail.

But the real reason I chose to write about Bachmann today is the speech she gave at a Tea Party Express rally a few days ago. It was at the Robert A. Taft Memorial on Capitol Hill. Don't feel ashamed that you don't know who that is. He was the son of President William Howard Taft, but that's not why he got a memorial. Seventy years ago Taft, a Republican Senator from Ohio, was a conservative poster-boy who earned his bona fides by opposing the New Deal.  Bonus Trivia: The "A." stands for Alphonso.

But Taft really represented the same kind of conservatism embraced by Bachmann and her Tea Party supporters. So the location was apropos, the audience was friendly and the mood was just right for one of Bachmann's trademark contradictions to get ample applause and the odd whistle. And it also illustrates just how much she wants to run against Obama, or at least "Obamacare."

She promised to vote against any budget proposal that doesn't defund the healthcare reform law, a vote which in effect is a vote in favor of a government shutdown, and then warned the crowd that if government were to grind to a halt over the budget, the Democrats would try to blame the Tea Party for causing it. She's playing "a cynical game," hoping for a shutdown and then blaming the other side, while preemptively accusing the other side of doing the same. And the crowd loved her for it.

"They want to shut the government down and they want to turn you into their scapegoat and say it's the Tea Party's fault for shutting the government down.... They're afraid of you because you're powerful," she said.

The eight minute video of Bachmann's speech is posted below. Most of the good stuff is in the last minute and a half, so I encourage you to listen to at least that much of it.

Angle-ing for a House Seat...she's baa-aaack

Tea Party darling Sharron Angle

I'm tempted to ponder the merits of enforcing a no-fly-zone over Lybia, whether President Obama was right to commit U.S. troops to battle without asking Congress for permission, and whether "Odyssey Dawn" is a cool name for a military action -- but that's foreign policy talk, which is just a little outside my bailiwick. Plus, those are difficult subjects to tackle, and I feel like going after the low hanging fruit.

It's easy to squeeze out a few hundred words about Reno Republican Sharron Angle, who announced this week that she'll be running for a Nevada House seat in 2012. You remember Angle. Just a few months ago she went toe-to-toe with heavyweight Harry Reid and managed to stay on her feet with the Tea Party movement in her corner.

Angle punches above her political weight class. At best, she's a bantamweight fighter, but she isn't afraid to get in the ring with the big boys. And she talks trash. She told Harry Reid to "man up." I like that about her. But that's as close to praise as I'd like to get. Mostly, I see Angle as a necessary evil of American politics. But before I get into that, take 90 seconds and watch this announcement video posted by Angle's campaign this week:

This announcement, along with Angle's other campaign communications, represent the bulk of what mainstream media outlets get directly from the candidate. She's more comfortable on right-wing radio programs, where the hosts are friendly and the audiences are receptive to her brand of conservatism. When Nevada newspapers write about Angle it's often about something she said on the radio. It's not surprising. She's right to believe that most newspaper and television journalists are suspicious of, and even hostile to, her policy positions. The stances she has taken deserve scrutiny, perhaps most importantly because they are so polarizing. The following is a list of the choicest cuts:

• She opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest
• Given her 'druthers, Angle would dismantle the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service
• She wants to end Social Security and Medicare and has referred to both programs as "welfare"
• The Constitution does not require the separation of church and state, if you believe her
• If it were up to Angle, the U.S. would withdraw from the United Nations

Then, of course, there are outrageous claims Angle made during her campaign against Reid last year, such as her assertion that the 9/11 hijackers entered the U.S. through Canada, that sharia law is "taking hold" in Dearborn, Mich. and Frankford, Texas, and those cryptic comments about Second Amendment "remedies," that some folks interpreted as a call to armed revolution.

I mention all that so I can say no matter how repugnant her policy positions may be, and however foolish -- even dangerous -- her gaffes might have been during the last year's campaign, it's basically a good thing that American politics has polarizing candidates like Angle. They're a necessary component of the basic dynamics of the whole system.

First, they're perfect targets for politicians on the other side of the aisle. If not for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (and Obama), who would the conservatives have singled out as enemies of of the electorate last year? If not for John Boehner and Paul Ryan, who would the left be squealing about now?

Second, as fringe candidates they promote centrism within their own parties, by giving their contemporaries extreme points of view to distance themselves from and ludicrous comments to "refutiate." 

Finally, they give journalists, pundits and bloggers something easy to talk about. Imagine if I had waded into that whole Libya thing.

Revenge of the Nerds at CPAC

Last year's Conservative Political Action Conference confused and frightened me a little. A radical conservative organization that supports equal rights for gays, and a far-right group that has advocated pulling the United States out of the United Nations co-sponsored the conference. The right-wing establishment was openly accepting support from the freaks and geeks way past the fringes of its rank and file. GOP stalwarts of a more traditional bent were naturally nervous, but instead of being glad to see the mainstream movement open its arms to the underground, I too had a sinking feeling.

The religious right was turned off by the queers, and neo-conservatives twitched just thinking about a U.N. dominated by any country but America. Republicans of my father's generation thought these "conservatives" were too socially progressive to be in the club. Meanwhile I worried that these "social progressives" were conservative wolves in rainbow colored sheep's clothes. Bleating "Don't tread on me!" and driving the herd further to the right. At last year's conference the CPAC gurus also honored the Tea Party movement by linking it Ronald Reagan's legacy. The political right was getting more conservative, which makes me grit my teeth.

So this year when I Googled CPAC, I covered my eyes with one hand and peeked through two fingers like a kid watching a slasher movie as I hit return. But I must be desensitized now. Instead of being horrified I'm thrilled to report that the handsome, although slightly cross-eyed, devil pictured above in the skull and crossbones neck kerchief is running for Senate. That's Maine blogger, musician, novelist, and nerd Andrew Ian Dodge.

Dodge, a self-proclaimed "rocker" writes cheesy conservative anthems with titles like "Cry Freedom" which includes the catchy refrain "Don't let the bastards drag you down!," sung with 80s hair-band flair and accompanied by the guitar rhythm associated with the genre. And what follows is a description of one of his novels from Amazon.com:

The year is 2034. Power lies in Europe with the bureaucrats in Brussels and London is the centre for the Western Provinces.

The Supremo Manipulator of this conglomerate of nations is Pius. With no religious connections and a diminishing hold on power the Union is sustained by nepotism, violence and musical chairs of political appointees. The disintegration of the Union is imminent.

Rob, an English tech nerd together with his accomplice David, have to use their cyborg intelligence to survive in this oppressive Euro society in the Western Provinces. The assassination of Teresa, Rob's girlfriend, and a busload of tourists along with the murder of a Czech student at Hull European University, provide the catalyst for Rob and David's dangerous involvement. Together with their minders, Michaela and Kiara, they head full speed into their deadly adventure. Death is catching.

With a touch of humor, a satirical political edge, characters that you come to know well and a flowing writing style take the reader through a techno-thriller deep into the 21st century. We see the ambivalence of the revolutionaries, who never intended serious action, faced with orders to destroy and kill. Europe will never be the same again ...

I can't make this stuff up. This Tea Party affiliate, who announced his Senate run against Olympia Snowe at the conference, actually got a "permit" from the local delegation for Snowe removal. I'll leave it to more witty punsters to say whether Dodge has snoweball's chance in hell. And I probably won't be following his campaign, but I hope The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was paying attention to CPAC this year. Because whatever his political future, Dodge is ripe for parody.