ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - Thursday night, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party filed a petition with the Minnesota Supreme Court to remove Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence from the Minnesota ballot. The DFL claims Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon shouldn’t have accepted the Republican Party's "certificate of nomination" last month because they didn’t follow proper procedure when alternate electors were nominated.
"It is apparent that clear errors occurred in the Republican process of selecting alternative electors for getting Donald Trump on the Minnesota ballot," said DFL Chair Ken Martin, who filed the petition. "It is incumbent upon political parties to follow the rules binding our elections and in this instance it does not appear that the Minnesota Republican Party did so."
According to the petition: “the State Republican Party’s leadership ignored state law. Specifically, on August 24, 2-16, the State Republican Party Executive Committee met to select and approve alternate presidential electors itself. This process, however, did not occur at a State Convention.”
Michelle Goldberg's Daily Beast/Newsweek piece on Michele Bachmann's history and faith -- a strain of born-againism associated with crackpot history, opposition to science, and virulent intolerance of gays and lesbians -- shows precisely how out-there Bachmann is, even though the congresswoman these days pretends to be run-of-the-mill hard-right-winger. (Yes, her current extremism represents a moderation of her former incarnation.)
The piece begins with a wonderful recounting of the time she accused lesbians of kidnapping her and holding her hostage in a bathroom, because some ladies were talking to her. Minnesotans may know much of this already, but people familiar with Bachmann only from liberal blogs or cable news are missing the evangelical extremism that informs her every public statement. She talks like Ron Paul now, but she's Pat Robertson at heart. Her spiritual influences and advisors explicitly advocate theocracy and are obviously responsible for her garbled and twisted impression of American history.
A couple of newsy bits: Her 23 foster kids, a topic she mentions all the time? She doesn't ever go into detail about how many she has or had at any time, or for how long she fostered them:
Bachmann often says she has "raised" 23 foster children. That may be a bit of a stretch. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Bachmann's license, which she had for 7 1/2 years, allowed her to care for up to three children at a time. According to Kris Harvieux, a former senior social worker in the foster-care system in Bachmann's county, some placements were almost certainly short term. "Some of them you have for a week. Some of them you have for three years, some you have for six months," says Harvieux, who also served as a foster parent herself. "She makes it sound like she got them at birth and raised them to adulthood, but that's not true."
It's likely that her husband's clinic is at least in part dedicated to "curing" gay people:
Both she and her husband, by all accounts her most trusted political adviser, believe that homosexuality can be cured. Speaking to a Christian radio station about gay teenagers last year, Marcus, who treats gay people in his counseling practice, said, "Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined, and just because someone feels this or thinks this, doesn't mean that we're supposed to go down that road."
This is the beyond-the-pale stuff that makes Bachmann so, so much worse than Sarah Palin, to whom she is regularly compared.
Bachmann has also lied about her own family's support for her anti-gay activism. Members of her extended family have written letters to Minnesota papers criticizing her, without identifying themselves as being related to her.
Just seven days separate us from the midterm elections, and at long last, we’ll get to watch Democratic-Farm-Labor (DFL) challenger Tarryl Clark (and Independence Party candidate Bob Anderson) take the fight to Tea Party-backed incumbent Michele Bachmann. The Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District hopefuls will debate today at 12:30 p.m. in St. Cloud.
Campaigning is supposed to be a debating of ideas between two candidates. But in Minnesota, incumbent Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and her challenger, state Sen. Tarryl Clark, have other people debating for them.
And they're all named Jim.
The first volly started with "Jim the Election Guy," a Bachmann-created spokeman who introduced us to Bachmann's challenger, whom he dubbed "Taxin' Tarryl."
"I'm just getting started, but one thing's obvious. Tarryl Clark LOVES taxes!" Jim quips.
Clark responded with her own Jim. Actually, with three of them, all voters within the district.
"What would Michele Bachmann know about balancing budgets anyway?" asked one of the Jims. "She spends 100,000's of taxpayer dollars promoting herself and her agenda!" they all explain.
Bachmann's campaign then fired back with a new ad, this time using one of Minnesota's most beloved traditions -- the Minnesota State Fair:
"It's state fair time, and you don't want to hear about politics. But while you're at the fair you should know that Tarryl Clark voted to raise taxes on your corndog, and your deep fried bacon, and your beer," Jim claims.
Bachmann's second video not only got tongues wagging and the media reporting (although sadly they were reporting more about her misuse of the State Fair logo, a copyright infringement), it also provided an opening for the other Jims to return.
"While you are at the state fair, you should know that Michele Bachmann released another attack ad this week against Tarryl Clark," state the Jims. "I guess when you've got no record of accomplishment to run on, nothing, zip, nada, after being in congress for four years, the only thing you can do is go negative."
On the one hand, "Jims the Actual Voters" make a sort of fun counterpoint to "Jim the Election Guy," rebutting him at every turn. But on the other side is a larger problem for the Clark campaign -- Bachmann's Jim is on the airwaves, and Clark's Jims are simply talking on her website and youtube. It doesn't matter how clever her spokespeople are or what points they might make if, to the average 6th district voter, there isn't an actual debate, but just one side talking.
Should Clark manage to raise the money to buy the air time, it's unlike that the Jims would work anyway, due to the length of their video, which frankly, are only good at this point for a debate in social media land. But with Bachmann's missteps with her own Jim, from unauthorized logo use, to honestly, a man in a blazer who misidentifies a pronto pup as a corndog, two things which paint him as a total Minnesota outsider, her own Jim may not be doing her much good, either.
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is giving supporters a mouthful this summer and somehow mega-popular Irish band U2 have become entangled in her "facts". She has been caught on tape confusing the rockers with attack submarines while invoking the memory of four chaplains who went down with a troop ship Dorchester in 1943.
She says the Germans used "U2 boats" to sink U.S. ships during World War II. Achtung baby!
German subs were were nicknamed "U boats" because of their "U" classification by the German navy. The U-223 struck the Dorchester off Newfoundland, and it sank in less than 30 minutes. Hundreds of men died. The chaplains sacrificed their life preservers so that GIs might live.
Is anyone surprised Bachmann's mangling military history again? After all, this is the congresswoman who used the failed Charge of the Light Brigade as a rallying cry for tea party victory.
When it comes to a grasp of history, Bachmann still hasn't found what she's looking for.
Here’s the kind of discourse that Republicans in state Senate District 56 are interested in: The party website is now running a video about how “hot” Republican women are compared to “Democrat [sic] women.” To the strains of Tom Jones’ “She’s a Lady,” the video runs through a series of photos of GOP women in bikinis, evening gowns and, in Sarah Palin’s case, Spandex. Then the Dems: women like Rosie O’Donnell, Janet Reno (pictured), Nancy Pelosi and Madeleine Albright — set to the song, “Who Let The Dogs Out?”
A campaign contribution to a well-known anti-gay politician in
Minnesota has become a rather large public relations nightmare for
Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel--and the store now faces boycotts and
backlash from the gay community.
Target's Chief Executive Steinhafel said gay employees have been concerned about the money helping state Rep. Tom Emmer,
who opposes gay marriage. Target gave $150,000 to MN Forward, a group
staffed by former insiders from outgoing Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's
administration. MN Forward is running TV ads supporting Emmer.
The Associated Press reports
that Emmer is a fiery conservative who lauds Arizona's strict approach
to illegal immigration, once advocated chemical castration for sex
offenders and wants to lower taxes. His profile contrasts with Target's
moderate image in Minnesota, where the company is known for donating to
public school programs, food pantries and the annual Twin Cities Gay
Pride Festival.
Following the money trail, the Minnesota Independent has also linked Emmer to a Minnesota Christian "punk-rock ministry" that supports the killing of gays and lesbians...more
Speaking at a conservative summit in Denver late last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she believed America was turning into "a nation of slaves" because of Barack Obama, Democrats and the new health care law. "We are determined to live free or not at all. And we are resolved that posterity shall never reproach us with having brought slaves into the world," Bachmann said quoting Founding Father John Jay. Then Bachmann added her own take: "We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves," she said. The Republican congresswoman told 600 conservative...more
You'd think there'd be some rejoicing on Team Bachmann (and maybe there was) after she hauled in $1.7 million in campaign funds for the second quarter, and a new KSTP/SurbeyUSA poll showed her leading her Democratic opponent, Tarryl Clark, by 9 percentage points.
But the news broke yesterday that, for the fifth time in four years, Michele Bachmann is without a chief of staff: Ron Carey is out. He lasted just five months. On top of that, fundraising guru Zandra Wolcott has also jumped ship. No explanation was given for either departure...more
Posters spotted around the Twin Cites with a four-letter vulgarity followed by a Minnesota Congresswoman's name have some asking who's responsible. It turns out, the posters are promoting an upcoming hip-hop concert.
G-Biz has recorded our classic club banger, F*ck Michele Bachmann, version 2010, with our all-star guests. It has become something far more epic and ethereal than we had hoped to achieve.
Michelle Bachmann is an embarrassment to us all. So now, you the people, get you chance to express your discontent for our crazy congresswoman with the G-Biz. We need you to make a remix of the F*ck Michele Bachmann 2010 summer hit. We have made the raw tracks available for remixing. We Got a high quality version, for you audiophiles, and low quality if you don't want to wait for the download. So drop us a line, gbiz.187@gmail.com, and we will send you the link to the tracks, please specify what version you want.
Hannity: "I'm even sorry that I have to bring this up, but um, there is apparently a concert. I don't know if you've had a chance to see this. I don't even know how to say this. They're using your name as a headline, the "F" word and 2010. Have you heard about this?"
Bachmann: "I have, I have. It was just brought to my attention yesterday. And um, this is part of a pattern. I know you've reported on this before, there's a Playboy article. They had highlighted various conservative women and talked about the very lewd, derogatory, hateful, violent things that they wanted to do toward those women. I was one of those women. And this is aconcert series, as you said, where they're using this degrading terminology. Also in Minneapolis there's a comic book series that was written showing me in a similar light.
