The Caucus
The latest on President Obama, the new Congress and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Bachmann’s Popularity Puts G.O.P. on the Spot
Bachmann’s Popularity Puts G.O.P. on the Spot
By ASHLEY PARKER
Published: November 19, 2010
Enlarge This ImageWASHINGTON — Even from thousands of miles away, through a computer screen, over Skype, and into a packed room in Fresno, Calif., Representative Michele Bachmann knows how to ignite a crowd.
Drew Angerer/The New York Times
Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, before a television interview Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda.
Blogs
Leading up to the health care vote this year, Ms. Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, would head to a conference room in the National Republican Campaign Committee’s headquarters and hold Skype rallies, using the Internet video service to address audiences around the country. Staff members walking by could hear the cheering crowds, roaring so loud they reverberated through the glass wall and out into the committee’s hallway.
Such is the power of Ms. Bachmann — and possibly, the curse.
She is a driving force on cable television, a provocative, ubiquitous voice in a world where the distinction between personality and power is increasingly blurred. Now, with Republicans poised to retake the House, lawmakers are watching Ms. Bachmann to see if she can harness her status as an uncompromising — and sometimes undisciplined — spokeswoman for conservative principles and turn it into real legislative influence.
There is not infrequently an inverse relationship on Capitol Hill between visibility and the clout to shape policy, cut deals and otherwise make a lasting mark. Ms. Bachmann learned that lesson this month when she ran for her party’s No. 4 position in the House as a self-styled leader of the Tea Party movement, only to withdraw when it became clear she was attracting little support — even as her willingness to promote an unfounded report that President Obama’s trip to India would cost taxpayers $200 million a day kept her front and center in the cable-politics mosh pit.
Ms. Bachmann, first elected in 2006, said she was eager to work with her party — “I’ve heard nothing from the leaders other than espousing the principles of the Tea Party and their fervent commitment to stand by those ideals,” she said — but she is also willing to shake things up, and is working to organize Tea Party-affiliated Republicans into a voting bloc in the House.
“I think the Republican leaders have gotten the message, and if they haven’t, I have not been afraid to be vocal in the past and I won’t be afraid to be vocal going forward,” Ms. Bachmann said in a telephone interview. She mentioned her opposition to PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s $700 billion Wall Street bailout in 2008, and explained, “I’ve been willing to take on my own party, my own leadership, my own president before, so I would be willing to do that again, if I felt there’s a principled reason to do so.”
Ms. Bachmann said that the day after the election, she “woke up to members of Congress calling me and urging me to run for” the leadership position, but she “found out fairly quickly I was not the leadership pick.”
Senior House Republican staff members said that while the party’s leaders were eager to have a woman and a Tea Party member in their upper ranks, they were concerned about Ms. Bachmann’s high rate of staff turnover and were not sure she would be willing to deliver the party’s message rather than her own. They were also concerned about her high-profile faux pas, like the claim about the expense of Mr. Obama’s Asia trip or the time on MSNBC’s “Hardball” when she suggested that Mr. Obama might have “anti-American views.” Both of those statements put fellow Republicans in the uncomfortable position of having to either defend her or distance themselves from one of their own.
“Michele Bachmann does not have a strong record as a legislative strategist, and that’s never been her forte,” said Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor. “She says things that are kind of off the wall, but these are often calculated statements on her part, to register with conservative, grass-roots people, and that’s very hard for folks who are not grass-roots conservatives to understand,” he said. “Some of the things she says are zany and embarrassing to other Republicans, but that’s part of what has given her this authenticity.”
Ms. Bachmann’s credibility with the Tea Party movement may be her biggest asset. She often comes across as sincere, charming and cheerfully upbeat, whether she is giving a phone interview or talking about her passion for the Constitution in a cavernous ballroom, qualities that have won her many fans in the Tea Party movement.
“This is no disrespect intended to anyone on the inside of the leadership, but with Michele Bachmann, it’s like having our person on the inside,” said Tim Phillips, president ofAmericans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group. “We know she’s movement first, not party first, and we have complete confidence that when she speaks, she has our interests and the movement’s interests at heart.”
The Congressional Tea Party Caucus, which Ms. Bachmann started in July, has 53 members and is expected to increase as conservative freshmen descend on the Capitol, giving it the potential to be a crucial voting bloc. Mr. Jacobs said that Ms. Bachmann was establishing “the presence of the Tea Party Caucus as a kingmaker,” and that if she used it strategically and carefully chose a few key battles, “they can be as powerful and maybe more powerful than the Blue Dogs,” the now-depleted group of moderate and conservative Democrats who served as a counterweight to their party’s liberal wing.
When asked if the Tea Party Caucus could be a spoiler or a rainmaker for certain Republican legislation, Ms. Bachmann replied, “It could be.”
“Our focus will be on continually educating our members and practicing our craft to understand the role and the ideals of the Tea Party,” she said. “But certainly if we see leadership come forward with a bill that we believe is in opposition to Tea Party ideals, that is one vehicle where we could band together.”
For now, her plan for the caucus “is to start weekly classes on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” inviting everyone from Supreme Court justices to legal scholars to speak.
“As we’re studying every week, let’s say for instance the commerce clause, then as the legislation comes before us, we can apply through the grid of the Constitution the actual legislation that we’re looking at,” she said. “This is a tremendous real-time forum to be able to discuss these issues ahead of time, prior to the vote, in regard to principles of the Tea Party.”
Baby LK Report: November 21, 2010
Baby LK recaps the week in news for the child protection industry.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Republican freshman wants his government-run health care right now!
Republican freshman wants his government-run health care right now!
You really can't make this stuff up -- newly-elected congressman Andy Harris (R-MD) wants to know why his government-subsidized health care won't kick in in time for he and his fellow tea party Republicans to begin their jihad against other people's health insurance:
A conservative Maryland physician elected to Congress on an anti-Obamacare platform surprised fellow freshmen at a Monday orientation session by demanding to know why his government-subsidized health care plan takes a month to kick in.Republican Andy Harris ... reacted incredulously when informed that federal law mandated that his government-subsidized health care policy would take effect on Feb. 1 – 28 days after his Jan. 3rd swearing-in.“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care" ... “Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap," added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.
What will he do? I'd suggest he join in with the tens of millions of Americans who pray every day that they don't get sick.
Of course his spokesman tried to slap some lipstick on this pig, claiming that Harris:
... wasn’t being hypocritical – he was just pointing out the inefficiency of government-run health care.
That would be as opposed to the reality of employer-provided health insurance everywhere that requires a waiting period before coverage begins.
Seriously? If Mr. Harris is going to make it in Washington, he'll need to find a spokesman who can spin a lie better than this.
For more discussion on this, see Th0rn's diary.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Michelle Bachmann’s failed bid illustrates Teaparty struggles with GOP- Teaparty News
Michelle Bachmann’s failed bid illustrates Teaparty struggles with GOP- Teaparty News
Michelle Bachmann, the face of Teaparty resistance
Teaparty, Politics, Obama Watch, Obama News, Election 2010, Election 2012, Michelle Bachmann
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann headed off an intra-party fight when she dropped her bid for a House leadership spot last week, but her candidacy showcased the divisions surrounding the Tea Party’s newfound presence inside the Republican Party.
When House Republican leaders swiftly rejected her provocative bid for GOP conference chair, the No. 4 position in the House, it underlined her status as a party outsider despite her rising national profile.
One Washington Post columnist said afterward that the Minnesota congresswoman had the “worst week in Washington.” Almost immediately after Bachmann launched her leadership bid, nearly all of the top House leaders lined up behind rival Texas Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling. And she was snubbed from the 22-member GOP House transition team that included several new Tea Party House members.
Bachmann has kept a low profile since dropping out of the leadership race, and was unavailable for comment for this story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)