Minnesota House Race Tightens; Michele Bachmann Channels McCarthy

I am OUTRAGED by Minnesota Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann's hateful, McCarthyist screed -- watch it for yourself at: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/21/minnesota-house-race-tightens-in-minutes/.  In it, she basically says that Barack and Michelle Obama (and liberals in general) are anti-American and calls for a McCarthyist witch hunt in Congress to "find out if they are pro-America or anti-America":

"Remember it was Michele Obama who said she is only recently proud of her country and so these are very anti-American views," she said. "That's not the way that most Americans feel about our country. Most Americans are wild about America and they are very concerned to have a president who doesn't share those values."

Matthews later pressed her to name a single member of Congress other than Obama who she thought was anti-American. Bachmann, who initially wouldn't budge, called for a major "expose" into the matter.

"What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America," she said.

I view it as a moral imperative and patriotic duty to send a powerful signal that this type of attack won't be tolerated -- and the only way to do this is to defeat Bachmann.  Here's the good news: she's in a tight race and, thanks to her outrageous comments, money has been pouring in to her opponent.  I just donated $1,000 at www.tinklenberg08.com and urge you to do the same.

Minnesota House Race Tightens — In Minutes

Brad Haynes reports on congressional races.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann's call for an investigation of anti-American views among her colleagues helped fuel a fund-raising bonanza for her opponent and is now throwing her re-election into question.

In a Friday interview on MSNBC, the Minnesota congresswoman said Sen. Barack Obama's associations with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers "absolutely" raised questions about the Democratic presidential nominee's patriotism. "I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views," she said. Asked about how many of her other fellow members of Congress potentially harbored anti-American sentiments, she said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid "have far-leftist views," but would not say whether they were "pro-America or anti-America."

"I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they pro-America or anti-America," she continued. "I think people would love to see an exposé like that."

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who endorsed Obama on Sunday, specifically cited Rep. Bachmann's comments as evidence of the divisive campaigning that was pushing him away from the Republican Party in this election. "We have got to stop this kind of nonsense," Powell said during a Sunday interview after he had endorsed Obama.

Elwyn Tinklenberg, Bachmann's Democratic opponent for the congressional seat from suburban St. Paul, raised more than $650,000 –-twice his cash on hand at the end of September-–over the weekend. Nearly $150,000 of the total came through groups on the liberal fund-raising site ActBlue.com that decry the congresswoman's "new McCarthyism." Sensing her vulnerability, House Democrats today pledged $1 million for television advertising against her.

The negative exposure and sudden erosion of Bachmann's cash lead–a more than $1 million advantage at the beginning of the month–led the Cook Political Report to downgrade her prospects; it now rates the race a toss-up. "In seven minutes on Friday's edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Bachmann did herself more harm than she ever could have done Sen. John McCain good in all her many appearances as his campaign surrogate," said Cook's House editor, David Wasserman.

Here are comments from two friends about this:

A) One reason I decided to send this email is that I have become deeply troubled by the McCain campaign's divisive fear-mongering smear approach, an approach taken in a desperate attempt to win this election.  It is deeply troubling because while McCain-Palin claim to the great American, their campaign, speeches (Palin's in particular) and ads attempt to play upon people's fears by telling half truths and outright lies in an attempt to persuade voters that Obama is somehow a terrorist and anti-American.

 

And what really scares the hell out of me is the interview with Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bT01mC9xSA ). This is modern day McCarthysim. As Kartina Vanden Heuvel said in a follow-up interview, "I fear for my country. I think what we just heard was a Congresswoman channeling.  A politics of fear and loathing and demonization and division and distraction, not a single issue mentioned". Vanden Heuvel goes on to say, "I think it's very scary. This is a country that I love and this woman (Bachmann) had no sense of the history of this nation which is one of struggle, of trying to fulfill the great ideals of this nation, about movements that have brought about the civilizing advances of this country." Even Pat Robertson says he does not know any anti-American members of Congress (www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKgAuOANZr8). But this woman thinks we should launch an expose of members of congress to find out which ones are anti-American! Wow! Dust off your history books if you need a refresher as to where this could lead.

 

And let me make one last thing clear. I am VERY proud to be an American! But people like Bachmann and Palin who spew bile, hate and fear are not what I consider to be great Americans nor do they represent the characteristics that make our country great. They are dividers, not leaders. And yes, I too, like my friend Collin, will be making a donation of Michelle Bachmann's opponent Elwyn Tinklenberg -- http://www.tinklenberg08.com/home.html

 

B) Folks, this is evil personified and (in the words of Edmund Burke): "the only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men [and women] to do nothing. I hope I made Old Edmund proud because, after watching this, I reached for my credit card and made another contribution to the Obama campaign (my tenth or so) and another to Michelle Bachmann's opponent.  I truly hope this woman and this type of thinking are crushed in this election for the good of the country and even for the good of the Republican party, which still contains a lot of great people (including some of you) but has been hijacked by it's right wing for the past eight years or so.