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Go Home Freshman Gopers Attempt To Destroy Their Party

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Freshman Gopers Attempt To Destroy Their Party

BY EVE FAIRBANKS

What are they putting in the water at the freshman GOP caucus meetings? First, Minnesota freshman congresswoman Michele Bachmann told Chris Matthews that Obama probably had "anti-American views" and called for a broad investigation into anti-Americanism in both chambers of Congress, triggering a denunciation from none other than Colin Powell and enabling the lamest defense of a politician by her flack ever: "Michele Bachmann, people either love her or they hate her," her spokeswoman told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Then this happened, courtesy of freshman GOP representative Bill Sali in Idaho:

Congressman Bill
Sali and his campaign staff disrupted a NewsChannel 7 reporter and a
representative for his opponent during an interview Tuesday in Downtown
Boise. KTVB reporter
Ysabel Bilbao was interviewing Walt Minnick's campaign director John
Foster Wednesday afternoon.  During the interview, someone loudly
yelled and was laughing during the interview at the Grove plaza. Bilbao and Foster initially ignored the intrusion, but quickly noticed
the source of the heckling -- Sali and members of his staff.

Foster said he saw Sali making faces at him and holding up “bunny ears.”

Bachmann's comment overwhelmed her Democratic opponent with donations, while the dismal local coverage of Sali's heckling caused CQ to upgrade his race's competitiveness. Neither must make national Republicans happy, but it's hard to feel sorry for them on account of their renegade freshmen: The party at large made this particular bed of pain. The GOP eagerly promoted Bachmann, a rhetorical protege of Michael Savage, as one of the party's big rising stars, prizing her nyah-nyah attitude towards Democrats over political good sense. As for Sali -- well, who can blame him for following the behavioral example his comrades-in-arms have set at recent rallies for the Republican presidential candidate?

--Eve Fairbanks

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15 comments

I am reminded of a story I heard when I was a kid. A friend of a friend worked in an airplane parts factory and told me of her supervisor getting fired one day. He'd been a fine supervisor for a few years, but that day, he was walking the factory floor, came up behind a female subordinate, and began openly groping and fondling her, in full view of the manager above.

My first thought upon being told this tale was "How does that happen? How can you take an action like that and think you'll have a job tomorrow?" but apparently some people just snap one day and the id takes over...

It might be a good topic for a doctoral thesis in psychology to figure out how the same phenomenon might work amongst groups undergoing what they perceive to be traumatic experiences, like, say, the public rejection of all that they've worked for their entire adult lives.

- janus

October 20, 2008 at 4:48pm

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Bachman's case is particularly perplexing, given that she comes from Minnesota. The second-biggest upset in modern Minnesota political history was Paul Wellstone beating Sen. Rudy Boschwitz in 1990, a defeat that many in and out of the Minnesota Republican establishment blame on Boschwitz's embarrassing late October letter to Jewish groups calling Wellstone a bad Jew.

In Minnesota, anyway, there are lines of common decency you don't cross. Questioning someone's religious commitment is one of them. Calling pretty much the entire Democratic Party anti-American is probably another. The shocking thing is not that Bachman would think the thought -- she's essentially Michelle Malkin in Congress -- it's that she so poorly understands her own local political situation to speak it out loud during a campaign.

- rhubarbs

October 20, 2008 at 4:59pm

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Janus: the current Republican Party is just vulgar, made up of vulgarians.  With the Harridan Palin as a leader, what else does one expect?

- icarusr

October 20, 2008 at 5:07pm

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icarus: I know, I know. While I follow politics obsessively and think of myself as a fairly cynical sort, sometimes it still just doesn't quite get through. To quote Doonesbury's Rick Redfern: "I'm constantly amazed!"

- janus

October 20, 2008 at 5:11pm

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Janus, "friend of friend" sounds like the stuff of urban legend.  You did hear this direct from "friend of friend's" mouth, and they directly witnessed said groping?

- satyendra

October 20, 2008 at 5:11pm

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I am presuming, with my computer turning up multiple variations on this blog entry, that at one point this post was going to be titled:

GOP Freshman Taunts Opponent's Camp With Bunny Ears

Really, that was the link I clicked on to get here.

Ladies and gentlemen, 'Murrica 2008.

It's not that shocking to see some of these folks behave so.  After all, it's an old saw that an animal is most vicious when cornered.  Then again, I didn't think we were voting for animals in this race.

- cspencef

October 20, 2008 at 5:14pm

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In response, during an interview with Sali, Foster snuck up behind the congressman and held up a cut-out "word balloon" reading "I Eat Boogers."

- adaglas

October 20, 2008 at 5:18pm

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Satyendra, "friend of a friend" is shorthand for "the sister of my ex-sister-in-law," who did, in fact, witness the event and shared it with me directly. I figured that our fellow commenters wouldn't care about that level of detail.

- janus

October 20, 2008 at 5:49pm

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It's not just the freshmen GOPers making their party look despicable and ridiculous.  Check out the campaign of Virgil Goode,  representative of the 5th district of Virginia.  He has an ad that makes his opponent  look  like a cross between an Arab and and African-American------generally not popular ethnic groups in his district.   His opponent , Tony Perriello,  is white.  

Check it out.  This deserves more attention.  It's so similar to  McCain's tactics in Virginia to smear Obama as a terrorist, a Muslim, and a foreigner.  (The head of McCain's campaign in Virginia has trained volunteers to go door to door comparing Obama to Osama.)

www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/.../29911864.html

- kerFuFFler

October 20, 2008 at 6:02pm

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In respones the Rhubarbs' post, he overestimates Minnesota politics.  He cites the Minnesota of different era and a different geographic location.  At one time, there was a sense of decency in the debate from both sides of the aisle.  Although I am a lifelong Democrat, I voted for many Republicans--Arne Carlson for Governor (twice), Dave Durenburger for Senate (twice), and even the now repugnant Norm Coleman for Governor.  That brand of Republicanism is gone in Minnesota, replaced by a religous conservative virulantly anti-tax party.  Governor Pawlenty looks the pary of a good Minnesota boy, but is nothing more than an shill for (or is it captive of) the Taxpayers (read tax avoiders) League.  You should also note the descent of Coleman from moderate to Bush sycophant.  Bachman represents the worst of the decline of the Minnesota Republican party.  She also represents a very conservative anti-government district.  The scary part of her tirade is that it may accurately reflect her district.

- scdrawe

October 20, 2008 at 6:27pm

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Michelle Bachmann is both hotter and crazier than Sarah Palin.

- WoodyBombay

October 20, 2008 at 7:32pm

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This is what happens when you threaten to take the drugs away from the addicts...they start to go through withdrawal as a response to the anticipation of withdrawal.

Sad, really.

- desertdog

October 20, 2008 at 7:35pm

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Bachmann is infatuated with local Talk Radio reactionary Jason Lewis, and the feeling is mutual. They are extreme right wingers, who both hate Norm Coleman. They know they're are making it very difficult for independents and moderates to vote for Republicans, and they don't care. The only thing they hate more than a Democrat is a moderate Republican.

- fougasseu

October 20, 2008 at 9:37pm

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I'm sure scdrawe is right. I hit Minnesota at the end of a big cross-country road trip last year, and literally yards across state line at the I-94 line I saw something I had never seen in two decades living in the state: A car with Minnesota plates and a Confederate flag sticker. If Minnesota really has become a place where a person can feel comfortable displaying the flag of white supremacist treason, then it's not the state I grew up in anymore.

- rhubarbs

October 21, 2008 at 8:56am

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Thanks Janus. True, people don't typically need that level of detail.  "Friend of friend" can mean so many things, including a separation of many degrees, or someone you've never even met before but only heard about vaguely.  I only wanted to clarify because I found your story incredible if true.

I often like to say "person I know" in hopes of conveying I've directly spoken with them.

- satyendra

October 21, 2008 at 12:19pm

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