Representative Michele Bachmann, who, if you’re not familiar with her, is like Sarah Palin without the intellectual gravitas, was on Face the Nation yesterday with Bob Schieffer to announce the launch of her Presidential campaign. Schieffer, to his credit, took the opportunity to call the Tea Party favorite out on the many lies she’s told since entering Congress. Here, if you haven’t seen it, is the footage.
And, here, thanks to our friends at Crooks & Liars, is a bit of the transcript:
SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you about something else. A lot of your critics say you have been very fast and loose with the truth. You know, the po– PolitiFact, which is a website that won a Pulitzer, did an analysis of twenty-three statements that you made recently. Of these twenty-three, only one they said was completely true. Seven they call pants on fire kind of falsehoods. Four were barely true and two were half truths. How do you answer that criticism? Because here’s one of them, you know, you said on the record there had been only one offshore oil drilling permit during the Obama administration and, in fact at that time they had been two hundred and seventy. How do you explain that?
BACHMANN: Well, you know, I think that what is clear more than anything is the fact that President Obama does — has not been issuing the permits, that he should have been issuing on offshore drilling that’s–
SCHIEFFER: Well, it’s more than three hundred now.
BACHMANN: Well —
SCHIEFFER: At– at that time there had been two hundred and something. And you said there had been only one.
BACHMANN: But as far as drilling goes, we hadn’t been drilling what we need to– that’s why we just this week–
SCHIEFFER (overlapping): But that’s different, isn’t it?
BACHMANN: Well, that’s why this week it’s– it’s ironic and sad that the President released all of the oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve because the President doesn’t have an energy policy.
SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Do you think that was a good move?
BACHMANN: He has a politically correct environmental policy.
SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Was that a good thing?
BACHMANN: It was a very bad move. It put– it has made the United States more vulnerable. There’s only a limited amount of oil that we have in the Strategic Oil Reserve. It’s there for emergencies…
As you’ll notice, not only did she not answer Schieffer’s question about her pathological lie-telling, but, in the process of not answering, she told another lie. When she said that President Obama had “released all of the oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve,” she should have said that he released 30 million barrels of oil from our 727 million barrel reserve, or roughly 4 percent.
But it gets better… If you can believe it, the intellectually challenged candidate followed up today by officially launching her campaign in the home town of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The following comes from the Washington Times.
Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo’s own John Wayne.
The only problem, as one eagle-eyed reader notes: Waterloo’s John Wayne was not the beloved movie star, but rather John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer.
Mrs. Bachmann grew up in Waterloo, and used the town as the backdrop for her campaign announcement, where she told Fox News: “Well what I want them to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”…
I was sure when I first read the story that it was a bit of Onion-inspired satire, but apparently it’s true. Here’s the video.
Bachmann, in her defense, has since come out to say that, although the actor John Wayne never lived in Waterloo, his parents once did… which apparently is pretty much the same thing, at least by her standards.
And this woman, by the way, is currently polling second only to Romney among the Republican candidates. That should tell you something.
22 Comments
This is the kind of lunacy that got the country where it is today: worrying about tid bits like “which John Wayne and where he was from”. Wake up America. The media railroaded Dan Quale too because he thought there was an “e” on the end of the word potato. It has often been said that Abe Lincoln could never be elected today because of his lack of charisma. Charisma got us some pretty bad elected officials from BOTH parties.
I can hear Wikipedia being updated as I type this… By morning, John Wayne Gacy will be heroically ringing his bells, warning the British that they’d better step the fuck off.
It is my fondest wish that Bachmann gets the Republican nomination.
Just wait until see makes a campaign stop in our fair city.
John Collins (June 8, 1717[1] – March 4, 1795)-He stood forth as a staunch advocate of the independence of the Thirteen Colonies. An admirer of George Washington, he was selected by the governor of Rhode Island in 1776 to carry a letter to Washington informing him of the condition of the colony and soliciting counsel upon the best method to adopt for its defense.
Maybe it was deliberate. I can see Gacy being a hero of the Tea Party. Ayn Rand, after all, had a crush on serial killer William Hickman. She envisioned him as the ultimate individual, doing what he wanted despite the conventions of society, unable to consider anyone but himself.
http://www.alternet.org/books/145819/ayn_rand,_hugely_popular_author_and_inspiration_to_right-wing_leaders,_was_a_big_admirer_of_serial_killers
She will beat Romney, and she actually is much smarter than Palin. She actually has a decent education and apparently even an advanced law degree. She is a liar and makes gaffes like this, but she has a Reagan-like ability to smooth over her mistakes and keep her cool. I was originally delighted at the notion of her being the nominee, because it would be a hilarious race and easy win for Obama. I’m not laughing anymore. They media is taking her seriously. The economy still sucks and Obama’s wimpy moves are only alienating the left. She could win. The thought of her getting elected president is beyond frightening. Like that candidate in the Dead Zone.
I would love to see Bachmann win the Presidency. I really would, though I would be unemployed for the rest of my life.
While the hat tip to Mr. Gacy is funny, I think it’s a distraction from the stuff that matters, like the fact that she wants to abolish the minimum wage.
“Literally, if we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.” -Bachmann
I would vote for a Michelle Bachmann – John Wayne Gacy ticket.
She has very pretty eyes.
Why are liberal moonbats afraid of conservatives like Michele Backmann? They will now attack her and try to demean her as usual.
It’s over Barack! One term! The writing is on the wall but since you only use teleprompters you probably don’t understand it yet.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-snubbed-by-wall-street-democrats
afraid? that john wayne shit was funny as hell. i think liberals love her!
“As I stand here, on this sacred ground once trod upon by Ted Bundy, I’m reminded of his perseverance, his dedication to what he believed. He didn’t give up, and neither will I. That’s why I will be driving across the country in a VW Bug, mesmerizing people with my crazy eyes, and leaving a trail of bodies in my wake.”
I think the larger issue here is what a decent guy John Wayne Gacy was deep down inside.
He was just hereditarily shy.
And I forgot. The other John Wayne was just a jackass drunk.
From Gawker:
http://gawker.com/5816567/mr-michele-bachmann-accepted-medicaid-money
Who among us hasn’t tried to “cure” a gay friend or loved one?
(I do it by spanking them with a tennis racket as they watched episodes of Antiques Roadshow.)
I am proud, however, to say that I never took one dollar of taxpayer money, which is more than can be said for Michele Bachman and her husband, Marcus Bachmann, who took a great many taxpayer dollars to administer so-called ex-gay therapy.
Here, by way of The Minnesota Independent, is a little background on the Bachmann’s therapy practice.
And here’s an undercover report from a gay journalist.
I bet my father that he couldn’t stare into Michele Bachmann’s face for an hour. Here’s the video.
http://i.imgur.com/qmaMN.gif
“Michele Bachmann Wishes Elvis Happy Birthday, on His Death Day”
http://gawker.com/5831410/michele-bachmann-wishes-elvis-happy-birthday-on-his-death-day
Bachmann’s mom calls the candidate a liar.
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/08/16/2011-08-16_michele_bachmann_lied_about_attending_family_reunion_said_her_own_mother_report.html#ixzz1VG8RZd5T
Bachmann’s seat in Congress may be in jeopardy. With independents migrating toward her opponent, her lead as dwindled to two points.
Read more:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/michele-bachmanns-seat-peril-house-race-tightens/story?id=17320034&singlePage=true#.UGRgaBihDrv