Anti-Bachmann bloggers profiled

The cadre of bloggers that follow Rep. Michele Bachmann’s every move are often the source for news stories about Bachmann, but rarely get some credit. The St. Croix Valley Press, a small newspaper in the eastern Twin Cities exurbs, has a feature about those bloggers and the motivation for their daily criticism of her statements and policies.

Here are a few excerpts from the St. Croix Valley Press article:

A blog site called “Dump Michele Bachmann,” seems to serve as the main battle station for Bachmann critics. The site’s chief luminary is Eva Young, an information technologist who resides in Minneapolis.

Originally, her main concern about Bachmann was her “focus on gay people.”

“I objected to her trying to marginalize people for her political gain,” Young says. “And I wanted to post on her extreme rhetoric at the time, that the other mainstream media was not really covering.”

The paper also interviewed conservative bloggers who support Bachmann:

“The marriage amendment that she tried to introduce was just going to reinforce state statute,” [Andy Aplikowski, a blogger of the conservative site "Residual Forces,"] says. “It wasn’t going to take away anyone’s ability to do anything right now. They do really good just twisting that…and a lot of the attacks against Bachmann are things like that where maybe they take the one word that didn’t fit in the phrase and got thrown in by accident and make it all about that, or they will take one thing and completely tie it to something completely unrelated from the past.”

“I think it’s because she takes strong stands on issues involving morality and religion,” ["Truth v. the Machine" blogger Jeff Kouba says in addressing why Bachmann draws fierce opposition.] “My personal view is that those on the left tend to be secular people, and so they tend to react negatively to religion in general.”

And Craig Westover, conservative blogger and occasional columnist for the Pioneer Press, makes what is perhaps an apt comparison between Bachmann and the late-Sen. Paul Wellstone:

“If you look at Wellstone early in his career…he walked up to (a more senior Republican senator) at a cocktail party and started talking politics, and that was something that just wasn’t done,” he said. “Bachmann’s made similar mistakes…the long hug with the president is something that’s just not done…(but) both share a deep sense of uncompromising principle that they stand up for.”