bachmann3Rep. Michele Bachmann’s recent choice of words suggests she knew what she saying when she invoked the “sadly ludicrous” Crimean War episode from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” at a Capitol Hill anti-health care reform rally.

The Minnesota congresswoman’s rallying cry, “It’s the charge of the light brigade!” drew mockery from politico-literary critics in America and in Tennyson’s homeland. That’s because the poem depicts one of the great military snafus of all time, with British soldiers showing courage as they faced certain slaughter by following misguided orders.

Here is Bachmann’s full-throated literary reference, via Talking Points Memo:


But maybe bravery bordering on foolishness is what Bachmann wants from her followers, as indicated by what she told Sean Hannity Monday about the fight against health care reform on his Fox News TV show: ”What this shows is the temerity of the American people.”

Did she mean “tenacity” — persistence in seeking a shared goal? That’d make more sense, since “temerity,” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger or opposition.” But that’s not what she said.

And the crowd ate it up: Bachmann drew the biggest applause of the day.

Watch Bachmann speak in these two YouTube videos shot from within the crowd. Neither is high quality but both capture the feeling of the anti-health care reform forces on the apparent eve of the legislation’s passage. The first one has poor sound but shows Bachmann at about the 4:50 mark:

The second video has better sound, beginning at about the 2:15 mark, although Bachmann isn’t visible: