Is Bachmann’s slot on Intelligence Committee part of GOP plan to stifle her?
Tuesday, January 04, 2011 at 2:10 pm
- 21 Comments
Is Rep. Michele Bachmann’s new post on the House Intelligence Committee an effort by GOP leadership to stifle her inflammatory statements in the media? Slate’s Noreen Malone makes the case, contending that the strategy is not fair to Bachmann who was a workhorse in the 2010 House elections on behalf of the GOP, while the Washington Post posits that Bachmann isn’t likely to enjoy serving on a committee that is at times as secretive as it is boring.
Slate’s Malone argues argues that Bachmann’s spot on the House Intelligence Committee was an effort by GOP leadership to quiet her.
Instead, the steering committee slotted her for the House Intelligence Committee, a rather Machiavellian move: While on paper it’s a prestigious assignment, the committee’s workings are intrinsically hush-hush. As one observer told Politico, “If you’re looking for media and controversy, that’s not the committee to be on.” That’s particularly rough for Bachmann, powered as she is by media attention.
She accepted the intelligence appointment in a particularly Mama Grizzly-esque manner, connecting the distant dots of motherhood and national security on her Facebook page: “As a mother of five biological children and 23 foster children I pledge to do whatever I need to do to keep your family, my family, and the United States safe from harm.” This was the sound of Bachmann scrambling. While terrorists are one of her favorite talking points (she attributes her 2006 election to her commitments to “cutting taxes, building roads and protecting the nation against radical jihadists”), national security isn’t precisely the former tax attorney’s forte.
Jeff Stein, intelligence writer for the Washington Post, expounded on the challenges that service on the committee may pose. He predicted Bachmann may not find the committee all that interesting, but also that Bachmann’s not likely to enjoy the silence that the committee demands of its members.
A senior CIA official who spent a lot of time with the congressional oversight panels before retiring a few years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, however, predicted Bachmann would quickly become bored.
“Most of the members take very little interest since the work is not in the public eye so there is no TV time, there is no money for their constituents and very little opportunity for pork,” he observed, speaking on condition of anonymity because he consults with U.S. national security agencies.
But [David M. Barrett, author of “The CIA and Congress"], noted that some committee members find it intolerable not to go public over things they feel strongly about.
“The best new members do a lot of homework, attend committee meetings, are unafraid to ask questions, but keep quiet in their public remarks,” he said. “I wouldn’t bet on a new member of the intelligence committee who so clearly enjoys the spotlight taking the appropriate low-profile approach to committee service.”
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Comment posted January 4, 2011 @ 3:27 pm
Excellent! Hate to say this, but I told you guys the GOP needed to find a way to put a muzzle on this chick! I must admit however, I certainly didn’t realize this was the way to do it, but it makes sense.
Can you even imagine the agony Bachmann is going to go through? She can’t flap about her committee, or what she learns or whatever. She has to SHUT UP!! I go on record right now, she can’t do it – no way. She is going to flap somehow and get herself in a whole lot of trouble.
Should we start taking bets? How long can she last?
Comment posted January 4, 2011 @ 3:38 pm
What difference does it make what committees she’s on? I bet no one here can name which committees she was on during the past four years while she was a powerless back-bencher. That didn’t seem to stop her from speaking her mind and attracting 500,000 donors to her campaign.
Comment posted January 4, 2011 @ 4:06 pm
The point being, the powers-that-be finally realize she is a liability and they are at least trying to shove her in a corner where she can do the least harm to THEM. That says a lot about how well respected Bachmann is with her peers. In other words, she isn’t.
Give it time, her nonsense with catch up with her even in her own district.
Comment posted January 4, 2011 @ 4:26 pm
Bachmann, and more importantly, the people who support her, respect the GOP establishment types even less than you do.
Comment posted January 4, 2011 @ 5:28 pm
Bachmann is not a GOP she is a extremist right winger.
The GOP is starting to learn that that deal they made with “The God team” is back fireing on them, and that it was instead a deal with the devil.
Its time for the GOP to separate completely with the Christian Right extremists and state the debate again in the political circle, not the religious one.
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Comment posted January 4, 2011 @ 6:15 pm
The words “Michele Bachman ” and “Intelligence Committee” are inversely proportional.. I find it funny that the Neo- Tards would try to stifle this dumb bimbo.. She does really well in the trailer park known as “The Minnesota 6th”…
Comment posted January 5, 2011 @ 1:07 am
Michele Bachmann attended few of the Financial Sevices committee meemtings in her 4 years. What makes you think she will bother to show up for the Intelligence Committee meetings if she can’t shoot off her mouth?
But then, I see this as a genius move by John Boehner to keep her out of the media spotlight. But then if she breaks protocol and leaks some info she is not authorized to, she could find herself in a lot of hot water with the House Ethics Committee.
I kinda feel sorry for MIchele. NOT!
Comment posted January 5, 2011 @ 8:46 am
I doubt this will silence her as much as we hope. I can hear the veiled innuendos and accusations now. Obama hasn’t been defending this country, the democrats are going easy on terrorist etc. etc…. and I know because I’m on the intelligence committee, I can’t provide proof obviously, but I know.
When has Bachman ever needed proof to shoot her mouth off before? Only difference is it will be harder to come up with evidence to prove her lies when all the evidence is classified.
Comment posted January 5, 2011 @ 10:27 am
Come with me to the near-future……………..where MN Indy reports:
Michele Bachmann appeared today on Fox & Friends and said
“I can’t tell you what I I have learned on my committee because it is top secret, I can only tell you that Obama and freedom-hating libersocialists are doing even worse things than I had imagined. I wish I could give you details, but trust me. I never lie. Real Americans should support impeaching and imprisoning the President.”
Comment posted January 5, 2011 @ 10:56 am
Different Tim
just one minor correction:
Obama and freedom-hating libersocialists AND homosexuals
Other than that, spot on!
Comment posted January 5, 2011 @ 4:28 pm
Don’t think it’s gone unnoticed that Bachmann’s biggest haters are liberal men. Same for Palin. I have a theory on that but I won’t bother to share that now. heh
Comment posted January 5, 2011 @ 5:51 pm
And this woman wants to run for President in 2012??? Christ Almighty!!!
SNL will have to come up with a cast membe to portray Michele Bachmann as Tina Fey has done with Sarah Palin.
Comment posted January 5, 2011 @ 7:46 pm
“Don’t think it’s gone unnoticed that Pelosi’s biggest haters are conservative men. Same for Klobuchar. I have a theory on that but I won’t bother to share that now. heh”
There, I fixed it for you.
Comment posted January 6, 2011 @ 7:28 am
John Boehner is no dummy, the corporate fat cats who really pull the strings in the republican party, want nothing to do with the likes of Palin/Bachmann, or any of the other t-party folks. They recognize, that, at its roots the t-party has the chance of becoming some sort of grass roots movement, that, they will not be able to control. So the move to put Bachman somewhere on the sidelines is brilliant Once again, she has proven that she will not be able to do much for her district. It will be interesting to see where they put my new rep. Cravaack, my bet he gets some committees where he can help his district, he looks like he will be a team player for the party and the corporations that own it.
Comment posted January 6, 2011 @ 7:58 am
Maybe Bachmann’s announcement to possibly run for Pres. is her way of getting back at Boehner and all those who attempted to shove her in a corner. We all know she won’t get the nomination and I honestly believe she realizes that too, but it’s just her way of showing everyone she will flap her mouth whenever and wherever she wants. Let’s face it,since her announcement EVERYONE is talking about her. That’s what she wants.
Comment posted January 6, 2011 @ 4:54 pm
dennis –
It’s really not a problem for us not to know bachmann’s committee assignments – the problem is that she showed for so few of the meetings that she didn’t know what her assignments were
Comment posted January 7, 2011 @ 8:56 am
I can see her now, standing up at one of her rallies, waving a sheet of paper, and, telling us about all of the mythical terrorists that are in the government. She will make Tailgunner Joe look like an amateur before she is done. In the end, she may just self destruct the way McCarthy did. The corporate republicans who want to muzzle her, will find a way to discredit her.
Comment posted January 7, 2011 @ 12:13 pm
It’s amusing to see all this talk of “corporate republicans” on the day after Obama names J.P Morgan’s William Daley to be his chief of staff.
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