Tarryl Clark, Michele Bachmann

Just as DFL congressional candidate Tarryl Clark uses Rep. Michele Bachmann’s appearance at a conservative conference in Florida in a fundraising appeal, word comes out that Bachmann will be showcased at yet another such affair: the National Tea Party Convention in February. But Bachmann won’t get top billing: that honor goes to Sarah Palin.

This morning Clark’s campaign sent out a fundraising email that poked Bachmann for “riling up her national conservative followers” at the Freedom Center’s “Restoration Weekend,” a David Horowitz–organized event where she rubbed elbows with the likes of Phyllis Schlafly and Ann Coulter, instead of tending to district needs. Referencing a Washington Independent post about the event, the email states that it’s time for a congresswoman who’ll fight for district residents “not the conservative power-players of Palm Beach,” where the four-day event was held.

Several hours after the email hit inboxes Tuesday, organizers of the National Tea Party Convention tweeted that Bachmann would be a speaker at the Feb. 4–6 event in Nashville. Palin keynotes the convention, which is “aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movements’ multiple organizations principle goals.”

Here’s the text of Clark’s fundraising email:

Where is Micheele Bachmann?

Today, folks across the 6th District are working hard to stay in their homes and keep their jobs. Families are gathered around the kitchen table, trying to pay their bills and save just a little bit for retirement or to send the kids to college.

So with all this work to be done in Congress and here in Minnesota, where was Michele Bachmann this weekend?

Riling up her national conservative followers in Palm Beach, Florida.

According to the Washington Independent, Bachmann was a speaker at the Freedom Center’s “Restoration Weekend,” “a pricey four-day Palm Beach celebration of conservative ideas,” alongside Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, and Newt Gingrich.

It’s time for a Congresswoman who will actually do the job and whose first and only priority is to fight for the people of Minnesota, not the conservative power-players of Palm Beach.

Tarryl Clark will always put us first. Just as she has in the State Senate, Tarryl Clark will go to work every day to fight for the people of her district – not promote her own personal agenda or build her national celebrity.

With your help, we can send Tarryl to Congress to work for us – not her national network. You can be sure we have the resources to defeat Congresswoman Bachmann and get to work with a donation of $25, $50, or $100 today.

Sincerely,

Zach Rodvold

Campaign Manager

p.s. Make no mistake – Michele Bachmann was in Florida to support her own agenda, and to drum up even more national financial support for her campaign from wealthy conservatives. But with your support and a financial contribution today, we can ensure we have the resources to take her on and win.

Laura Melnick’s piece, “Michele’s Precious Moments,” features various infamous quotations from the second-term Republican on topics such as global warming and human evolution:

The other piece, “GOP Sideshow,” is a triptych by St. Paul artist Teresa Anderson. It features Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.

See more political seed art at our Flickr page.

I would be Hitler… Well, you know, you get to call of the New Deal. I’d like to call off the Holocaust, you know, World War II, the Anschluss… But I’d keep the Volkswagen.

MATCH #2 NORM COLEMAN (American Patriots) vs. AL FRANKEN (Progressive Alliance)
Franken is fired up. Coleman sidesteps the initial charge and wastes no time attacking Franken’s bad leg. … Franken flails on him. He pulls Coleman up by the hair and throws him through the ropes outside. Coleman topples out of the ring and onto the floor. Franken on the edge of the ring. Flying elbow. Coleman’s legs jerk up at impact and then slam back down. Franken again pulls Coleman up by the hair. Blatant choke. The referee tries to get in the middle but Franken isn’t letting go. Franken gets a chair. *CLANG* He takes out the referee. *CLANG* Down goes Coleman. … Cookie sheet is next. *WHACK* The cookie sheet is bent at a ninety degree angle after Franken uses it. …AND HERE COMES TIM PAWLENTY!” Pawlenty runs down and swipes the chair from Franken. *CLANG* Franken staggers backwards. Mark Ritchie makes a run at Pawlenty. *CLANG* And falls backward as well. Franken gets up and charges again. *CLANG* Franken pirouettes and then collapses. …

Read the complete (and completely deranged) action here.

Here’s a Youtube video of that interview.

And, oh yeah, heaven looks like “New York City during the Republican National Convention… [people are] happy, Christians, tolerant.”When the host, Donny Deutsch, who’s Jewish, asked Coulter if, in her utopian world, she would want everyone to be Christian, she not only affirmed that, but accused him of being a non-practicing Jew and said that he’d be better off being a Christian.

“It’s a lot easier [to be Christian]…it’s kind of a fast-track,” she said sarcastically.

This prompted Deutsch, who said he’s indeed a practicing Jew, to point out that Coulter is really not that different from the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who wants to wipe Israel off the map. “I’m offended by that personally,” he said.

So have many people been offended by Coulter. This is the same woman who called Al Gore and John Edwards a “total fag” and a “faggot,” respectively. Don’t you think that there’s something remarkably unchristian about her mean spirits?

Coulter might be everyone’s provocateur, but her anti-Semitic remark is a microcosm of a larger phenomenon: A group of extreme right-wing Republicans on a mission to Christianize America. Jews are their soft, long-term target. Once they evangelize everyone else, they hope to convince Jews to speed along on that “fast track” terrain. 

But what’s really striking is that there have been no major outcries about Coulter’s nonsensical comments. This is the kind of tirade that conservative media outlets and blogs would feast upon, if it was uttered by none other than one of their own.

Recall that whole Desmond Tutu episode from last week: Unlike Coulter, he never cast aspersions on Judaism as a faith and Jews as people, but criticized Israel. He was denied an opportunity to speak at a Catholic university, which allowed Coulter to speak. Of course, St. Thomas eventually did the right thing and reversed its decision.

It’s hard enough to mention Coulter and Tutu in the same breath, yet the very right-wing Republicans who mostly drove the anti-Tutu campaign all over the world are embracing Coulter. She remains their star speaker in college campuses and other gatherings.

It begs the question: Where do they want to take America? At a time when the U.S. is rapidly becoming more diverse then ever, the Coulter camp has embarked on a mission to turn the clock backward. 

Alas, this rogue woman has plenty of supporters.