Photos: C-SPAN, Lauren Victoria Burke, CBS

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann may have started it last fall with loopy comments on national TV about her congressional colleagues’ “anti-American” views. Last week, she again tried to “out” fellow lawmakers, this time for supporting AIG’s bonuses, while a widely quoted (but anonymous) banker termed the U.S. House of Representatives’ bonus tax “anti-American” — helping Bachmann (who likewise opposed the tax) close the rhetorical noose around her targets’ necks. Until, that is, Sunday’s “60 Minutes” show on CBS, when President Barack Obama repatriated the term while chiding former Vice President Dick Cheney for fomenting actual anti-Americanism abroad. Quotes and video after the jump.

Bachmann’s original remark on MSNBC’s “Hardball” last October:

What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think the American people would love to see an expose like that. … Absolutely, I’m very concerned that [Obama] may have anti-American views.

An American investment banker , as quoted in a Financial Times article on Saturday entitled “Banker fury over tax ‘witch hunt’” – a single, conspicuously unnamed source whose views are now circulating widely on the ‘net:

“Finance is one of America’s great industries, and they’re destroying it,” said one banker at a firm that has accepted public money. “This happened out of haste and anger over AIG, but we’re not like AIG.” The banker added: ”It’s like a McCarthy witch-hunt. … This is the most profoundly anti-American thing I’ve ever seen.”

Obama on Cheney on CBS’ “60 Minutes”:

How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn’t made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment.

Here is the “60 Minutes” clip:

Here, presented for the first time, is Bachmann’s complete six-minute speech from that night. Captured by Ken Avidor of Dump Bachmann — the king of the Bachmann documentarians in the blogosphere — it offers a remarkable portrait of the Minnesota congressional representative who has been thrust into the spotlight in the past week by her assertion that Barack Obama and numerous unnamed members of Congress were “anti-American.”

In a church setting, Bachmann is extremely candid about the right-religious basis of her politics and her political career.  A full transcript of her remarks is reproduced below; here are some highlights:

It’s the job of Christians to wage war on ‘radical Islam’ in God’s name: “We are sitting right now at a time in our history when we’re going to be dealing with some of the most important issues of our time. Number one being, which your pastor is going to be talking about in the next few weeks, radical Islam. How will our nation deal with this threat of radical Islam? There’s so much at stake, but we listen to the Lord and we decide we’re going to suit up, we’re going to sign up, we’re going to be hot for God, and we’re going to do what He is calling us to do! And we’re going to watch out and see what He is going to perform in our midst.”

God told Bachmann to get into politics, and later to run for Congress: “Twenty-two months ago, He called me to run for United States Congress. And my husband thought, you need to do this. This is a big deal to do something like this. So we set aside three days where we fasted and we prayed, and long about the afternoon of day two, we knew. We knew that we knew that we knew. This was it. And so we jumped in, and little did we know that out of 435 seats for Congress, this race would turn in to being one of the top three in the country.”

God wants you to be hot: “I’m 50 years old. I came to know Him when I was 16. For 34 years, I’ve been hot! And you want to be hot! Because when you are hot for Jesus Christ, there is nothing that is like that life! It is the most exciting life! When you are praying in the spirit, when you are meditating on his word, when you are fellowshipping with white-hot believers, He turns your life around. And it isn’t just for you. It’s for the world! He changes the world through hot people!”

Transcript
… So many of you share that love with me. You know, you see of all these video games that are out there now, and DVDs, and it’s all about virtual reality. You know, one thing that’s so great about being in Living Word is we know what real reality is. Real reality is the life in the spirit, and Christ Jesus. That’s what we experience every day. Who needs virtual reality when you’ve got real reality, when you’re in the spirit of God?

And that’s what I’m here to tell you about. It’s His sure calling. Pastor Mac has an awesome sermon, and I want to give testimony to the sermon you’ll be hearing today. Because he’ll start out talking to you about how God doesn’t want us to be lukewarm. Amen? He says be hot or cold. Can you imagine, he would tell the world to be cold before being lukewarm? Imagine that.

When He gave me His calling, when I received Jesus when I was 16, the one thing that I knew that I knew that I knew is the difference between not knowing Him, being cold and being hot. And you know, today if you watch TV, you’ll see young people on TV, and they’ll say “she’s hot.” Or they’ll say “he’s hot.” And what are they talking about? They’re talking about the outward, about how someone looks on the outside. What does God say when He looks at you, or when He looks at me? He wants to say: “She’s hot!” “He’s hot!” Because we are hot for Him! On the inside! Amen!?

I’ll tell you one thing, just from experience. I’m 50 years old. I came to know Him when I was 16. For 34 years, I’ve been hot! And you want to be hot! Because when you are hot for Jesus Christ, there is nothing that is like that life! It is the most exciting life! When you are praying in the spirit, when you are meditating on his word, when you are fellowshipping with white-hot believers, He turns your life around. And it isn’t just for you. It’s for the world! He changes the world through hot people! And He will continue to use you to change the world.

He’s done that for me. He will do it for you. I tell you what — the Lord has changed me just by allowing me to surrender to His will. I didn’t want to go to law school. I had no desire to go to law school. And He said to me one night in college, He said, Michele, if you will be steadfast and diligent, I will take you to law school. Oh, okay, Lord. All right.

And so I went to law school. The first Christian law school in the United States, Oral Roberts University down in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now Regent Law School. I went there. And the Lord brought me to my husband. My girlfriend and I were praying one night in college, and all of a sudden the Lord gave each one of us, as we were praying, the same vision — which is odd — at the same time. And the vision was of me getting married in a farm valley to a guy sitting here in the front row.

And I thought to myself, Oooh. I don’t even like this guy. What’s this about? And so, put that vision on the shelf. At the same time, the Lord gave him a vision. He was a farmboy. He was out fixing a fence on the farm, and the Lord gave him a vision of marrying me out in that same valley on the farm. And he thought, Oooh, I’m 22. I don’t want to get married. I don’t think I even like her. And so he put that vision on the shelf.

And so we decided we’d just obey God. And so we obeyed God and we honored Him in our relationship. And pretty soon some romantic things started happening. And then we got married. And now it’s been 28 years, and I think it might work out. What do you think?

He put a calling on our heart. He put a calling on Marcus’s heart to meet people’s needs. He has a Christian counseling clinic here in the Twin Cities. Bachmann and Associates Christian Counseling. That’s his calling, to meet people’s needs on an emotional level.

He’s put a call on my heart to be involved in the law. But a few years ago, he put a call on our heart to have me go into politics. Politics? Why would I — five kids, 23 foster kids, counseling clinic, I’ve got a law career. What is that all about? Well, we were faithful and we said okay and we jumped in. He’s used me in a few different ways.

Twenty-two months ago, He called me to run for United States Congress. And my husband thought, you need to do this. This is a big deal to do something like this. So we set aside three days where we fasted and we prayed, and long about the afternoon of day two, we knew. We knew that we knew that we knew. This was it. And so we jumped in, and little did we know that out of 435 seats for Congress, this race would turn in to being one of the top three in the country. And that how this race turns will probably determine what majority is in Congress this fall. [sic]

We are sitting right now at a time in our history when we’re going to be dealing with some of the most important issues of our time. Number one being, which your pastor is going to be talking about in the next few weeks, radical Islam. How will our nation deal with this threat of radical Islam? There’s so much at stake, but we listen to the Lord and we decide we’re going to suit up, we’re going to sign up, we’re going to be hot for God, and we’re going to do what He is calling us to do! And we’re going to watch out and see what He is going to perform in our midst.

And that’s what it’s all about when He makes our calling sure. It isn’t about us. It’s about Him. And it’s about freeing each one of us up to do His will for His glory so that He will be magnified! And that’s His calling. It’s sure. I commend to you to listen carefully to the truth of His word that He will bless you with as your pastor comes and speaks to you this morning.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to fellowship with each one of you today. Thank you.

Following Rep. Michele Bachmann’s appearance with Chris Matthews yesterday, America is learning what many in Minnesota already knew, which is that putting Bachmann in front of a live microphone is like handing an excitable 15-year-old a bottle of gin and a loaded gun. The only question is when something unspeakable is going to happen.

Bachmann is no stranger to the hysterical off-the-cuff reaction. In her BC (Before Congress) incarnation, perhaps the most celebrated instance of Michele being Michele was a bizarre 2005 incident in a little town called Scandia. At the conclusion of a heated town meeting, then-state Sen. Bachmann retreated to a bathroom, where a couple of her constituents followed to continue the argument.

Then, according to a police report (PDF) that Bachmann later filed with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office:

BACHMAN [sic] STATED THAT WHEN SHE WAS GETTING READY TO LEAVE SHE WENT TO THE RESTROOM. SENATOR BACHMAN STATED THAT WHEN SHE WAS TRYING TO LEAVE THE RESTROOM, 2 WOMEN BLOCKED IN AND TOLD HER THEY WANTED TO CONTINUE TALKING. SEN BACHMAN STATED SHE WAS AFRAID AND SCREAMED FOR HELP. THE 2 WOMEN LET HER LEAVE THE RESTROOM WHEN SHE SCREAMED. THE WOMEN ARE BELIEVED TO BE W/ THE GLBT GROUP.

In short, Michele Bachmann claimed to have been briefly kidnapped, and caused to fear for her safety, by a pair of argumentative lesbian constituents. The incident never resulted in charges, in part because Bachmann’s own account of it kept shifting. (The Dump Bachmann blog has a good contemporaneous summary.)

Shortly after arriving in Congress, Bachmann briefly made headlines by revealing to St. Cloud Times reporter Lawrence Schumacher that the US government had agreed to a secret plan to turn half of Iraq over to Iran: “There is already agreement made,” said Bachmann. “They are going to get half of Iraq, and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone where they can go ahead and bring about more attacks in the Middle East, and come against the United States.”

From lesbian stalkers to secret US deals with terrorists — and now, anti-Americans skulking round Capitol Hill — few members of Congress have as keen an eye for threats no one else can see as Michele Bachmann.

And given as much, it has been amazing to see her emergence in 2008 as one of the most conspicuous faces of the Republican congressional caucus. Bachmann has been all over the cable networks for the past six months or so — bashing immigrants with Bill O’Reilly, holding forth on Sarah Palin and more with Larry King, chanting “drill baby drill” and “no bailout” on CNBC.

It was bound to come to trouble eventually, and it was Bachmann’s status as a second-line Sarah Palin surrogate that finally undid her. While pushing Palin’s Bill Ayers attack line, Bachmann did not restrict herself to the customary associations, such as “radical” and “terrorist.”

With her boundless enthusiasm for demonizing those she views as godless, Bachmann cheerfully broke new ground in the Ayers/Jeremiah Wright culture wars by forging a series of associations between “leftists” and “liberals” and “anti-Americans,” inside and outside Congress, who in Bachmann’s view ought to be investigated.

And all this as her campaign for re-election in the Sixth District was already facing a nascent pardon request scandal and tightening polls. No wonder Bachmann seems so tetchy and fearful these days. Someone — specifically, that woman in the mirror — is out to get her.