Actually, there is a six-degrees-type connection between Franken and Malcolm X:

Until he announced his run for U.S. Senate in early 2007, Franken hosted a weekday radio show on the Air America network from noon to 3 p.m., Eastern Time. Last week, Air America announced that the new host in Franken’s old time slot is Ron Kuby. In 1995, Kuby, with former law associate William Kunstler, represented Qubilah Shabbazz against charges (filed in Minneapolis) that she tried to hire an FBI informant to kill Louis Farrakhan, who she suspected of involvement in the 1965 death of her father, Malcolm X.

She said, “But what I think we’re seeing is an implementation of all of the radical ideas that Bill Ayers and Ward Churchill — the radical ideas that we’ve seen on some college campuses, they’re now being implemented in our government, and they’re taking a nefarious route when it looks at the economic recovery.”

Here’s the audio:

The Minnesota GOP is sending out a mailer attacking Barack Obama for his alleged “close ties to domestic terrorist” William Ayers. But at first glance it appears that the t-word is being applied to Obama: just above the mailing panel is the Democrat’s name and face, his head turned to the left. Near his mouth is a quote, attributed only to the New York Times. “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.”

CQ Politics — which has called the charge “so wrong it’s pants-on-fire wrong” — reports that Republicans in Virginia are sending out the same mailers.

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.

Have you received such a call? If so, were you able to record it? Email me at pschmelzer [at] minnesotaindependent.com.

Update: More than a dozen readers from the greater Twin Cities area have been emailing to report that they’re receiving these calls. Calls began on Tuesday and have been received, apparently by many Democrats, in Blaine, Champlin, Dundas, Fridley, Minneapolis, Prior Lake and St. Paul. One recipient said the male caller alleged that Obama’s campaign was “launched in the living room” of Bill Ayers, a claim Obama disputed at last night’s debate.

The Colorado Independent has the script and audio.

Update 10/17: A reader from Mankato emailed and said she received the call as well — on her cellphone.

And when I say funded I’m not talking a token donation. All told the Annenberg’s gave $50 million dollars to the initiative, which Ayers spearheaded.

John Martin, blogging at Republicans for Obama, summed up his reporting of this curious matter thusly:

I’m feeling a little cheated.  Months ago I was promised an October surprise.  It’s already October 9th, and all I’ve heard is that Barack knows a guy who’s been working with McCain supporters and Republicans since the mid 90’s.

Dick Durbin is the senior senator from Illinois and is currently seeking a third term in office. He’s being challenged by Republican Steve Sauerberg, but polls have consistently shown the incumbent with a commanding lead. Durbin was an early supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and introduced him at the Democratic National Convention in August. Today he was in Minnesota stumping for his fellow Illinois legislator. I spoke to him by phone. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Minnesota Independent: You are in the midst of a re-election campaign, so what are you doing in Minnesota?

Dick Durbin: I try to sneak away a few days a week to help Barack Obama. I was part of the group that talked him into this race and I’ve kept my word that I’d stand by him all the way. I’m trying to have that dual responsibility of running for re-election in my state and helping him win.

MI: What’s your big picture assessment of the presidential race at this time?

DD: I think there was a real shift in this election campaign just within the last two or three weeks. When the economy became such a dominant issue, it really pushed aside a lot of the minor and superficial things that had been talked about. We spent two or three days debating what Barack meant when he said “lipstick on a pig.” I don’t think the American people would tolerate that conversation in light of the serious economic problems we face today.

MI: In recent days we’ve heard a lot about Bill Ayers from the McCain campaign. What do you make of those attacks?

DD: It doesn’t have legs. What it boils down to is Bill Ayers’ wrongdoing occurred when Barack Obama was 8 years old and was a kid in grade school. To any way associate Barack with Ayers, besides a few meetings on a charitable board, is an exaggeration. As Rahm Emmanuel said recently, if you’re going to hold Barack Obama accountable for what happened when he was 8 years old, you should hold Sen. McCain accountable for what happened when he was 58 years old, which happens to be the Keating Five scandal.

MI: You’ve had similar attacks waged against you by your Republican opponent, accusing you of actions that “embolden the enemy.” What impact do you think those have had on your own contest?

DD: I was kind of surprised that my opponent went to that level, first saying that he thought I was unpatriotic and then saying that somehow I endangered our troops. We had a debate over it last night in Galesburg. I said to him, I just don’t think this is gonna work, doctor. I don’t think the American people are going to buy this. They’re more interested in what we’re going to do to end this war and bring our troops home safely. They’re more interested in what we’re going to do to get this economy back on its feet. This kind of name calling I think is for the bottom feeders of the American political scene.

MI: You’ve been a frequent critic of Guantanamo Bay. We’ve heard very little about that facility in the presidential campaign. If Obama is elected, what do you expect to happen with Guantanamo Bay?

DD: I expect Guantanamo to be closed. I think Barack Obama understands, as I do, that it has become a blight on America’s image around the world. We need to bring those prisoners to justice if they have committed crimes or in any way endanger our nation. We need to be honest. If we’ve held them for years without any evidence of wrongdoing they need to be released.

MI: Do you have in mind a time frame for how long it would take to shut that facility down after Jan. 20?

DD: I don’t have one. But I can tell you that even President Bush was talking about closing Guantanamo over a year ago. I think it’s long overdue.

MI: You supported the $700 billion bailout package. Why?

DD: I’m afraid it was the only game in town. I hate to say that. This mess that we have with our economy was a creation of the deregulators, high priest Phil Gramm and his acolyte John McCain. This notion that if we just stepped aside dynamic capitalism would create wealth and growth — well, we’re paying our comeuppance, and sadly a lot of people are suffering. People have lost their savings. Investors are getting the bad news on a regular basis. We’ve got to have central regulation. We can’t exempt any portion of our economy from the kind of oversight that protects basic American families.

MI: This bailout package was intended to calm the financial sector. Clearly that has not happened. Why do you think that is?

DD: We hoped that the passage of the legislation would be a confidence builder. It didn’t work. Perhaps when we start actually buying these illiquid assets and strengthening some of the institutions it will work. But there’s a chance as well that it won’t work at all. Our alternative was to do nothing. I just couldn’t bring myself to reach that point. Neither could Barack.

MI: Race — what role do you think it is playing in this election so far?

DD: It would be naive to believe that race is not a factor in this election. It is. There will be people who will vote based on race. I’ve run into some who’ve told me in Chicago that they’re good strong Democrats, but they’re still struggling with the notion of voting for a black man. They’ve been candid with me about it. The thing that I think has happened is over time people have come to know Barack Obama. They’ve watched and seen him during the course of his campaign. It’s been 16 years or so since he published his autobiography. Obama’s story is out there in detail for America. There is still a chasm between races in our country. Most of us don’t feel that we completely understand black families because we don’t associate as much as we should. But I think at the end of this campaign there will be a much smaller percentage of voters that are troubled by that. I think that Barack is going to overcome it.