Sarah Palin told Fox News listeners last night that the debate, co-hosted by CNN and the Tea Party Express, validated the movement and that she no longer considers the end of September her deadline for making a decision on a presidential run.

“I was very pleased with this debate and very excited about the validation of the tea party movement,” Palin told Fox’s Greta VanSusten. “The winner in this really, I believe, was the tea party movement and that validation of what it is that we’ve been talking about for two years now.”

Palin had high praise for former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, noting that he was the only one to discuss going after government fraud, waste and “crony capitalism.”

“Hopefully what he talked about could help teach his colleagues up their on the stage,” she added, speculating that some of the 2012 candidates “don’t have a real strong record to stand on” when it comes to such discussions.

But “any of them” with their “pro-private sector” beliefs, she said, would be better than the failed policies of the Obama administration.

When it comes to her own potential presidential aspirations, however, Palin continues to play coy.

“I’m not going to let the media tell me or dictate when a drop-dead date should be,” Palin said. “I still have that same old dopey, same old answer that I’m sure you guys are getting sick of hearing, and that is I’m still thinking about it, praying about it, contemplating, talking to my family. I’m sick of giving the same answer, believe me. I’m anxious to give an answer and get on with life one way or the other. But whichever direction life takes me, I’m going to continue to speak up for we the people and that tea Party movement and the mama grizzlies.”

Her present role, she said, is to keep raising issues that candidates should be talking about while on the stump because she believes those in the campaign are following her lead.

The campaign of Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison is using Fox News’ criticism of a recent comment he made about Rep. Michele Bachmann to appeal for donations for the upcoming 2012 election.

Ellison told student activists last week that conservatives, including Michele Bachmann, want to keep women barefoot and pregnant. Fox News picked up the clip. By Wednesday, Ellison’s campaign had posted an appeal for funds on his campaign site, saying the “right-wing noise machine” was targeting Ellison.

One of the Fox News appearances of the clip occurred Tuesday on “The Five,” a panel show that replaced Glenn Beck’s show this week.

Greg Gutfeld, host of a 3 a.m. show on Fox, referred to Ellison’s religion.

“It’s kind of rich coming from Ellison, who is a Muslim,” Gutfeld said. “There are plenty of Muslim countries out there that if Michele Bachmann was doing what she was doing would be killed.”

(Gutfeld also questioned why Ellison used such “florid” language to say that the goal of conservatives is to shrink government down to the size where they can “drown it in the bathtub,” which is actually a quote by Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist).

Eric Bolling, a Fox Business host, said he felt “bad for [Bachmann] having to share Minnesota with this [Ellison].”

The financial appeal from the Ellison campaign was up soon after the clips aired on FOX.

“In response to Keith’s strong support of women’s rights, the right-wing media has unleashed another vitriolic attack,” the statement declared. “As a supporter and friend to Keith, you know that his record of fighting for equal rights for women speaks for itself. But will you speak for him?”

The post on Ellison’s site boasted three separate linked appeals for donations.

Ellison’s 2010 opponent, Republican Joel Demos, raised a little more than $95,000 in that election cycle, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, while Ellison raised almost $1.4 million. Ellison won the four-way 2010 race with 67 percent of the vote.

Watch the video:

Conservative Fox News commentator Sean Hannity went after Rep. Keith Ellison in an interview Wednesday evening, criticizing the Minnesota congressman for saying Fox News has contributed to the scapegoating of Muslims.

Hannity asked Ellison about a statement he made recently: “I think if you listen to Fox News, the station 24-7 is trying to incite and divide Americans along religious lines, scapegoating the Muslim community, and this is a sort of well-worn, right-wing tactic.”

Hannity asked, “This is an incredible charge. This is a charge of bigotry. Can you give me a specific example?”

“I don’t apologize for it,” Ellison said. “If you are telling me you are going to be more even-handed on issues of religious tolerance, that’s a good step, and I thought that by inviting me here, I thought that’s what you were trying to do.”

Ellison didn’t have any specific examples available, but Media Matters did. A good example was Hannity’s criticism of Ellison for taking his oath of office on the Qur’an.

At the time Hannity said Ellison’s oath “will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones” and suggested that using the Qur’an for a swearing-in is comparable to using “Hitler’s Mein Kampf, which is the Nazi bible.”

“When you only identity terrorism and extremism with one religion, I think that’s too bad,” Ellison told Hannity. “We are at war with violent extremists who would kill Americans, they might be Muslims, they might be white supremacists, they might be people who would kill at abortion clinics. We are trying to protect Americans from any violent extremists, Muslim, Christian or Jewish, anybody.”

Watch it:

A potential GOP candidate getting flak from Fox News’ conservative anchors for criticizing President Obama? That was the case for Tim Pawlenty on Wednesday when the Fox and Friends new macho image isn’t sitting well with some of Fox News’ conservative anchors who called Pawlenty’s recent comments about President Obama, “inappropriate,” “out of hand” and possibly “bad for the country.” The Fox and Friends crew took Pawlenty to task on Wednesday after Pawlenty made a comment on Tuesday that Obama gets so scared by intelligence briefings that he soils himself.

Pawlenty told radio host Dennis Miller, “The intelligence people come in and brief him in the morning, he’s probably looking for a pair of Depends, and so I think he’s in over his head on a lot of levels and a lot of ways, and that’s reflective of how he thrashes about and in some ways almost reacts incoherently to these security situations.”

Brian Kilmeade said he thought it was “bad for the country.”

Gretchen Carlson saw it as Pawlenty trying to rebrand his “Minnesota nice” image. “You can see there is a strategy in play of Tim Pawlenty trying to get a little more tough tough now the question is is that acceptable in getting tough.”

A study last year by the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota found that Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on cable news programs every nine days on average. Last week, she shattered those expectations by appearing on a cable news program at least once a day from Tuesday through Saturday making 14 national television or radio appearances.

Last week, Bachmann hired communications director Doug Sachtleben, a former spokesperson for the U.S. Senate campaign of Christine (“I am not a witch”) O’Donnell. That brings Bachmann’s communications staff to three people. Among what must have kept that staff busy last week: Six Fox News appearances. For comparison, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is preparing to promote his memoirs in anticipation of a presidential bid, did four national media interviews last week.

On Monday, Dec. 6, Bachmann appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show to denounce any extension of unemployment benefits.

“When you overspend you lose options,” she said. “We’re at a crucial tipping point and we can’t add an additional year of unemployment benefits because we need to put our economy on a footing where we can see real job creation.”

Tuesday brought Bachmann’s call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood to CNS News.

The same day, Bachmann was on Fox’s America Live with Megyn Kelly. “Extending the unemployment benefits for 13 months has a cost of about $54 billion dollars… It doesn’t appear that that is paid for,” she said. “That will add to the deficit going forward.”

Also on Tuesday, the 6th District Republican was on the Mark Levin radio show where she said President Obama lied in his press conference about the tax cut plan earlier that day.

“And he said that Republicans oppose various credits for the middle class. Those are flat out lies! And then he said that it is our ‘holy grail’ to be able to stand for tax cuts for the wealthy. So he is continually setting up ‘Marxist economics.’”

On Wednesday, as a guest on the Laura Ingraham radio show, Bachmann again criticized President Obama’s press conference, calling him “angry and bitter.”

“He made one false statement after another in this press conference,” she said. “He’s making thee wild unbased statements. He’s such a promoter of class warfare. I don’t think he did himself any favors with that press conference yesterday.”

On tax cuts for the wealthy and middle class, she said, “No one is getting a tax cut. This is preventing tax increases.”

Also on Wednesday, Bachmann was on Fox Business’ Bulls and Bears to again talk about the president’s tax cut plan.

She said she opposes the part of the plan to cut employees portion of the payroll tax saying it will cost Social Security $140 billion: “We are going to blow open in the Social Security trust fund.”

On whether she would vote for the tax-cut plan: “I haven’t made a final decision.”

Host Liz Claman pressed Bachmann on the GOP’s apparent about-face on tax cuts. “It’s stunning to see that Republicans who had pushed so hard for this now say, ‘Okay, maybe not,’” she said. “Do you guys even know what you want?”

Bachmann replied, “Our position has been we don’t want the massive tax increases that President Obama has been advocating.”

Bachmann departed a bit from talking tax cuts on Thursday, when she appeared on Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network to promote her new classes on the Constitution, which will include controversial guest lecturers like David Barton.

“The Judeo-Christian heritage isn’t a belief,” she said. “It’s a fact of our nation’s history. It’s a fact…One thing we know from the Book of Isaiah is that Isaiah tells us that the government is on His shoulders. We can trust a holy, almighty God with our future and nothing is too big for Him.”

On Friday, Bachmann spoke with Fox News Live about the tax cut plan: “It’s interesting when people are allowed to keep their money that’s considered a deficit to government, because it’s less money for government. But it’s people keeping their own money which gets circulated in the economy. We want people to keep more of their own money.”

CNN’s American Morning also hosted Bachmann on Friday to talk about tax cuts. CNN host John Roberts challenged Bachmann about her opposition to unemployment benefits because they increase the deficit and her support for the Bush tax cuts which would have the same effect.

“Part of the reason it increases the deficit is because you are maintaining those marginal tax rates for all income levels,” Roberts said. Bachmann replied that she wants a change to the definition of “deficit.”

“Remember the definition… it’s a deficit to government but it’s not a deficit to people who get to keep their money,” she said. “So it’s how you frame it.”

She said, “I don’t think letting people keep their own money should be a deficit. You are right about that John it is to the government but think about what else we could do right now: cut spending.”

Meredith Viera of the Today Show was even more direct in her criticism of Bachmann’s shifting definitions on Friday, and Bachmann’s opposition to unemployment benefits; that conversation got tense.

VIEIRA: But how, how do you justify adding more money to the deficit? That much more?

BACHMANN: Well remember that money is, is, when people are allowed to keep their own money, that’s considered a deficit. I don’t, I don’t agree with that definition. When people keep their own money, that’s considered a deficit to government, but it’s not a deficit to your pocket or mine. And so I think it’s important that people can keep their money.

VIEIRA: Let me ask you about people who might be sitting there, watching this interview and they’re frustrated because they feel while the Republican-

BACHMANN: I don’t blame them.

VIEIRA: Well wait a minute! They feel the Republicans, they’re all for these tax cuts, even for multimillionaires but opposed to extending the unemployment benefits that are helping the people who are hurting the most. To them, this is mean spirited. Why are they wrong?

BACHMANN: But we’re not talking about millionaires sitting in leather chairs lighting their cigars with $100 bills. We’re talking about a carpet layer in Sheboygan, Wisconsin who employs his brother-in-law and his son. And they have $250,000 in gross sales. That’s what we’re talking about. Real people who aren’t living large.

VIEIRA: Well you’re talking about everybody. That and also people who are living large.

BACHMANN: But we’re talking about everyone and what, and remember those people who are the job providers, those are the people that won’t be able to provide more jobs. That’s what people want right now. They want jobs, they want paychecks. That’s the focus.

VIEIRA: But they also want their unemployment benefits Congresswoman. They also want that and you’re opposed to that.

BACHMANN: People want a paycheck, they want paychecks more than they want unemployment benefits. Right now unemployment is-

VIEIRA: If they don’t have a job they want unemployment benefits.

BACHMANN: That’s, that’s right and that’s what we want. We want people to have jobs. Right now it’s historic. People have unemployment benefits for two years. It isn’t just unemployment. It’s also food stamps it’s also housing assistance. It’s also all the other programs that go along with it. So the best thing we can do is grow the economy and to do that we need to keep rates low enough so that employers can hire more people.

On Friday, Bachmann also hit up the studio of Lou Dobbs for an impromptu interview about her Constitution classes.

“We are going to do what the NFL does and what the baseball teams do we are going to practice every week, if you will, our craft,” she said. “Justice Scalia has graciously agreed to kick off our class.”

In yet another interview on Friday, Bachmann appeared on Fox Business’ Freedom Watch to talk about the president’s tax cut plan. She said the Democrats will reject Obama’s plan because it does not increase taxes enough.

“They think that the tax compromise bill did not tax people enough,” she said. “That’s the bottom line. They want people taxed more than what Barack Obama has in this bill.”

In still another interview on Friday, Bachmann joined Gretchen Carlson for Fox’s Klimeade and Friends radio show, and on Saturday she was a guest on Fox’s Geraldo At Large.

The Republican Party of Minnesota criticized Secretary of State Mark Ritchie for “massive” voting machine failures across the state on Tuesday. But reporters around the state investigating the downed machines found the issue to be overheated rhetoric, not overheated machines.

The GOP contends that ballot scanning machines in eight precincts have malfunctioned. But according to MinnPost, the Associated Press told the party that they investigated three of the eight instances of broken machines and found that there were no ongoing problems in those three polling places.

And the Capitol Report, a blog of Forum Communications, dug even deeper. Among the problems at polling places were a power outage and an infant dropping a toy in a machine.

Capitol Report notes that in many of the several instances the machines were fixed after the first ballot was submitted.

“As you know from past experience, voting machines experience minor issues from time to time that do not disenfranchise voters but that require election judges and officials to take action,” Secretary of State Bert Black wrote to a Republican Party. “This is not new in the election process.”

Black said that all problems have been fixed.

Despite the seemingly low number of problems at Minnesota polling places on Tuesday, Fox News picked up the GOP’s story.

Rep. Keith Ellison

Rep. Keith Ellison says the anti-Muslim fervor currently being seen around the country is “religious bigotry, nothing more, nothing less,” and in an interview with the BBC he pointed to Fox News as a contributing factor in the growth of such sentiment. Ellison also issued a statement Wednesday condemning a Quran-burning event scheduled for Sept. 11, saying it doesn’t represent Americans.

From Ellison’s interview, transcribed by Hart Van Denburg of City Pages:

“The people who are leading the anti-mosque effort — and again, it’s not a mosque, it’s a community center that will have a Muslim prayer room in it [and] I’m sure that anyone who wants to pray in there with whatever faith will be welcome to do so — the real drivers of it are people who openly proclaim that Barack Obama is not a citizen. The real organizers of this thing are people who are just proponents of religious bigotry. Nothing more. Nothing less. And around the country this thing is emblematic of a larger issue. There have been anti-mosque efforts in Kentucky. One gentleman wants to burn a Koran in Florida. There have been [anti-mosque] efforts in Wisconsin, in the Chicago area, and others.”

Ellison said that Fox News has played a part in dividing Americans.

“I think that if you listen to Fox News — that station is 24/7 trying to incite and divide Americans along religious lines, scapegoating the Muslim community. And this is sort of a well-worn, rightwing tactic.”

Ellison also released a statement on Wednesday about a “Burn a Koran” event planned by a pastor in Gainsville, Florida.

“On a day when we should remember the victims and heroic first-responders of the September 11th attacks, a fringe group in Florida has decided to burn copies of the Quran in a deliberate attempt to provoke individuals of the Muslim faith,” he said. “This provocation should not be rewarded with a response. I urge caution, patience, and restraint, and I pray that no one takes the bait being dangled by this misguided group.”

He added, “This group does not represent the sentiment of the American people. It dishonors those who died on September 11th by using the anniversary to fuel hatred and division.”

As our sister site, the Florida Independent, reports, many — including Gen. David Petraeus, Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder — have criticized the event.

On Fox and Friends, Dean said, “I see the absolute arrogance and absolute disrespect for the American people here. It’s always the American people who have to sit down and basically accept everyone for who they are when they come into America.”

He added, “It’s time for the American people to stand up and say to the foreigners that are coming to our country, ‘It’s time for you to see it our way and when we say no as Americans it’s means just that; you aren’t doing it here.’”

Here’s video of the full exchange:

He’s not the first Minnesotan to weigh in about a neighborhood project in New York City: Gov. Tim Pawlenty earned rebukes from Muslim groups in Minnesota and from Rep. Keith Ellison for calling the center “inappropriate,” and the Minnesota-based head of the National Council of Churches, the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, was among 40 religious leaders calling out some of the opposition as “xenophobia and religious bigotry.“

Bachmann told Fox News she’s “shocked” by the claims of racism within the tea party movement. “Racism is a very serious charge, because it’s ugly,” Bachmann said. “…These are serious charges, so people need to back them up.”

Here’s Bachmann on Fox:

O’Reilly began his interview with Bachmann with apparent chagrin.

“Whoa. Extortion? Shakedown? Look, if the executive branch, the presidency, isn’t going to force BP to pony up the money, who would?

Bachmann instead changed the subject. “The question is who will run the fund… will this fund be politicized?”

“That’s not how it came across,” O’Reilly countered, to a seemingly flustered Bachmann. He later said:

“You and Congressman Barton in Texas, using words like ‘shakedown’ and ‘extortion’ and all of that, I’m not agreeing with that. I think Obama did absolutely the right thing by putting the maximum amount of pressure on these weasels. You saw [BP CEO Tony] Hayward yesterday. Is this the biggest weasel in the world, this guy? Is there a bigger weasel on the planet than him? And you’re trusting him to do anything? … I’d go in there with a machine gun if I were president and say, ‘Hey, you put that money in here or you’re not getting out of the room…’ I think this is the best thing Obama did in the entire mess, getting the $20 billion.”

“You’re dodging my question about extortion and a shakedown,” O’Reilly said in the uncharacteristically heated exchange.

“I think they’re putting pressure on them,” she replied.

Rivera began his panel of three congressional Republicans by addressing Bachmann.

“We are fans of yours on this program,” he said. “You are scrappy, you are independent. But clearly, by comparing the White House negotiation for a $20 billion escrow account to ‘extortion’ you have overstepped the bounds of even rhetoric, don’t you agree?”

She didn’t.

In fact, she didn’t answer the question, prompting Rivera to break in, “Congresswoman, you are changing the subject. Do you withdraw the word ‘extortion’ or do you not withdraw ‘extortion’… You have characterized the White House as an extortionist and withheld, it seems to me, the strongest criticism for the oil company.”

Watch Bachmann on The O’Reilly Factor:

Watch Bachmann on Rivera’s show (fast-forward to 03:37):