Bachmann reiterated her belief that the “gangster government” was putting auto dealerships out of business.

Geraldo worried that the term might dim her rising star. Bachmann dismissed that characterization. “I’m not worried about a star dimming or rising, that’s not really my point,” she said.

Rivera also asked Bachmann about her and Sarah Palin leading the Republican Party.

“No one would have guessed several years ago that the two, perhaps, strongest voices in the Republican party, certainly in the right-wing of the Republican party would be two attractive women… Dare I say it, I don’t want to sound like a chauvinist. What’s the chemistry, why do you two get along so?”

“[Sarah Palin]‘s even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside,” Bachmann said. She dodged Geraldo’s question on whether she and Palin might team up for the Republican nomination in 2012.

Photo: Simon Stromberg

Rep. Michele Bachmann laughed off criticism leveled at her by former President Bill Clinton at an event hosted by the Chicago Tea Party Patriots and the Chicago Republican Party on Saturday. Clinton said Bachmann’s statements about President Obama and Democrats as a “gangster government” might incite violence and “demonized” those who disagree with her. Bachmann says she’s a “nothing,” while repeating her claim and saying, “This is going to be fun.”

“[Clinton] was making an analogy that Michele Bachmann had made a statement the day before during the Tea Party rally that what President Obama was doing was gangster government,” Bachmann told the attendees. “And because I’m using a statement like ‘gangster,’ I’m responsible for creating the climate of hate that could lead to another Timothy McVeigh and another Oklahoma City bombing.”

She added, “How do you like them apples?”

She said she doesn’t have that kind of influence in politics.

“So I decided, well, this is going to be fun. This is going to be fun! I am nothing. I am on the bottom of the food chain. I’m in the minority party. I’m in my second term as a Congress woman and the former president of the United States decides I’m important enough to take me out!”

She said to Clinton, “Thank you very much! Thank you!”

Watch the video of Bachmann’s speech at the Chicago event:

Rep. Michele Bachmann. Photo: Douglas Burns

Rep. Michele Bachmann is taking heat over statements she made at a Tea Party gathering in Washington, D.C., last week when she called the Obama administration and Democratic Congress a “gangster government.” Those remarks have prompted a strong rebuke from Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton and Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, and found at least one conservative Republican, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, distancing herself from Bachmann.

In an interview with the New York Times, Clinton said Bachmann’s statements were meant to “demonize” Obama and Democrats.

Mr. Clinton pointed to remarks like those made Thursday by Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican, who when speaking at a Tea Party rally in Washington characterized the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as “the gangster government.”

“They are not gangsters,” Mr. Clinton said. “They were elected. They are not doing anything they were not elected to do.”

“There can be real consequences when what you say animates people who do things you would never do,” Mr. Clinton said in an interview, saying that Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing, and those who assisted him, “were profoundly alienated, disconnected people who bought into this militant antigovernment line.”

“Have at it,” he said. “You can attack the politics. Criticize their policies. Don’t demonize them, and don’t say things that will encourage violent opposition.”

And on Friday, Rep. Betty McCollum called Bachmann’s statements “dangerous name-calling.” In a statement, she said:

“With hate groups and violent anti-government militias on the rise in this country elected leaders must be mindful of the potential of their words to inspire violence. Constructive, passionate political debate is expected in our democracy, but harsh, dangerous name-calling that vilifies the President or Members of Congress is irresponsible. We must not ignore that the Oklahoma City bombing was an act of political violence perpetrated by deranged, anti-government extremists. It’s much too late after a bomb goes off to start condemning hate-inspired, violent rhetoric.”

On Meet the Press Sunday morning, Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee distanced herself from Bachmann’s statements and that type of rhetoric. “It would not have been a choice in words that I made,” she said. “And what we have to realize is that any time you have large public gatherings, whether it is a group from the left, or a group from the right, you’re going to have lots of individuals with different opinions who show up.”

Here are Blackburn’s full remarks:

That’s from Jed Lewison, writing at Daily Kos, who concludes:

Michele Bachmann is pushing a conspiracy theory that the Obama administration is using the GM situation to reward its political supporters.

Her primary piece of evidence is a dealership in her own state owned and operated by a Republican who hasn’t contributed to a Democrat on the federal level in at least 10 years. Moreover, he’s contributed more than $100,000 to Republicans and conservatives, including $6,700 to Bachmann herself.

That leaves us with two possibilities: either the Obama administration are the least competent conspirators ever, or Michele Bachmann is a paranoid and delusional freak.

Her other floor speech Tuesday, Bachmann likened the United States’ economy to the Titanic. Even if the analogy holds, she shouldn’t worry, as University of Minnesota political blog Smart Politics christened her “The Unsinkable Michele Bachmann” (a play on the nickname for a famous Titanic survivor) earlier this year.