Rep. Michele Bachmann took to the floor of the House of Representatives twice Tuesday, likening the United States to the Titanic and lambasting “gangster government” for meddling in carmakers’ affairs — though she boasts on her Web site of doing the same auto dealership-advocacy she decries Democrats for.

Here’s Bachmann on “gangster government” and the auto industry, after Rep. Todd Akin (full transcript):

It’s not too hard to guess who Bachmann might be talking about as she ramps up her rhetoric (full transcript):

One story that came out today, there is a dealership that I know of that applied to their Democrat [sic] Senator to appeal for help so that they could stay open. That Senator was able to arrange a meeting between the dealer and the officials at GM. We all know GM is now Government Motors because it’s owned by the American people. It’s been nationalized. There is no private corporations the way we used to think of GM. Now, the main stockholder is the American Government. So this Democrat Senator who was applied to for help was able to secure a meeting with General Motors and a car dealership, and they were able to get their dealership back.

Minnesota’s lone senator, Amy Klobuchar, was in the news for helping the Walser dealership in Bloomington gain one of only about a dozen reprieves for GM dealerships told earlier they must close.

Bachmann goes on in the same speech to twice cite conservative columnist and American Enterprise Institute fellow Michael Barone:  ”He said now we’ve moved into the realm of gangster government.”

But Bachmann’s own auto-industry meddling comes before Klobuchar’s in a news story posted on the Republican’s own Web site:

Congresswoman Michelle Bachman [sic] was on hand to lead the rally to save the dealership. She said she will take their fight to Washington on Wednesday when Chrysler leaders will be questioned by members of the senate about the future of local car dealers.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar will also take the fight and a petition signed by attendees of the rally to Washington.

In a separate speech yesterday (full transcript), Bachmann made an analogy between the United States and the most famous sinking ship:

Last weekend my family sat down and we were watching the commercial movie “Titanic.” And as I was listening to Dr. Burgess from Texas talk about the debt and the burgeoning debt load that the United States takes, once the ice gash came in the side of the Titanic, which we all remember was called the “unsinkable Titanic,” we think of the United States. Nothing can possibly sink the United States. We will always be a superpower. But one thing that has kept us a superpower has been freedom, free market economists. We are in the process of watching the deconstruction of free market economists before our very eyes, something we have never seen. But as the ice ripped that hole in the Titanic, water started being taken on, and the engineer came out and brought the blueprint of the Titanic. Water came into the first chamber, spilled over to the second, spilled over to the third, and by the time it filled up so many chambers, it was over. It was impossible to resurrect that ship.

It would be interesting to hear Bachmann extend the analogy to talk about the role that Titanic passengers’ economic class played in whether they survived or died.

Here’s Bachmann on the Titanic and the U.S. economy, after Rep. Steve King:

Update: ‘Unsinkable’ Bachmann deep in donations from Walser, whose rescue she mocked

Elsewhere in Minnesota this morning …

PAYNESVILLE: GM dealer to plead case in D.C. Doug Hawkinson got a Dear John letter to say it’s over between his shop and the now-bankrupt automaker, but he’ll make a trip this week to meet his new bosses in the nation’s capital in hopes of saving his business. [St. Cloud Times]

ST. PAUL: Ash trees‘ survival depends on Pawlenty’s unallotments. Arborists ID’d 59 infected trees for removal; survivors must avoid not only the ash borer beetle but cuts to treatment funds by gubernatorial fiat. [Park Bugle; Associated Press]

BEMIDJI: City beach sold to local hotelier. The deal puts into private hands the first half-acre of a planned 141.5-acre redevelopment area, but Nymore Beach will stay open to the public until an adjacent replacement is ready. [Bemidji Pioneer]

INTERNATIONAL FALLS: New passport rule snares zero. It was all quiet on the Canadian front Monday, as U.S. Customs let the 5 percent who weren’t carrying passports cross the border once they proved where they lived. [Duluth News Tribune]

MAHNOMEN: Sweat lodges have police breaking out citation books. Damian Bad Boy hosted 14 American Indian ceremonies last month, but the drumming, singing and bonfires drew complaints from neighbors — and tickets that he says violate his federal rights. [Bemidji Pioneer]

MINNEAPOLIS: Target taps Seattle’s Pearl Jam for new ad tune. The downtown-based national retailer previously favored two defunct local bands with an ad featuring the Suicide Commandos’ “Complicated Fun,” as performed by the Magnolias. [MinnPost; City Pages]

Now MSNBC presents a GOP memo, reportedly circulated to Senate Republicans Wednesday morning, that shows there might be a political motive behind the votes: Entitled “Action Alert – Auto Bailout,” it characterized the defeat of the industry bailout — which is what the sub-60-vote Senate tally delivered — the “first shot against organized labor.” The memo went out to GOP senators, but perhaps Rep. Bachmann got a copy too. The same day the email was sent, she released a statement on her opposition to the bailout: “Unfortunately,  the Democrat-led Congress has chosen to blindly oblige Big Labor at every  turn, regardless of whether it’s in the best interest of taxpayers.”

From the Michigan Messenger: Big Three bailout spotlight reveals Detroit’s decay

Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum and James Oberstar joined with Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad in supporting the bill, while Democratic Reps. Tim Walz and Collin Peterson joined Republican Reps. John Kline and Michele Bachmann in opposing the measure. Rep. Keith Ellison did not vote.

Walz (pictured) explained his vote in a statement Wednesday. “Nothing in this bill will prevent the auto manufacturers and their suppliers from continuing to move jobs overseas,” he said. “And we have no guarantee that spending $15 billion in taxpayers’ money will actually solve the Big Three’s problems. We must preserve and create jobs in America but this isn’t the way to do it.”

Bluestem Prairie, a blog that follows news about Walz, notes that the Star Tribune reprinted a New York Times article that incorrectly states that Walz and Peterson voted for the bill. In another area of the paper, they reprint an Associated Press article that got the votes correct.