Hardball

Meteorologists may have failed to forecast yesterday’s freak tornado, but political scientists are now able to predict when U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann will next appear on a national cable news show: Aug. 27.

In a post (not a battleship) christened “The Unsinkable Michele Bachmann,” the University of Minnesota’s Smart Politics blog predicts the 6th District congresswoman will coast to re-election in 2010, if the 6th District sees only the slightest shift of political breezes that lately have been blowing Democrats’ way. And it doesn’t matter what she says, [...]

MSNBC must stand for Minnesotans Speak Nightly By Cable. For the fourth straight night, the TV news channel carried a segment featuring a prominent elected official from the state. Thursday it was again Gov. Tim Pawlenty, this time on “Hardball” representing Republican governors who opposed the federal stimulus bill but will accept the money (a [...]

“Love her or hate her, [Rep. Michele] Bachmann attracts attention,” writes The Hill in a profile that lists the Minnesotan’s 2008 humdingers, including her State of the Union presidential grope-and-smooch and the infamous “Hardball” incident. The piece also notes something I’ve been noticing — a Bachmann media blitz that had her on Fox three times [...]

Madoff, Palin, Bush, Blagojevich… Bachmann? The Guardian’s Michael Tomasky ranks Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District Rep. Michele Bachmann fifth in “America’s hall of shame.” Her suggestion that journalists should investigate whether Barack Obama and other members of Congress have “anti-American views” — which Tomasky calls “the single most appalling political statement of the year” — merited [...]

When TIME’s Best of 2008 series came out, I was surprised that Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann didn’t make the cut. Her infamous October appearance on Hardball didn’t merit mention in the Top 10 Campaign Video Moments (which, rightfully, saw Sarah Palin’s Katie Couric interview at the top) or Top 10 Campaign Gaffes? Now, as 2008 [...]

Before Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Oct. 17 statements on MSNBC about “anti-America views” she feared some in Congress hold, the airwaves in the 6th Congressional District were relatively quiet. But over the past two weeks well over $1 million in campaign contributions from people outraged by her comments have poured into the campaign of DFLer El [...]

It’s been almost two weeks since Michele Bachmann dropped the “anti-American” bomb that has become the most widely aired gaffe in any US congressional campaign this year, and her campaign’s handling of the matter looks a lot like one protracted act of political malpractice.

The fallout from Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “anti-America” interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews last Friday has turned the 2008 6th District race on its head. But it also could poison the well for Bachmann’s future fundraising efforts should she win this time or run for another office in the future.

It’s been widely noted that Bachmann’s challenger, El Tinklenberg, has raised a reported $1.45 million in campaign donations since that interview.

How about Bachmann? She has taken in $29,900 in itemized (over $250) contributions since last Friday. And a spokesman for one of those contributors tells MnIndy his company might not do it again.

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s moment of infamy on Hardball has now been immortalized in song. Huffington Post’s Paul Hipp created this infectious ditty. “Let’s do all we can for the man whose name sounds like peeing in the snow!!!” Hipp writes. Everybody sing along: