Rep. Michele Bachmann lashed out at First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday over her promotion of breastfeeding, particularly among black women, to curb obesity. On Laura Ingraham’s radio show, Bachmann said that Obama’s campaign — and an IRS change that makes breast pumps tax deductible — constituted a “nanny state” and that it was part of her “hard left agenda.”

Michelle Obama said last week, “We’re working to promote breastfeeding, especially in the black community, where 40 per cent of our babies never get breastfed at all, even in the first weeks of life, and we know that babies that are breastfed are less likely to be obese as children.”

The first lady wants to encourage employers to be more open to women who are breastfeeding. The IRS also announced on Tuesday that breast pumps are now considered as a tax-deductible expense for Flex Spending Accounts along with other over-the-counter medical items such as pain relievers, bandages and contact lens supplies.

But, on Ingraham’s show, Bachmann was having none of it.

“I think this is very consistent with where the hard left is coming from. For them government is the answer to every problem. Clearly they are wrong because more spending won’t do it,” she said.

Bachmann continued, “I’ve given birth to five babies and I breastfed every single one of these babies. To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies. You wanna talk about the nanny state? I think we just got the new definition of a nanny.”

Ingraham asked if she thought that Michelle Obama’s push for breastfeeding was an indication of a run for U.S. Senate.

“I think she is really committed to the hard left agenda, more than anything else. Can you imagine if Laura Bush was doing this? The media would be after her.”

And thanks to Bachmann they are after the first lady.

Megan Kelly of Fox News provided “Breaking News” on Tuesday morning about Bachmann’s statements immediately following her interview with Ingraham.

Fox contributor Sandy Rios said she had concerns about Mrs. Obama’s proposal because it’s being promoted in the African American community. Rios is the former head of the religious right organization Concerned Women for America and current head of the Culture Campaign, a group “dedicated to involving citizens in the culture war.”

“You have to remember that 75 percent of American women already breast feed,” said Rios. “We are talking about a problem that is specifically in the black community and so for you to change federal law and IRS regulations and start forcing businesses to make accommodations for nursing women to promote it in the black community is the problem that I have with it and I agree with Michele this is the nanny state on steroids.”

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

WINONA: Locals aim to reinstate reciprocity. Gov. Pawlenty put the kibosh on a long-standing tax arrangement for residents of Minnesota who work in Wisconsin (and vice versa).  [Winona Daily News]

EAGAN: State senate candidate mourns T-Paw’s cancellation. David Carlson says Pawlenty will go to Atlanta instead of his Oct. 8 fundraiser. [Facebook]

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Green revolutionary to be remembered. At another campus venue on Oct. 8, the U of M will honor alumnus and Nobel Prize winner Normon Borlaug. [Associated Press]

ALBERT LEA: No first lady. When Michele Obama can’t visit, she lets you know by … sending a postcard? [Albert Lea Tribune]

MINNEAPOLIS: Lutheran splinter group rethinking last month’s gay-clergy vote. What happens in Minneapolis gets reconsidered in Indianapolis. [Associated Press]

PIPESTONE: Monument vandals nabbed. Text messages like “backyard in trash can everything is there!!” led cops to objects stolen from the Keepers of the Sacred Tradition building. [Worthington Daily Globe]

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

ST. CLOUD: School-supply lists violate state law on fees. That’s the view of a former teacher who says buying scissors and tape for classrooms is a burden on the poor. [St. Cloud Times]

RAMSEY COUNTY: Tammy Pust running for county attorney too. The Roseville City Council member announced the same day as did St. Paul City Attorney John Choi, joining two others already in the race. [MinnPost]

METRO AREA: It gets worse: Metro Gang Strike Force violated open-meeting laws. Public meetings via email are a no-no. [Star Tribune]

AKELEY: Officials quit. The new mayor and a new city council member are both resigning, due to illness and leaving town, respectively. [Park Rapids Enterprise]

THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Erik Paulsen is safe. Unless you think he’s going to do something no first-term Minnesota congressman has done in more than 60 years: lose.[Smart Politics]

ST. CLOUD: Mayor was there. Dave Kleis got a ticket from U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and sat about 10 seats away from First Lady Michelle Obama for the president’s address to Congress last night. [St. Cloud Times]

Actually a Lexis search for “Michele Bachmann” and “sleeveless” turns up two results, but one is a reader’s comment at the DumpBachmann Web site, which doesn’t really constitute a news mention.

The other, a report on President Bush’s 2008 State of the Union address from the Washington Post blog The Sleuth, recalls Bachmann’s extended smooch with Bush before his 2007 address. “Sleeveless” comes up only in describing the outfits Bush daughters Jenna and Barbara wore to the 2008 event.

So basically, members of the news media have gone ga-ga over Michelle Obama’s sleevelessness, while Bachmann’s unclothed upper appendages are the one subject about her upon which they’ve remained silent.

It’s like the press applying the “sore loser” tag to Vice President Al Gore within weeks of the 2000 election, and hardly at all to Norm Coleman months after the Republican fell behind Al Franken in the contest for his old Senate seat.

So yes: Obama is more famous (for now) than Bachmann and may bare her arms more often (though the style is a staple of both women’s wardrobes).

But even so, a double standard seems to be at play when a deserving media hound like Bachmann gets completely skunked on something as newsworthy as showing shoulders.

Unfortunately it turns out that the lobster-champagne-caviar spread never occurred. In fact, Michelle Obama wasn’t staying at the Waldorf-Astoria. The New York Post’s Page Six has now retracted the story. I’m sure Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity will be apologizing to their listeners for the misinformation.

Michelle Obama made a stop in Rochester Monday to campaign for her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, before making her way north to address a crowd of 4,500 at Macalester College in St. Paul. MnIndy copyeditor Nancy Olsen was there and captured these scenes (follow the link for hi-res images and captions).

On Michelle Obama’s speech: “As an African American and as an American, it was extremely hopeful,” he said. ”That we’re going to move ahead and we’re going to turn the page on the past — on racial politics, on the civil-rights movement — and this is truly the beginning of the post-civil rights era.”

Remington also argued that the discord in the Democratic Party among Hillary Clinton supporters has been overstated by the media. “There are some peole that will always have sour grapes in every election cycle,” he noted. ”But I say this: if those people choose to not support Barack Obama at this point in the game, then they’re not Democrats. That’s just the fact of the matter. You need to support Barack Obama to move forward and beat this corrupt Republican regime or you’re not a Democrat.”

A few more photos from the opening day after the jump:

Rep. Jim Leach spent three decades in Congress as a Republican. Tonight he endorsed Obama from the stage: “Little is riskier to the national interest than more of the same.”

Al Franken (and Walter Mondale) show some love for Michelle Obama.

The convention floor as Nancy Pelosi addresses the crowd.

Some people just want a president with whom they can share an American-made beer and pull-my-finger jokes. Others want a president and first lady they can luuurve and text.