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Oct

19

[video] MN Rep. Bachman refuses to define “anti-American,” still wants expose; Powell disses her


Embattled incumbent Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, Michele Bachmann, appeared on WCCO this morning.  Thanks to Jay Chrepta for the video.

If you’re skipping that for now, the host, Esme Murphy, reads a question to Bachmann that comes from an e-mail Murphy received. The writer wants to know what Bachmann means when she says anti-American.

Bachmann tells Murphy that she means “the associations that Barack Obama has.”  That’s pretty much it.

To my disappointment, Murphy doesn’t press her much.  What Bachmann eventually says is that she finds Barack Obama’s views “concerning” and that she isn’t saying that Obama’s views are anti-American.  She says that anyone who thinks that she has said that Obama’s views are anti-American is misreading what she’s said, and that that’s not her position, and that she just wants the media to take a look because, she feels, the media has “an appalling lack of curiosity.”

Hmm – a misreading of what Bachmann said on MSNBC with Chris Matthews on Friday?  Let’s take a look:

MR. MATTHEWS: So this is a character issue. You believe that Barack Obama may — you’re suspicious because of this relationship — may have anti-American views. Otherwise it’s probably irrelevant to this discussion.

REP. BACHMANN: Absolutely.

MR. MATTHEWS: So you believe it brings into –

REP. BACHMANN: I absolutely –

MR. MATTHEWS: So you believe that Barack Obama may have anti- American views.

REP. BACHMANN: Absolutely. I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views. That’s what the American people are concerned about. That’s why they want to know what his answers are….

She is “very concerned that he may have anti-American views” but she insists that she has not said that Obama does in fact have anti-American views.  Glad we settled that.

Anyone wonder what it would take for her to come to believe that in fact he does not have anti-American views? Maybe we need to ask the question of her in that way.

Bachmann goes on to tell Murphy that

..[the] Obama and radical leftist control of Congress…this would be the most liberal senator who could be president…if its all Democrats in charge, we could have the highest tax increases in modern times. That could take away the American dream…that’s what concerns people right now.

The clinical cases of projection that are coming out are for the textbooks.

At more or less the same time Bachmann was talking about the “radical leftist” Congress, Colin Powell had finished giving his endorsement of Barack Obama on Meet the Press this morning and spoke afterwards, specifically singling out Bachmann for the wrongness of her extremism and insinuation that we need anti-American witchhunts:

From the transcript:

Reporter: Sir, what part did McCain’s negativity play in your decision, the negative tone of the campaign?

Powell: It troubled me. We have two wars. We have economic problems. We have health problems. We have education problems. We have infrastructure problems. We have problems around the world with our allies. So those are the problems the American people wanted to hear about, not about Mr. Ayers, not about who’s a Muslim or who’s not a Muslim. Those kinds of images going out on Al-Jazeera are killing us around the world.

And we have got to say to the world, it doesn’t make any difference who you are or what you are, if you’re an American, you’re an American. And this business, for example, of the congressman [sic] from Minnesota who’s going around saying, “Let’s examine all congressmen to see who is pro-America or not pro-America” — we have got to stop this kind of nonsense, pull ourselves together and remember that our great strength is in our unity and in our diversity. And so, that really was driving me.

And to focus on people like Mr. Ayers and these trivial issues, for the purpose of suggesting that somehow Mr. Obama would have some kind of terrorist inclinations, I thought that was over the top. It was beyond just good political fighting back and forth. I think it went beyond. And to sort of throw in this little Muslim connection, you know, “He’s a Muslim and, my goodness, he’s a terrorist” — it was taking root. And we can’t judge our people and we can’t hold our elections on that kind of basis.

So, yes, that kind of negativity troubled me, And the constant shifting of the argument. I was troubled a couple of weeks ago when in the middle of the crisis, the [McCain] campaign said, “We’re going to go negative,” and they announced it, “We’re going to go negative and attack [Obama's] character through Bill Ayers.” Now I guess the message this week is, “We’re going to call him a socialist, Mr. Obama is now a socialist, because he dares to suggest that maybe we ought to look at the tax structure that we have.”

Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who paid them, in roads and airports and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good. And there is nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more, who should be paying less. And for us to say that that makes you a socialist, I think is an unfortunate characterization that isn’t accurate.

I don’t want my taxes raised. I don’t want anybody else’s taxes raised. But I also want to see our infrastructure fixed. I don’t want to have a $12 trillion national debt, and I don’t want to see an annual deficit that’s over $500 billion heading toward a trillion. So, how do we deal with all of this?

Reporter: Are you still a Republican?

Powell: Yes.

Somehow I’m guessing that Bachmann couldn’t care less, except maybe to decide and declare that in her opinion, Colin Powell is anti-American.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:51 pm October 19th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Congress, John McCain, michele bachmann, Politics, Republicans, Social Issues, Voting, WH2008 

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