I just received a kind email from the DNC asking me to read its new page calling out Michele Bachmann on her statements about health care reform, six of which were called "false" or "pants on fire" lies by Polifacts. In fact, Polifacts has only looked at six of Bachmann's statements.
I'd noticed that myself a few days ago while visiting the Polifacts Truth-o-meter. That fact got me thinking about another recent Bachmann eruption.
A couple of nights ago, Congresswoman Bachmann claimed on Larry King that nobody in her district or Minnesota ever brought up questions about Barack Obama's place of birth, and that only the left and the media brings this matter up. Online, Crooks and Liars takes her to task for the interview, while Newsbusters defends her answers.
Here's the transcription from the pro-Bachmann Newsbusters post:
BACHMANN: What I said is people in my district want to know where are the jobs? That's what I hear over and over, meeting after meeting
CARVILLE: Are they nutty or not?
BACHMANN: No one is bringing this issue up.
But King intervened for Carville for the next go-around.
KING: Congresswoman, I am - Congresswoman, the only thing was the question was simple - do you believe the ‘birthers'? Forget the district, forget the jobs for a moment. Do you believe President Obama was born in the United States?
BACHMANN: I have no reason to doubt that he wasn't born in the United States. I have none. The only place that this issue comes up is on the left. You don't hear people on the right bringing this issue up. Honest to Pete. In Minnesota, the only thing people are interested in are where are the jobs?
Neither site asks the obvious questions. Are there conservatives in the Sixth Congressional District and the rest of Minnesota who have raised this issue? And would Representative Bachmann know about it? Did any Sixth District right-ward activist send this idea into the world? Why is Bachmann calling it back, scolding it?
I deciding to spend a little time chasing it, hunting it down. In fifteen minutes of browsing, I found that conservatives in Minnesota did indeed show interest in the topic. Take, for instance, blogger and Senate District 15 GOP Secretary Leo Pusateri.
There are other examples in the state. Read about Mr. Pusateri's interest in the controversy and that of other two other conservative Minnesotans below the fold.
Mr. Pusateri currently blogs at Psycmeister's Ice Palace and Freedom Dogs, as well as cross-posting at True North.
He's brought up questions about Obama's birth certificate a number of times. Here's one such post, from his personal blog in July 2008begins:
It appears that Obama's alleged birth certificate has been deemed a forgery, calling to question whether Obama was born in the United States, which would be a Constitutional prerequisite for his ability to legally run for President.
In a February post at Freedom Dogs, he wrote:
A cultural and spiritual awakening...is this why the agenda media were willing to overlook and/or gave short shrift to many of the Obama scandals, from his friendships with Tony Rezko, Rev. Wright and William Ayers, to the flak over his birth certificate?
That should give readers a flavor of his take on the matter. Would his congresswoman have paid attention to this?
According to a True North post by fellow St. Cloud Bloggers Association member Gary Gross from early last spring, Pusateri was one of three area blogger activists commended for his work by Bachmann's campaign:
It was a big night for the SCBA. Jack Tomczak of the Bachmann campaign gave King, Leo and myself an award saying that we'd been "recognized for outstanding volunteerism for the conservative cause." To say that we were surprised would be properly categorized as understatement.
The only bigger surprise was the BPOU recognizing Leo, King and myself for our "dedicated involvement with the [insert blog name here]."
I'm confident that I speak for the three of us in saying that it's been a rewarding couple of years for the SCBA. Our first 'meeting' was held at the St. Cloud Airport after Gov. Pawlenty's press coference following the 2006 legislative session. Since then, Jeff Johnson and Josh Behling have linked to our posts in order to inform our activists. Legislators have used our blogs to shine the spotlight on the foolish bills that the DFL has submitted or the stunts that they've tried getting away with.
The SD-15 Republican BPOU has adopted a blogger-friendly position in much the same way as Rep. Bachmann has. This BPOU and Rep. Bachmann are to be commended for their use of all the tools at their availability.
Bachmann's campaign not only knew of Pusateri's blogging; it gave him an award for it.
Were Republicans and conservative elsewhere in Minnesota bringing this material up? "Andrea Erickson" made something of a cottage industry of it on the google group "Minnesota for McCain," posting 66 threads about the now discredited claim. Only seven people are now on this list, and while a Republican activist in Burnsville is named Andrea Erickson, the name is so common that there's no telling who the person on the google group is.
Less mysterious is video reporter MrHypeandChange, whose YouTube Channel page includes a favorite video of a Michael Savage report on Obama's citizenship, as well as MrHypeandChange's own wall postings:
Two month ago, he wrote this wall post:
Another email to President Obama,
You are an illegitimate President. We have not even seen your official birth certificate so you have no authority to govern our lives. Stop pushing gov healthcare and ridiculous energy policy on us. Keep pushing us with your socialist garbage programs and we might even send you back to Africa. I have nothing else to say to you since you are just a worthless community organizer and con man.
Elsewhere on the web, the videographer identifies himself on his Tea Party.org page as Nathan Smit. His motto on this page is "Beat Obamas union thugs up!" Smit came to the public eye in 2006 when footage from his video of U of M adjunct professor Susana de Leon was aired by KSTP. Paul Demko's article White Noise in the City Pages describes Smit as "an anti-immigration activist." Other sites identify him as a member of the Minnesota Coalition for Immigration Reduction.
His 2006 video is online at the MCFIR YouTube Channel, along with other immigration and tea party videos. It's not certain that Smit shot and posted the latter material.
Demko notes that Smit's video was mentioned in Micehel Malkin's blog; one of his videos from the Mankato Town Hall is linked by the Rochester Tea Party Patriots.
These are three examples of conservative Minnesotans who show interest in the controversy over Obama's place of birth; I found them within moments of searching. Are there others? Those who search may well find them.
Milan Kundera considered the nature of forgetting as political act. For texts that interrogate Bachmann's amnesia, readers need look no further than one of her favored bloggers--and there are more within our state's borders.
Note: Bluestem Prairie looked at MCFIR in two earlier posts: Backgrounder: the immigration reduction movement's attempts to hijack environmentalism and On the legal status of Minnesota's immigration reduction groups (and why it might matter).
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