In addition to the hailstorm of criticism Michele Bachmann is facing, unforeseen family circumstances caused her to beg off from a badge retirement ceremony today in honoring Cold Spring Officer Tom Decker, who was killed in the line of duty in November.
The St. Cloud Times reports in Bachmann cancels appearance for Decker badge retirement ceremony:
The Cold Spring-Richmond Police Department had planned a badge retirement ceremony Wednesday in honor of Officer Tom Decker, who was killed in the line of duty in November.U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. Bachmann canceled the appearance in the middle of last week and the event was called off.
Bachmann’s Communications Director Dan Kotman told the Times that the congresswoman unable to attend because of unforeseen family circumstances. He said she regrets she can’t be there and her heart remains with Decker’s family, the police department and the community.
The City Council had canceled its meeting that night to accommodate Bachmann’s availability.
The Gentlewoman from Minnesota's Sixth is having a rough time, an experience reflected in the headline of Esquire columnist Charles P. Pierce's column, Michele Bachmann's Bad, Awful Month:
Oh, mercy, it seems like The Girl With The Faraway Eyes may have discovered that running for president is not like an ATM after all.
Pierce relates the sad tale of the congressional ethics investigation. Meanwhile, conservative talker Glenn Beck has come to her defense by claiming Bachmann’s ethics probe is a plot by “radical Islam”. Salon reports:
Glenn Beck has a theory about why Michele Bachmann is under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics, and it’s not because her 2012 presidential campaign allegedly committed campaign finance violations: It’s because the U.S. has been “infiltrated” by “radical Islam,” and Bachmann got on the wrong side of it.
“You see what they’re doing to Michele Bachmann?” Beck asked. “Michele Bachmann is under all kinds of ethics investigations now. Why do you suppose that is? She’s evil? She is uber-clear on what’s going on. Uber clear.”
He continued that the State Department is “pushing” Somalis into Minnesota, and Bachmann tried to find out why. “She hasn’t gotten any answers, and now she’s under investigation,” Beck said.
On the flip side, there NewsBuster's Sharpton's Strange Theory: Blames Beck-Bachmann For Egyptians Pelting Hillary's Motorcade. The conservative site reports:
According to contemporary reports, as here and here, Egyptian protesters who pelted the motorcade of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with tomatoes during her visit to Egypt last July were chanting "Monica! Monica!"
So who did Al Sharpton, on his MSNBC show this evening, blame for the tomato pelting? Why, Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann, of course! According to the Reverend Al, it was the raising by Beck and Bachmann of the possible connection of Hillary's top aide, Huma Abedin, to the Muslim Brotherhood that outraged the Egyptian horde .. .
It's a bit of a stretch, even for Newsbusters. Meanwhile, Washington Post's Chris Cillizza reports in Can Michele Bachmann be beaten?:
The Minnesota Republican has been scolded for insisting that 70 percent of food stamps go to “bureaucrats” (not true). She has been rebuked for alleging that Barack Obama’s presidency is costing the country $1.4 billion a year (not true). And this week word came that the Office of Congressional Ethics was investigating Bachmann for allegedly misusing campaign funds.
Of course, controversy isn’t new to Bachmann. She made news — and not in a good way — when she insisted during her 2012 presidential campaign that HPV vaccinations had been linked to mental retardation. And, Bachmann drew national headlines when she said in the runup to the 2008 campaign that then candidate Barack Obama held “anti-American” views.
Despite setbacks that would have felled many politicians, Bachmann remains in Congress. So, can she be beaten?
Find out at the answer at the WaPo's blog.
Photo: Michele Bachman at CPAC.
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