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Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign under investigation by congressional ethics panel

Washington (CNN) - Former GOP 2012 presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign is under investigation by an independent ethics panel on Capitol Hill, according to a statement from an attorney representing Bachmann.

William McGinley, a partner at Patton Boggs, a Washington law firm, released a statement to CNN on Monday confirming a story that first appeared in the Daily Beast that the Office of Congressional Ethics is looking into the Minnesota congresswoman’s presidential campaign.

But McGinley insists Bachmann did nothing wrong.

“There are no allegations that the congresswoman engaged in any wrongdoing. We are constructively engaged with the OCE and are confident that at the end of their Review the OCE Board will conclude that Congresswoman Bachmann did not do anything inappropriate,” McGinley said in a written statement to CNN.

According to the Daily Beast, several former Bachmann campaign workers are being interviewed about the potential improper transfer of campaign funds. One of those quoted in the article, Peter Waldron, is a former campaign aide who filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Bachmann’s illegally used money from her political action committee to pay a campaign consultant.

The Office of Congressional Ethics is a separate entity set up in 2008 as a nonpartisan panel to screen potential instances of misconduct by members of the House of Representatives. If OCE decides a matter warrants additional review if can refer it to the House Ethics Committee, which determines whether an official investigation will be launched.

As is the custom, the Office of Congressional Ethics declined to comment on whether it was reviewing any alleged impropriety by Bachmann.

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Michele Bachmann: It’s my Christian ‘duty’ to repeal Obamacare before it ‘literally kills’ kids

(The Raw Story) - Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on Thursday insisted that it was her “duty as a believer in Christ” repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law before “it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens.”

In a speech on the House floor, the Minnesota Republican thanked Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) for continuing the fight to undo Obamacare.

“The American people, especially vulnerable women, vulnerable children, vulnerable senior citizens, now get to pay more and get less,” Bachmann opined. “That’s why we’re here because we’re saying let’s repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens!”

“Let’s not do that!” she exclaimed. “Let’s love people, let’s care about people. Let’s repeal it now while we can.”

Bachmann explained that she was fighting Obamacare because she was a “born again believer in Jesus Christ.”

“And I believe, as part of my duty as a believer in Christ and what he has done for me, that we should do for the least of those who are in our midst,” she said. “That’s my personal belief and my personal conviction. And that’s why I want our government to create the space so that we can help people, because I’ll guarantee you one thing, Mr. Speaker, this doesn’t help people.”

read more and watch the video

So, basically, she believes it is her duty as a Christian to repeal something that would actually expand access to healthcare for millions of the poor, working poor, children and the elderly.

This is religious  grandstanding and it’s disgusting. She should have been laughed off of the floor, but instead her cohorts congratulate her ‘saying things in a way that none of the rest of us are capable of’.

I my honest opinion, this is sick.

Michele Bachmann runs away from reporter

Don’t you dare ask the congresswoman about something she said in a speech

(Salon) - CNN congressional corespondent Dana Bash tried to ask Bachmann Tuesday about her the inconsistencies in her (CAPC) speech. It didn’t go too well, as she explained to Anderson Cooper last night. Bash, who has gotten pretty good at chasing Bachmann in heels, tried to speak with the Tea Party Caucus Chairwoman in the basement of the Capitol, but the congresswoman took off running. Bash kept pace, valiantly trying to keep up her questions as they careened through the narrow corridors, but Bachmann refused to play ball.

Finally, the congresswoman stopped, squared her shoulders to Bash, and unleashed a tirade. How dare you “talk about dog handlers when we have four Americans killed in Benghazi,” she demands. Bash replies by noting that it was Bachmann, not her, who brought up the dog handlers in her CPAC speech. Bachmann takes off again, leaving Bash holding her microphone in thin air, saying, “but you’re the one who brought it up.”

The video hasn’t made available for embedding yet, but you can watch it here.

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So … she basically ran away screaming “Benghazi!!!”.

It would be funny if this wasn’t what american politics has become.

House Republicans snub Sandy victims to try to repeal Obamacare for the 34th time

(Politicus USA) - With House Republicans taking heat over not passing the Hurricane Sandy disaster relief bill, Michele Bachmann introduced the first bill of the new Congress to repeal Obamacare.

Bachmann proudly tweeted:

At noon today, I introduced the first bill of the 113th Congress to repeal Obamacare in its entirety.

House Republicans have voted on zero actual job creation bills (disguising a tax cut as job creation doesn’t count), but they have voted on repealing Obamacare 33 times in the past two years. It is a certainty that Bachmann’s bill will come to the House floor, and the House will vote to repeal Obamacare for the 34th meaningless time.

It would be easy to pick on Bachmann’s priorities, but she is just a symptom of the larger disease. House Republicans don’t care about the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Gov. Chris Christie specifically blamed John Boehner for the bill not being brought to the floor, when the person he really should have blamed was Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Cantor is the loudest and the most powerful GOP voice in the House behind the idea that disaster relief should be offset by spending cuts. InSeptember 2011, Cantor wanted a 40% cut in funding for first responders in exchange for disaster relief. Cantor has a long history of disaster relief hypocrisy. The fact that he chose to call out Boehner instead of the right wing billionaires’ best boy reveals a lot about both Chris Christie and who really controls the Republican Party.

If House Republicans actually cared about the victims of Sandy, disaster relief would have been the first bill introduced today. Instead the nation was given another cheap stunt that is designed to do nothing but waste more time on another meaningless debate and vote that will score ideological points with the right wing zealots who still believe that Obamacare is the root of all evil.

As far as the House is concerned, it is business as usual for the least popular Congress of all time.

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Want disaster relief? Sorry about your luck, the GOP is too busy trying to keep you from getting affordable healthcare.

Michele Bachmann’s Chicago Synagogue Visit Drives Attendees To Leave, Donate To Her Opponent

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) swung by a Chicago-area synagogue for a worship service on the eve of Yom Kippur last week, upsetting congregants and provoking one man to mount a campaign for her Democratic challenger before the end of the night.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Rabbi Michael Siegel of Anshe Emet Synagogue observed protocol by offering a customary greeting to Bachmann during the services. While elected officials are traditionally acknowledged during such events at the temple, the presence of the conservative Minnesota firebrand prompted particular displeasure.

Some reportedly walked out of the ceremony, while Gary Sircus, a 25-year member of Anshe Emet Synagogue, voiced more active opposition to Bachmann’s attendance.

“The holiness of the room and the holiness of the evening was greatly diminished for me, if not completely destroyed,” said Sircus, according to the Tribune. “Our congregation values and embodies tolerance, compassion, respect for individual rights, intelligence, science — all of the things that I think Michele Bachmann stands against.”

Bachmann has been an outspoken supporter of Israel and an unabashed opponent of gay rights, an awkward policy duo on that particular night; Siegel told the Tribunethat the night’s service had included a piece honoring Israel for its openness to the LGBT community.

Hours after storming out of the service, Sircus donated to Jim Graves, Bachmann’s Democratic opponent in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, and included a note.

“I felt that the best way to ‘honor’ Ms. Bachmann’s visit was to make a contribution to your campaign,” he wrote to Graves. “Even though I do not vote in Minnesota, please do everything in your power to take away this evil woman’s soapbox.”

The Graves campaign told the Tribune that it experienced a 400 percent growth in donations from the Chicago area last week, though it’s unclear if Sircus is to credit for this trend.

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Michele Bachmann Approves Of Dragging Undocumented Immigrants Onto Buses In Front Of Their Crying Children

postsatire:

abaldwin360:

O’REILLY: [T]here are a lot of people here who’ve been here for a lot of years. And if you’re gonna start dragging them out of here, it’s gonna be very, very difficult to do that…I’m just saying on a human basis, I don’t think that — theory is one thing. Dragging people out, putting them on a bus with their children’s crying can be quite something else.

BACHMANN: It can be done. That’s the thing, it can be done.

O’REILLY: It can be done, but at what cost?

[SOURCE & VIDEO]

You post this as though it’s going to dissuade anyone from voting for Michele Bachmann. The people who like her want to hear this. This is exactly what they’re voting for. I can promise you that not a single Bachmann voter will read this and thing, “She’s gone too far now.”

To be honest, sometimes I think the only reason these articles are posted is so people like you and me can masturbate over how much better we are as human beings.

“OMG! Can you believe what Bachmann’s saying now? CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?”

Actually, yes I can. It’s exactly the sort of thing I’d expect from her.

The reason I post stuff like this is so that people sitting on the fence might get actual information on what these people are like.

I’d say most Bachmann supporters are already a lost cause.

Michele Bachmann Approves Of Dragging Undocumented Immigrants Onto Buses In Front Of Their Crying Children

By Marie Diamond | Think Progress

As ThinkProgress has been reporting, Republican presidential candidates have been engaged in a bizarre game of one-upsmanship on the issue of immigration, competing to offer the most merciless approach America’s undocumented population. After Michele Bachmann proposed deporting every single one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country — a plan that would cost more than $2.6 trillion — Gov. Rick Perry (TX) vowed that he too would “deport every illegal alien who is apprehended in this country.”

Now Bachmann is upping the ante with perhaps the most cruel anti-immigrant statement to date. Media Matters reports that in an interview with Fox host Bill O’Reilly, Bachmann dismissed the humanitarian crisis of mass deportations and reiterated her baseless fear-mongering about “anchor babies.” Bachmann then expressed a “can do” attitude when it came to O’Reilly’s mock idea of dragging immigrants onto buses in front of their screaming children:

O’REILLY: [T]here are a lot of people here who’ve been here for a lot of years. And if you’re gonna start dragging them out of here, it’s gonna be very, very difficult to do that…I’m just saying on a human basis, I don’t think that — theory is one thing. Dragging people out, putting them on a bus with their children’s crying can be quite something else.

BACHMANN: It can be done. That’s the thing, it can be done.

O’REILLY: It can be done, but at what cost?

Bachmann then cited the patently false claim that “50 percent of Mexico’s population has moved north of the border,” apparently hoping people wouldn’t do the math and realize that 56 million Mexicans have not, in fact, relocated to the U.S.

She concluded by insisting “I’m a compassionate person” — all evidence to the contrary.

[SOURCE & VIDEO]

Bachmann Campaign In Hot Water Over Misuse of Homeschooler Email List

by: Craig Robinson | theiowarepublican.com

The Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators (NICHE) has sent out an email to its members that says Michele Bachmann’s campaign uploaded the group’s email list into their campaign database without permission.

Barb Heki, a NICHE board member who oversees the public relations communications efforts for the group, is also a paid employee of Bachmann’s Iowa campaign.

Below is the email that was obtained by TheIowaRepublican.com from Justin LaVan, the group’s president.

I want to apologize on behalf of the NICHE Board and advise you that we discovered that our list of homeschool contacts was uploaded without our knowledge or permission by the Michele Bachmann Campaign and used twice for e-mails from her campaign..

[FULL STORY]

The world’s shortest horror story.

rgnrd:

Michele Bachmann is real.

Can’t sleep… Bachmann will get me…

(Source: vioforte, via glittertitties-deactivated20130)

New pro-Michele Bachmann ad lies about a doctor’s view on the HPV vaccine.

factcheck.org

A pro-Michele Bachmann ad claims that “doctors opposed [Rick] Perry’s order [to inject girls with HPV vaccine] for safety reasons.” But the pediatrician cited by the sponsor says the ad doesn’t reflect his views accurately. “At the time, my position was that the vaccine was safe and effective,” he told FactCheck.org. Although he had reservations about a government mandate, he was personally recommending the vaccine for all 11- and 12-year-old girls, the doctor told us.

Furthermore, the ad overreaches when it says that “Perry’s wife had worked for the company that makes the vaccine.” Anita Perry worked part time for a public relations firm that Merck hired to promote a public education campaign for osteoporosis screenings — 10 years before Perry’s decision to issue his executive order.

[FULL STORY AND VIDEO]

The mainstream media should be calling her ass out big time on this.