Michele Bachmann Channels McCarthy: Obama "Very Anti-American," Congressional Witch Hunt Needed

Update: A campaign to censure Rep. Michele Bachmann over her remarks has been launched.

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In a television appearance that outraged Democrats are already describing as Joseph McCarthy politics, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann claimed on Friday that Barack Obama and his wife Michelle held anti-American views and couldn't be trusted in the White House. She even called for the major newspapers of the country to investigate other members of Congress to "find out if they are pro-America or anti-America."

Appearing on MSNBC's Hardball, Bachmann went well off the reservation when it comes to leveling political charges against the Democratic nominee.

"If we look at the collection of friends that Barack Obama has had in his life," she said, "it calls into question what Barack Obama's true beliefs and values and thoughts are. His attitudes, values, and beliefs with Jeremiah Wright on his view of the United States...is negative; Bill Ayers, his negative view of the United States. We have seen one friend after another call into question his judgment -- but also, what it is that Barack Obama really believes?"

Goaded by a Chris Matthews to explain exactly what she was talking about (at one point Bachmann seemed to imply that liberalism was anti-Americanism), the congresswoman waded deeper into the mud.

"Remember it was Michele Obama who said she is only recently proud of her country and so these are very anti-American views," she said. "That's not the way that most Americans feel about our country. Most Americans are wild about America and they are very concerned to have a president who doesn't share those values."

Matthews later pressed her to name a single member of Congress other than Obama who she thought was anti-American. Bachmann, who initially wouldn't budge, called for a major "expose" into the matter.

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"What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they are pro-America or anti-America," she said.

There were additional nuggets here and there. But the whole episode was a sight to behold. It is hard to imagine how this type of message actually helps the McCain campaign. For starters, there has been a relatively respected rule to leave candidate's wives out of campaign attacks. Moreover, there is already a deep resentment towards the severity of the political attacks McCain and his surrogates have launched against Barack Obama. Having a like-minded member of Congress essentially call for a witch hunt within Congress isn't the practical-minded message that the Arizona Republican wants out there.

What makes the incident even more bizarre is that Bachmann is in a close congressional race and just this past week offered warm words to the Illinois Democrat. "If the presidency would somehow go to Barack Obama, I would welcome him to the 6th District as well," she said after a debate. "As a matter of fact, I would put my hand on his shoulder and give him a kiss if he wanted to."

A Democratic campaign official emailed that Bachmann's Democratic opponent has raised at least $23,000 online since the Hardball segment aired.

After Bachmann's appearance, Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel labeled the comments McCarthyist:

Comments

[DrewRicketts]

To say it's anti-American to criticize and shape American values for the future is just absurd.

[DrewRicketts]

http://newsone.blackplanet.com/nation/media-chases-the-white-joe-vote/

Media Chases the White Joe Vote. This is a commentary with all that's wrong about labeling a Real America/Pro American versus any other concept of America.

[love2sue]

As this nation attempts to return to its charted course with an intellectual at the helm, Bachmann serves as a reminder that slower minds must stand to the far right so that we can safely pass. Apparently, the Neocons are no longer in charge of the GOP. In the past few weeks, it seems like individuals that are stark-raving mad have seized control.

[SemperLiberi]

As a demonstration of my anti-Americanism, I just donated fifty bucks to Tinklenberg, or whatever the heck her opponents name is. This woman is channeling McCarthy even more than Sarah Palin.

[archtoplee]

"Channeling" is something that television surfers do or what the "gypsy lady with the crystal" ball does after she takes your money. Donating money to someone you don't know anything about is is on the same level of thinking as paying the gypsy lady to read your palms.
Now if you want to pray to a saint, (even one who hasn't been sainted by the church), then that action is called praying not "channeling." McCarthy was a Catholic and therefore if you seek the intercession of saints you pray to them not "channel" them.

[obama4president-now]

Chris Matthews placed the shovel within reach, she voluntarily grabbed it and dug the hole herself. Chris tried to give her a chance to undo the damage and she just dug deeper. Now she is digging still deeper, "doing a Palin", trying to say that she didn't say what she said. I predict another surge in donations to Tinklenberg.

[windwashed]

I'll just pack for Guantanamo now...

[DEMinTN]

That's "Guantanamero" for you repubs who may not understand..

[archtoplee]

Congressman Michele Bachman has stirred up the political waters by her comments that Congress be investigated for anti-American sentiments. To her credit Congressman Michele Bachman voted against the "Wall Street" bailout bill package that will impact all Americans in a negative way. However, she must have been joking to suggest that the Major newspapers is going to dig past a few sex scandals. That work remains to be done by the electorate.

The Bailout bill: Some blog sites considered those bail' outers as "traiters." A rough word to describe some Members of Congress, but not when you consider that polls showed, (and the calls into Congressional offices were 50 to 1 and as high as 90 to 1 in some districts against the bailout), confirmed the outrage from citizens. In saner times the bailout senators like Diane Feinstein would be out of a job after voters threw her little tush out of office with a massive Recall Vote!

"McCarthism?" Bachman is to timid to take 'em on. Maybe if she headed a key Congressional Committee like Senator McCarthy did she could turn the spotlight on those in the Executive branch who purposely cover-up and invent wars and deliberately are trying to destroy our economy. Joe McCarthy from Appleton, Wisconsin, (Incidently the headquarters of The John Birch Society), had courage. Until then I guess the editor of Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel, will have to save her label of "McCarthism" for someone else.

[HurryUp1212009]

She epitomizes what's left of the former Republican Party. The nutcases needed SOMEPLACE to congregate.....

[KarenJW]

Continued......
What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter or do the "email"?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included
discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many
occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer
distribution?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected
reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as
they are?

This is what r@cism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes
positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in
another when there is a color difference.

[mh01]

Nice example, except that what you defined is not racism, its politics. And its politics regardless of color. Opponents downplay the other's strengths, point out their weaknesses, and capitalize on mistakes. They play to their own strengths and away from their own weaknesses. They pick VP candidates to shore up their own non-existant foreign policy experience, or to motivate the base, or to pick up female votes.

They point out character flaws in each other, they point out past mistakes, differences in policy.

This is not revolutionary. This is nothing new. This is run of the mill american politics.

Check any past election for any office in any state at any level and you will see, that what you are seeing is not racism, its politics.

Does that mean that race isn't a factor? of course not. Some people will vote for McCain because he's white. Some will vote for Obama because he's black. Some will vote against each candidate because of race. But contrary to the desire of the left to paint 50% of americans with a racist brush, while not acknowledging that other races can be racist , that 50% has other, very compelling reasons to vote for McCain or against Obama.

[KarenJW]

If the white man in this race had the attributes of Barrack Obama, and the black man possessed those of McCain, this would not be a race. You can try to rationalize it, sugar coat it and call it what you like............it's racism!

[mina1usa]

Vote the witch out!

[lorikay56]

and after that put her back on her med's

[KarenJW]

What if things were reversed.....would the country's collective point of view be different? Could r@cism be the culprit?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage,
including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage
daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating
class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe
disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his
standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair
while he was still married?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five
were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting
a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis
of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

[gretcheno]

Obama would have been ripped and new one, talked about worse than he is now by the so called CHRISTIANS.

[sansego2000]

McCain voted for that socialist bailout that partially nationalized the banking system. As far as spreading the wealth McCain also voted for a major tax hike and wealth redistribution scheme while in congress during the Reagan years. McCain's lobbyists advisors lobbied for dictators in the 80's, even for a man that the U.S. government was against for Ukranian president - Victor Yanukovich. Seems McCain has done much against U.S. interests.

[HurryUp1212009]

Sir: Please take note of how George Bush has "spread" his deficit around, burdening every man, woman and child in America with over $100,000 in debt, to finance simultaneous tax cuts for a small segment of the population and two wars that are costing $10 billion (in borrowed money) per month. And you wonder why we have a "credit crisis"? Because the rest of the world already knows what Americans refuse to face: We can't pay the debt our country already has, and we keep wracking up more debt. If our national debt was a credit card, the bank would have cancelled it a long time ago....

[archtoplee]

Yes, "W" has indeed spread the debt around and is responsible for much of our "credit crisis," but so is Democrat Diane Feinstein, senator from callifornia who should be recalled for voting for the "bailout of Wall Street" as well as the rest of those Democrats. Bachman voted against the Bailout so you can't accuse her of "Neo-connism" since she bailed on "W", McCain and Senator Obama. It is a strange world, this world of politics. Sorry but your bumper sticker labels leave out too much of the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey likes to say. And ,yes, absolutely, the other major party members who voted for the bailout should be recalled as well. I'm referring to the senators who aren't up for reelection, since all of the 435 House members' terms are up in January.

[dlinguist]

in a couple of weeks, the voters of MN-06 will decide whether to keep her in office or toss her. If they vote to keep her in, I can suggest a way to generate the sort of revenue that she has been unable to provide them from D.C.

They should fence themselves in and charge admission at the gates. They can have Entrenched Conservative Land, Oblivioustown, Red-in-a-Blue-State Theater and the centerpiece.. The Michele Bachmann All-American Interrogation Basilica. Neocons, what is left of them after this election, get in at half price.

[robbie44]

BACHMANN ROE V WADE OVER TURNER DRIVE

[RevRenzo]

We can hope and pray, can'w we?

[Nomccain]

I hope these Neoncon idiots keep it up because it's destroying them. Look at what her opponent had to say following her trashing of Obama:

Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg said his campaign brought in $810,000 in less than 72 hours, an amount he could only have imagined before Bachmann's remarks. It took the former state transportation commissioner a year to raise $1 million before that, and Bachmann started the campaign's critical final month with almost four times as much cash as he had.

Tinklenberg said "more than 16,000 people from around the country have donated since Bachmann's appearance on Friday's "Hardball."

He said the comments were not out of character for Bachmann. "This time it has just simply gone too far," he said. "That's why we're getting the support we're getting