Over the past few weeks, we've made note of the pressure that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has been taking from his fellow would-be presidential aspirants on the right over the health care plan he shepherded into existence in the Bay State.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty characterized the "Massachusetts experience" as "not... one I would want for the country to follow any further." And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Romney's health care plan the "forerunner of Obamacare" and a model that was "wrong."
Now, however, Romney is getting a little bit of support from his Republican colleagues. Unfortunately, that support comes in the form of Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and her storied disconnection from objective reality. Via Matt Corley at ThinkProgress, here's how she defended Romney on Jason Lewis's radio show this week:
LEWIS: Who is the real thing? Who is the real thing out there?
BACHMANN: I don't know. I don't know if that person has emerged yet, but I think, I think we need to be, we need to get behind somebody's who willing to have guts and do what it takes to repeal this thing. And also repeal the whole agenda.
LEWIS: How do you feel as a conservative, I should say, about Mitt Romney?
BACHMANN: Well, I think that he has real concerns with what he did on health care in Massachusetts. I think that's, you know, he understands economics, but I think clearly what happened in Massachusetts has not been a good thing for that state. It's driving it towards bankruptcy as is TennCare in Tennessee.
As Corley points out, "Bachmann appears to be projecting onto Romney." And in fact, Romney has done nothing but defend his plan, suggest it has nothing at all to do with the health care reform legislation passed this year, and insist that it is "working pretty much as anticipated at the time it was passed".
At some point, you have to wonder: doesn't Bachmann have at least a staff of ostensible adults who might tell her, "No, no, don't say that, it's wrong and you're going to look stupid and you will only create problems for the person you are trying to support?" Apparently not!
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]