Legendary humorist and radio host Garrison Keillor has come out swinging against Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) in her campaign for reelection, calling Bachmann "embarrassing to me and a great many Minnesotans" in a letter disseminated by the campaign of her opponent, Democrat Tarryl Clark.
Tea party favorite Bachmann, who infamously suggested in the run up to her 2008 reelection that the media investigate whether members of Congress are "pro-American or anti-American," has spent too much time pontificating on similar issues and not enough time working on behalf of her constituents, Keillor charged.
"It's embarrassing to me and a great many Minnesotans that Michele Bachmann, a politician who is so busy grandstanding and giving interviews on Fox News that she doesn't have time to serve the people who elected her, represents the 6th District in Washington," wrote Keillor, the longtime host of radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," who says his fictional Minnesota town of Lake Wobegon falls squarely within Bachmann's district.
"Minnesota's 6th District has some of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the state, but in an interview with the St. Cloud Times, Congresswoman Bachmann was unable to name any "substantive" legislation she had passed," Keillor added.
Keillor, who frequently contributes to Democrats, has given $4,800 to Clark during the 2010 election cycle, Federal Election Commission data show. His full letter appears below:
Dear Friends,
Thirty years ago, when I started telling stories about Lake Wobegon, I put it smack in the middle of Minnesota - in Minnesota's 6th Congressional District, in fact - where staunch Republicans and loyal Democrats know how to live together without yelling at each other and do what needs to be done to work out our problems.
It's embarrassing to me and a great many Minnesotans that Michele Bachmann, a politician who is so busy grandstanding and giving interviews on Fox News that she doesn't have time to serve the people who elected her, represents the 6th District in Washington.
That's why I'm proudly supporting Tarryl Clark - and I hope you will join me by contributing before today's midnight deadline.
Minnesota's 6th District has some of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the state, but in an interview with the St. Cloud Times, Congresswoman Bachmann was unable to name any "substantive" legislation she had passed.
Michele Bachmann may still be counting on sliding through to re-election on November 2nd, but this year she is running against a smart and hard-working State Senator, Tarryl Clark, who is determined to make the talking heads of Fox News sit up and take notice.
Tarryl founded Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity and served as youth minister of her church for nearly twenty years. She grew up in a Navy family and has worked on behalf of veterans, families and children in the legislature. Service to her community is a part of who she is, and that spirit of service is sorely needed in Washington these days.
I hope you'll join me in making a financial contribution to her campaign - $25, $50 or $100 - before midnight tonight!
Tarryl Clark will never embarrass our state in Congress. Let's restore some respect for the Minnesota tradition of working together sensibly by electing her this November.
Thank you,
Garrison Keillor
P.S. Instead of working to solve problems, Bachmann talks about us as a "nation of slaves" and about the need for smaller government even though she knows better - the biggest part of big government is military spending, Social Security, and Medicare. Which would she do away with? Bachmann's so-called policies are just the old Bush economics that Alan Greenspan characterized as "disastrous." Help Tarryl defeat her by donating today.