Michele Bachmann Picks Up 'Support' From Tea Party Express

Tea Party Express will "support" Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign for president, the group announced Monday. But that's not a full-fledged endorsement, the national Tea Party organization clarified.

"While the Tea Party Express has not endorsed a presidential candidate at this time, Michele Bachmann garners strong Tea Party support because of her work and commitment to restoring fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C.," Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer said, according to Roll Call.

The move is a boost for the Bachmann campaign, which has been carrying out a frenzied operation to visit the state's 99 counties ahead of the Jan. 3 caucuses. She's hoping to bolster support among the Hawkeye State's most conservative voters, who hold heavy sway in the first-in-the-nation contest.

Kremer's announcement also marks somewhat of a change of tone from the Tea Party, which hasn't coalesced around Bachmann despite her conservative credentials. Earlier this month, Bachmann finished behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in a straw poll conducted by the national Tea Party Patriots group. And earlier this year, another Tea Party group, American Majority, called on Bachmann to quit the race and open up breathing space for what they described as more viable Republican presidential candidates.

Tea Party Express appears to be subscribing to a different mentality than American Majority, as Kremer argued that the primary process would benefit from having more competition during the early stages.

"The Tea Party Express is committed to finding and endorsing the strongest conservative candidate to take on President Barack Obama next year. In order to develop the best candidate, we must allow for a competitive process in Iowa and the early primary and other caucus states," Kremer said. "Let's let the voters in Iowa choose the leading candidates to go forward from the many excellent candidates we have."

Comments

[Jerry Aripez]

03:17 PM on 12/31/2011

The Express sure knows how to pick them...hahaha,....she is like a t_urd in the bowl, going down...

[rgilley]

02:47 PM on 12/28/2011

Here are the REAL owners of the Tea party!!

"The Koch brothers use their considerable wealth to bankroll the right wing, including the Tea Party. This serves the purpose of furthering not only their right-wing ideology but also their bottom line. Koch Industries has a lot to gain from gutting government oversight and electing candidates who oppose government regulation, especially in the oil-and-gas industry."
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Industries#Tea_Party_Movement_and_Funding

"
Koch brothers are modern-day robber barons — rabid right wing billionaires who finance phony grassroots operations like the Tea Party to impose their own repressive, freedom-squelching views upon a gullible electorate led into a sea of ignorance fake promises of returning power to the people and fighting the establishment."

"their phony grassroots operations like Citizens for a Sound Economy, which morphed into former GOP Congressman Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and — ultimately — the Tea Party."

"The Kochs promote an agenda of hate, of intolerance and repression. They are homophobic, racist manipulators who see America as something they and their wealthy friends should own and control."

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/40038

David Koch - Evidence Of Direct Tea Party Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JjQxPJOAfg&feature=related

Koch Industries is the child of the violence of Buchenwald, widely regarded as one of wartime Germany's most notorious "death camps"....
http://my.madison.com/forums/Topic4463094-2890-1.aspx

You decide on the Tea Party!

[knott wrench]

01:09 AM on 01/02/2012

Thanks. You pretty much covered what I would say also.

Beware of the "Kochtopus"!

[charlie smerlick]

02:14 PM on 12/28/2011

Hugh Heffner has already contacted Ms. Bachmann and offered her a large amount of money, when she loses the election, to PLEASE KEEP HER CLOTHES ON !!!

[danusgram]

01:06 PM on 12/28/2011

this will not help!

[Francheska]

12:32 PM on 12/28/2011

"Let's let the voters in Iowa choose the leading candidates to go forward from the many excellent candidates we have."

Delusion must be a Tea Party trait.

[1differentdrummer]

10:39 AM on 12/28/2011

CPR for a yet warm corpse.

[enaud]

10:05 AM on 12/28/2011

They don't want to make a commitment because it would be viewed as a loss by the "TPE".
They won't put all of their eggs in any basket.

[tired of tea baggers]

09:53 AM on 12/28/2011

"Let's let the voters in Iowa choose the leading candidates to go forward from the many excellent candidates we have."

So where are they hiding all of these "excellent" candidates?

[jufrgs]

09:22 AM on 12/28/2011

Tammy Baker is going to need more than the Tea Bag Tyrants support. Maybe if she takes that mask and them long fake nails off she would be recognized as a woman because she looks like a transvestite.

[truly moderate]

06:54 AM on 12/28/2011

There's a difference between Christians that believe in bettering the community but can separate church/state and right wing fundamentalist Christians. The latter tries to force morality on a law making level and bend the constitution to their interpretation. Unfortunately, far left liberals also bend its meaning so the blame cake certainly goes both ways. Regardless, I think there's a big difference between President Obama, whose faith empowers him to lead and Bachman, whose fundamentalist ideology causes her to demonize anything that doesn't line up with fundamentalist Christianity.

[willandjansdad]

07:33 AM on 12/28/2011

The Xtians that can somehow justify backing Gingrich are the ones that flabbergast me. Talk about your Faustian bargain.

[truly moderate]

10:50 AM on 12/28/2011

IF Christians back Gingrich, it shouldn't be for social reasons.

If Christians want to back someone, they should put support behind Huntsman, who is socially moderate and tends to strike balance between the concerns of the faith community and the needs of Americans in general. While he supports the defense of marriage act, he signed into law civil unions. Its things like that people respect, when you can compromise and still manage to satisfy the requests of the populace.

[Whitemellon]

05:57 AM on 12/28/2011

Back her. Please Teaparty , pretty please.

[annieaburgess]

05:37 AM on 12/28/2011

The Tea Party Express "Let's let the voters in Iowa choose the leading candidates to go forward from the many excellent candidates we have."

Excellent candidates???? Where??? Now I know they are smoking crack!

[andre0054]

03:33 AM on 12/28/2011

The Tea Party, and their right wing Christian extremists candidates..are soon to be antiquated. The backlash started in Wisconsin, and will spread like wildfire in 2012. Notice that all Christian conservatives in the presidential race are getting crushed. First Pawlenty, then Santorem, Perry, Bachman..all but dead. More proof that if you can't separate church from sate as required by the constitution, you have no business running for President. Tea Party candidates have had their 15 minutes, and are soon to be swept out.

[Steven Curtis Lance]

01:19 PM on 12/28/2011

Amen. And not a moment too soon.

[StillAmused]

03:20 AM on 12/28/2011

The 'Tea Party Express' is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Koch brothers, Dick Armey and Karl Rove (enabler of BushCo warcrimes) and, moreover, a figment of the right wing's imagination.

All it took to seduce and co-opt these politically naïve malcontents, whatever their initial sincerity, was a ride or two in that snappy fleet of Koch buses with all the American flag artwork splashed across the sides.

It DOESN'T EXIST... it just gets written about incessantly.

File their 'support' along with the rest of your delusions, Michele.

[nherent]

09:10 AM on 12/28/2011

Then there's organizations like the "Tea Party Nation" which is a right wing extremist group, not to be confused with the Tea Party Express.

[Steven Curtis Lance]

01:19 PM on 12/28/2011

Truth. Thanks.

[My Mate Pat]

02:55 AM on 12/28/2011

Kremer said. "Let's let the voters in Iowa choose the leading candidates to go forward from the many excellent candidates we have."

Is there a bunch of "excellent candidates" we haven't been told about? Surely she isn't referring to the far too familiar GOP clowns?