Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) joined her rival GOP presidential candidates in Iowa for a forum on social issues over the weekend, taking a moment before the program began to pour water for the men on stage.
"I want to begin by thanking Representative Bachmann for taking care of the water for today's event," pollster Frank Luntz, the event's moderator, said as the congresswoman went around filling up glasses.
"I'm used to it, Frank," Bachmann responded. "I've poured a lot of water in my time."
The episode was only a brief moment at the beginning of a larger political discussion, but it could stand as a point of contention for those who believe that Bachmann is driven by a broader, somewhat controversial ideology concerning the role of women in society.
Bachmann has largely avoided addressing gender politics on the campaign trail, but she has drawn attention for her alleged view that wives should be "submissive" to their husbands.
From a Washington Post profile this summer.
"He is her godly husband," said Peter Bachmann, Dr. Bachmann's oldest brother, who lives on the family dairy farm across the eastern border in Wisconsin. "The husband is to be the head of the wife, according to God." It is a philosophy that Michele Bachmann echoed to congregants of the Living Word Christian Center in 2006, when she stated that she pursued her degree in tax law only because her husband had told her to. "The Lord says: Be submissive, wives. You are to be submissive to your husbands," she said.
But attempts to get a response from Bachmann on this issue were met with resounding disapproval in August, when the audience of a GOP primary debate loudly booed a question from Byron York about whether she considered herself a "submissive wife."
On Monday, while discussing a perceived snub at a recent debate, Bachmann made a rare point of the fact that she is the only woman in the Republican primary field. The controversy was touched off after an email from a CBS producer appeared to show bias against Bachmann in the lead up to a debate broadcast on the network earlier this month. The congresswoman suggested on Monday that sexism could have been at play.
"I don't know if it's because I'm a woman. I have no idea. I know they deliberately chose not to do it," Bachmann said on NBC's "Today" show, according to CNN.
"It's unusual to have a woman candidate. We've never had a woman on the Republican ticket running for president at this level before," Bachmann continued. "So I think it's time to let a woman speak."
Video above via Right Wing Watch.