The Borking of Michele Bachmann

American Spectator ^ | April 07, 2013 | JEFFREY LORD

[Steelfish]

The Borking of Michele Bachmann By JEFFREY LORD Another conservative gets the Washington treatment.

Shocker. Having failed to end Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s congressional career at the polls, the left is now moving to do it the old-fashioned way: Bork Bachmann unto political death. The problem? This really is the old-fashioned way.

And any conservative even semi-awake recognizes the game instantly. In this case the game being played with the so-called Office of Congressional Ethics, the OCE.

This is what we now call “Borking.”

The method of choice of liberals when they are frustrated by the public’s attachment or potential attachment to a political figure on the Right.

From then-California Senator Richard Nixon’s 1952 “scandal” about a campaign fund to Barry Goldwater’s 1964 “ties” to German Nazis to 1988 allegations that Dan Quayle bought drugs to Sarah Palin’s 2008 episode over Alaskan state troopers, the story is the same. From charges designed to immolate any conservative from the late Robert Bork in 1987 (whence the Borking game took its name) to Clarence Thomas in 1991 or, in the last few days, Dr. Ben Carson, the game never changes when the objective is to destroy a prominent conservative.

Now comes Michele Bachmann’s turn to be, as it were, Borked.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

The Ministry of Truth can bork anyone they want. The state owned media will always cooperate whole heartedly. If Ms Bachmann runs for anything that I can vote for her for she has my vote (unless she’s running against Sarah Palin).

[upchuck]

Quick link wrt reply #18:

"Borking" is just Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals #5.

“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.

[cradle of freedom]

When you hear the word *bigot* being thrown at someone who opposes homo *marriage* you can be pretty sure of the sexual orientation of the accuser. N’est pas?

[jmacusa]

As former liberal I can tell you you're right on the money’’creek’’. Yeah, ‘’the high road’’, ‘’civility’’ ‘’decorum’’, all that high falluting jive is fine for the academic set but we conservatives aren't dealing with Truman-Kennedy or Johnson type liberals here. We're dealing with the Abbie Hoffman, Mark Rudd, Bill Ayers bunch here. “Fine young cannibals’’, think the SDS, the ‘’Red Guard’’, ‘’Strumabteilung’’(stormtroopers’’). Forget the civility and decorum. This bunch no more deserves that then a rabid dog deserves a bone. Give them facts and logic delivered with a vicious, verbal left hook. Or a real one if need be. Ridicule them, mock them, curse them in public, in print and on line. Give it back to them in spades. Clauswitz said ‘’War is politics by other means’’. Well, we're at war. War for the heart and soul of this fast fading land of freedom and liberty because Obama and the rest of these Marxist m’fers mean to finish it off. ‘’In war’’, said General Omar Bradley, ‘’there's no Second Place’’ prize for the runner up’’. Obama threw down the gauntlet in ‘08 when he told his followers to ‘knock on your neighbors door, I want you to get in their faces’’. In the end, liberals are moral and physical cowards.

[jmacusa]

D’accord, mon ami, d’accord!.

[Son House]

And in at least one of the Presidential Debates, Bachmann was the best one to articulate the US Constitution and how it relates to government. No one else ever came close.

[cripplecreek]

Moderates are lying, manipulative, bottom feeding scum. Learn it, live it.

The GOP has been moderated into a coma and they’re happily pinching the feeding tube as their buddies across the aisle goose step into full on fascism.

[skeeter]

RINO moderates make me sick.

[upchuck]

FReepers reading this thread: go read the article. Mr. Lord does an excellent job of dissecting this smear by the left.

[cradle of freedom]

When Rush Limbaugh recently said that the Republican Party has no idealogy, he must have been referring to the moderates. Who is a moderate? Someone who wets his finger and puts it to the wind.

[WomBom]

“The simple fact is that conservatives can forget about winning till they regain a sense of moral courage”

[cradle of freedom]

One of the things that I love about Michele Bachmann is that she isn’t afraid to speak her mind and she has a woman’s instinct for the jugular. I’m a woman, I can say that. ;^D

[WomBom]

The simple fact is that conservatives can forget about winning till they regain a sense of moral courage.

Amen to that brother!

[gitmo]

I thought Michele Bachmann’s biggest liability in the last election was her voice.

If you read what she says she is quite persuasive. But when you listen to her, it sounds like she isn’t convinced she is right and is begging you to agree with her anyway.

Professional speaking and voice lessons would serve her well.

[cripplecreek]

Rush really nailed it when he did this interview with Van Sustren back in 2011.

Rush Goes On the Record with Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren

VAN SUSTEREN: Why has Governor Mitt Romney not had a so-called "surge"? We hear "surge" used with basically every Republican nominee, but you don't see that "surge" with Governor Romney.

RUSH: Well, every poll I've seen of Republican primary voters, he can't crack 30 percent. It has been curious. And you look at it from the reverse, 70 percent of Republican voters want somebody else. This is why we have the phenomenon of the "Not-Romney." Bachmann was the "Not-Romney" for a while. Herman Cain was the "Not-Romney." Now Newt is the "Not-Romney." I think it boils down to something that's not complicated at all. Republican primary voters are conservative. They don't believe that Romney is. They believe that he will stick a finger in the air and moisten it and see which way the winds are blowing and try to get in that direction. They remember that Romney said he believes in global warming and he believes that man is causing it. Well, conservatives don't believe that. They believe it's a hoax. Conservatives know that the whole story of man-made global warming is a hoax. And they're not going to get excited by a candidate who is trying to gain favor with non-Republican primary voters by articulating that stuff.

Here's the big problem, Greta, for the Republicans. And I am a lone wolf on this. The rule of thumb in elections, both parties, 40 percent are going to vote Democrat automatically, whatever you do, 40 percent are going to vote Republican, automatic, no matter what you do. And in the middle, who do we have? The precious, God love them, independents and the moderates. And they are the targets. They are the focus of every election. And our brilliant campaign consultants tell our candidates they are the ones that know how to go get a majority of those independents. And we have, as Republicans, put ourselves in prison to this whole silly notion that you only win elections by moving to the center and getting great independents. Fine and dandy, but if you squander your base in the process, you haven't a prayer.

The Republican Party is trying to do something in this primary that is unprecedented. They're trying to split the conservative vote and win the primary with a moderate, with Romney. It's the other way around. You consolidate your base and then you move to the center in the general. The Republican establishment has decided they don't want any part of conservatism. And this is really not new. People are surprised to hear this, but the Republican Party formative event with conservatism is Goldwater's landslide defeat. That's what they think of when they think conservative. They don't think Reagan. They think Goldwater.

They believe what the inside-the-Beltway philosophy is about conservatives. They're racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, Southern hayseed hicks. They're pro-lifers. They're embarrassing to have to go to the convention with them. And they're just embarrassed to have those kind of people in the party. They're dumb. They're not erudite. They're not educated in Ivy League schools. We'll take their votes on election day, but we really don't want to hang around with them. We don't want anybody in Washington thinking that we're really that close to them and aligned with them. So in the process -- you know, it's a very sophisticated electorate. The Republican primary voter can sense that the Republican Party really doesn't like them, really doesn't want them, thinks that they are the route to defeat. That's the problem in a nutshell. The Republican establishment thinks that a conservative nominee is the route to defeat because they think Goldwater landslides are going to happen because they believe what the popular misconception the left has created of conservatives -- they think everybody thinks that.

[keats5]

My question was how does anyone survive Borking. You answered it. We need moral courage. And I would also add that we need a unifying leader with moral courage, to keep us from going all wobbly.

[jmacusa]

(with apologies to Mr. Kipling) ‘’...Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say/ For the woman that God gave him isn't his to give away./ But when hunter meets with husbands/ each confirms the others tale/ The female of the species is more deadly than the male.''

[Tau Food]

Michelle Bachmann is a patriot. If she has a fault, it is that she does sometimes say things without first checking out the information thoroughly. That permits her opponents to find that some small part of what she says is inaccurate and to then use that to attempt to tar her credibility. So, maybe she needs to be a bit more patient before speaking out, but she clearly has the best interests of her country in mind at all times.

You can't say that about very many of her colleagues.

[SeminoleCounty]

Heck, Bachmann is also being Borked by PhonyCon Liberal GOP.

No one stood up for her when she called out Rick Perry’s forced STD vaccination program on little girls in Texas. They just let the Liberals and the PhonyCons attack her

Also...some PhonyCons were claiming that she was running interference for Mitt Romney...which was dumb and unfounded.

Bachmann and Todd Akin were both trashed by PhonyCon Liberals, when they were some of our strongest conservative candidates around

[WorkingClassFilth]

The main criticism of Congresswoman Bachman that I've read here on FR is the occasional snipe that she's too strident and her manner will “hurt” conservatism. Never has this remotely been the actual case. She's earned her spurs a thousand times and her district has sent her back with regularity. She is a watchdog and fearless in facing leftist hate and backstabbing pubbie nonsense. She regularly informs conservatives of the daily crime in DC via phone calls to local talk-radio back here in the metro area of Minnesota. For my money, she's worth more than the vast majority of pubbies sucking on the public teat. This courageous woman has actually lived up to what the term conservative means and has full rights to use the term.

Oh yeah, her detractors here can go pound sand. Hope you enjoy the socialist state you're helping to power.