Posted on 06/15/2011 6:06:03 PM PDT by ejdrapes
Michele Bachmann, gay-curing theocrat
Michelle Goldberg's Daily Beast/Newsweek piece on Michele Bachmann's history and faith -- a strain of born-againism associated with crackpot history, opposition to science, and virulent intolerance of gays and lesbians -- shows precisely how out-there Bachmann is, even though the congresswoman these days pretends to be run-of-the-mill hard-right-winger. (Yes, her current extremism represents a moderation of her former incarnation.) The piece begins with a wonderful recounting of the time she accused lesbians of kidnapping her and holding her hostage in a bathroom, because some ladies were talking to her. Minnesotans may know much of this already, but people familiar with Bachmann only from liberal blogs or cable news are missing the evangelical extremism that informs her every public statement. She talks like Ron Paul now, but she's Pat Robertson at heart. Her spiritual influences and advisors explicitly advocate theocracy and are obviously responsible for her garbled and twisted impression of American history. A couple of newsy bits: Her 23 foster kids, a topic she mentions all the time? She doesn't ever go into detail about how many she has or had at any time, or for how long she fostered them: Bachmann often says she has "raised" 23 foster children. That may be a bit of a stretch. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Bachmann's license, which she had for 7 1/2 years, allowed her to care for up to three children at a time. According to Kris Harvieux, a former senior social worker in the foster-care system in Bachmann's county, some placements were almost certainly short term. "Some of them you have for a week. Some of them you have for three years, some you have for six months," says Harvieux, who also served as a foster parent herself. "She makes it sound like she got them at birth and raised them to adulthood, but that's not true." (However many she has at a time, foster kids are a good way to make some tax-free cash from the Minnesota government, and they're not even Bachmann's sole source of free government cash.) It's likely that her husband's clinic is at least in part dedicated to "curing" gay people: Both she and her husband, by all accounts her most trusted political adviser, believe that homosexuality can be cured. Speaking to a Christian radio station about gay teenagers last year, Marcus, who treats gay people in his counseling practice, said, "Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined, and just because someone feels this or thinks this, doesn't mean that we're supposed to go down that road." This is the beyond-the-pale stuff that makes Bachmann so, so much worse than Sarah Palin, to whom she is regularly compared. Bachmann has also lied about her own family's support for her anti-gay activism. Members of her extended family have written letters to Minnesota papers criticizing her, without identifying themselves as being related to her. She is, really, a pretty awful piece of work.
The surprisingly "serious" presidential candidate is even more extreme than she appears
I hope they go overboard like they did with Palin’s e-mails. Made them look like the pathetic losers they are.
Interesting observation.
Well the piece originated from the Daily Beast. That fine publication from Tina Brown. I’ll take a wild guest that the Morning Joe crew will be discussing this tomorrow. All the while they keep refusing to discuss Anthony Weiner...
I’m still waiting ‘til they find the “gay gene” to see what pro-abortion nuts think about “a woman’s choice”, then.
I just got the book. I’m looking forward to reading it. What do you think of it so far?
The return of the “Nuts and Sluts” strategy.
Tiresome.
Yeah, the velocity by which this is picked up where will be interesting.
They also got heavily involved in creating false stories about Christine O'Donnell running for the Senate in Delaware. That was the one still cited by some Freepers of questionable intelligence ~ to the effect that a guy claimed a one night stand with her. BTW, she's currently working a complaint against the old biddy at CREW and its anticipated she might get that ol'gal kicked out of the practice of law in that state.
Alex here is as bad as the worst of them.
Watching this guy work and seeing who his friends are it's probable he will die of several STDs before the 2012 campaign gets underway.
Unless there's something we really need to know I think we'd be best served by NOT dishing any of this guy's SH*T UP.
A brighter future has evaporated from millions of Americans in the past few years, and we’re going to worry about fringe social issues?
Come on, Salon.
Thanks for the info. I know nothingn about this guy other than he appears to be an a**hole of the highest order.
The Salon article is about the Daily Beast article which is what you need to read for all the details.
The MO of the Left is so obvious, how could Miller and O’Reilly miss it? Their MO is to demean and lie about any person who won’t play their game. I literally cannot stand those people.
She will play ball with Wall Street? How?
“...and virulent intolerance of gays and lesbians...”
In other words, she feels just like the Muslims do about them?
Same leftist mantra since the sixties which all closet leftists on Free Republic repeat incessantly.
Indeed. And sadly, Tammy Bruce is at the mob's forefront waving the rainbow banner.
Isn’t that because she’s a big Palin supporter? I know she thinks Bachmann is a fraud, but I’d love to know why (other than Bachmann’s supposed to shut up and leave the stage all to Palin).
He dooesn't know. He is just making it up. Obama plays ball with Wall Street.
I tried tracking down his residential address ~ without luck. These guys are all hiding ~ including that McGinniss guy who moved in next door to Sarah.
You can't tell me he did that just 'cause it was for rent ~ he had a suicide belt or something ~ maybe grenades around. He must have gotten cold feet ~ BTW, he's my PRIME candidate for the guy who tried to burn down Sarah's church a couple of years ago. He's crazy. He hangs with crazy people. He not only exhibits full blown bi-polar disorder, he appears totally detached from real people ~ no social skills ~ may well qualify for description as borderline personality disorder.
I wouldn't get too near him.
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