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Michele Bachmann, gay-curing theocrat
Salon ^ | June 12, 2011 | Alex Pareene

Posted on 06/15/2011 6:06:03 PM PDT by ejdrapes

Michele Bachmann, gay-curing theocrat
The surprisingly "serious" presidential candidate is even more extreme than she appears

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.


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To: ejdrapes

I’ll need a bit more context to respond to the point you are trying to make.


61 posted on 06/15/2011 10:23:36 PM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
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To: popdonnelly

>> She will play ball with Wall Street? How?

I think she will prove to be a naive tool of the people she will be advised to surround herself with. She’s a Dan Quayle in the making and will be eaten alive by the media. Palin has twice the IQ going for her.


62 posted on 06/15/2011 10:26:10 PM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
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To: ejdrapes
This is the beyond-the-pale stuff that makes Bachmann so, so much worse than Sarah Palin, to whom she is regularly compared.

Nice endorsement of Palin.

63 posted on 06/16/2011 12:37:19 AM PDT by Rudder (The Main Stream Media is Our Enemy---get used to it.)
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To: ejdrapes
To 38 - I believe Tammy Bruce does support Mrs Palin on account of some/most of their viewpoints merging. Yet, Bruce has been savagely attacking Mrs Bachmann, who is almost a clone of Palin, politically speaking.
So why would Bruce be so adamant in tearing down Bachmann? One aspect of Bachmann, absent with Palin, is the former's, (along with her husband), advocacy in therapy for people who wish to overcome 'same-sex attraction'. Palin admits that one of her good friends is a lesbian, and although she's stated that she wouldn't ever sign off on 'gay marriage' she appears to have a 'live and let live' attitude about gays.
I oft wonder how Bruce would react if Palin were to come out and assert that homosexuality is a sin.
Bruce can be very sharp, and she does toe the conservative line on 2nd amendment, economic, and law/crime issues. She remains pro-abort/pro-gay 'rights', though she's reigned in her angry bombursts on those topics. She used to villify; malign the Catholic Church, especially the Vatican. Yet not too long ago she complimented a Bishop, (or a Cardinal, I forget), about some noble deed performed by that cleric.
Regardless of that, her rants about Bachmann are just that, rants...until she proffers evidence of her allegations, especially the one of Bachmann being a "stalking horse for Romney".
64 posted on 06/16/2011 1:33:26 AM PDT by jla
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To: kcvl

To image at 60 - Is that a ‘man bag’ sitting on the chair in the background?


65 posted on 06/16/2011 1:36:02 AM PDT by jla
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To: smokingfrog
This one needs a barf alert.

Only for those of us who are a little dim.

66 posted on 06/16/2011 1:55:12 AM PDT by Misterioso (A liberal is a communist, but too stupid to realize it.)
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To: Yollopoliuhqui

More Bachmann bashing from Palin supporters. YAWN.


67 posted on 06/16/2011 3:42:01 AM PDT by ejdrapes (Go Michele!)
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To: ejdrapes
I would caution anyone that someone who the MSM considers a 'frontrunner' or whom they appear to embrace at this point will likely have either positions unsavory to conservatives or weaknesses which can be exploited at some point in the home stretch.

Don't get me wrong, I like Michelle, too, but I have to be leery of anything which implies MSM approval.

I think the reason they have been so vitriolic toward Palin is simply that they have not been able to come up with any dirt--and they've been trying their little butts off to do so.

68 posted on 06/16/2011 3:50:27 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Cyropaedia

I want his lunch money.


69 posted on 06/16/2011 3:54:59 AM PDT by bmwcyle (It is Satan's fault)
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To: DaxtonBrown
Palin has been too savaged by the press to be viable.

Nope. I don't think so.

Why, she's so "stupid" she is a major force in politics, and has likely paid of the Half-million in attorney's fees from defending against the baseless accusations of her detractors the last time she was a candidate.

Her experience will resonate with anyone (especially blue-collar) who has ever suffered the sanctimonious condescendence that someone 'educated' reserves for those they view as underlings.

That might be a larger fraction of the population than some realize.

We've had the ivory tower approach, and are suffering still from the policies embraced by those oh, so much smarter than we, and are ready to see a little common sense applied.

For all the attacks and dirt digging and dumpster diving the MSM has come up with, all they've been able to do is attack a working mom with a special needs kid, and without basis.

Every time they have come at her she has proven them wrong, every attack has been repulsed.

That, FRiend speaks volumes about character, and we need that in this country.

Put them together on a ticket, Unite the Right!, and let's take our country back.

70 posted on 06/16/2011 4:16:13 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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