Bachmann's Service

When I heard Representative Michele Bachmann was going to speak at the RNC last night, I had two thoughts. "Ew," and "Huh." We'll get to the "ew" part shortly. I want to start with "huh."

Last Friday, my friend James went to a meeting at the Courts International building in St. Paul. This is where Norm Coleman has his office (in Paul Wellstone's old office, the unfeeling, opportunistic bastard). James saw and heard a woman talking on her cell phone, not in Coleman's office but well out in public.

She was whining about "the convention." She didn't want to stick to the script. She had some great ideas of her own about what to say.

At the time, we just laughed about the difference between the speeches at the DNC and the heavy scripting that was about to come. I didn't know at the time that the RNC would be that willing to embrace a fruit bat like Bachmann. But once I found out they had, well, strict scripting suddenly made a lot more sense.

This is the woman who hung out in the capitol bushes to spy on a gay-rights protest. This is the woman who described how she got "hot" for god as a sixteen-year-old. This is the woman who...no, no "ew" yet.

So I sent James some links to pictures. "Yep, that looks like her."

Unfortunately, she stuck to the script:

Service isn't a political trait - though some Presidential nominees certainly know more about service than others.

As Republicans, we recognize that service is an innately personal characteristic.

It is best achieved by individuals and community groups, faith-based organizations and charities.

There are some people, however, who believe differently.

They think service is run by Washington bureaucrats, and a growing dependency on government-issued checks.

And they think you should be footing the bill.

I won't go into detail, for the moment, about just how appalling the script is ("Service is personal, so you don't have to pay for it even as you pat yourself on the back for knowing one person who gave some"), because I'm just so disappointed that she stuck to it. She still wasn't happy about it, as you can see from the video hosted at the Dump Michele Bachmann blog, who also has a great comment on her use of the term "Minnesota Nice."

I'm want to know what it was she never got to say. On this topic in particular, I want her off script. Because unlike Monica Lewinsky, Bachmann has given every indication that in her mind, service is a very public thing.


Ew!