Image: DonkeyHotey/Flickr
I’m a big fan of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN). That guy is a no-nonsense fella, who has championed the middle class in this country with the People’s Budget, a sane and humane (but never debated) alternative to Paul Ryan’s budget of butchery, and he endured the insult of Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) anti-Muslim witch hunt with more grace and integrity than most of us could dream of.
So when he speaks, I listen.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, on the other hand, well, she’s a paranoid, radical Christian, David Barton acolyte who spends her time spouting at the mouth about all things anti-American, ala Joseph McCarthy, who saw demons under every rock. Yeah, we all know how that worked out…
Bachmann has been on the warpath against so many innocuous things that it’s getting difficult to keep track, including, but not limited to, impeaching President Obama, railing against the HPV vaccine, claiming that God sent Hurricane Irene to warn us of government spending, all the while maintaining that God called her to run for president.
How did that work out, exactly? Oh yeah, you got trounced!
Her current war cry is the supposed infestation of our government by the Muslim Brotherhood, and she has joined with four other representatives to present “evidence” to the Inspectors General of the Departments of State, Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security, and the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence.
What does their “evidence” consist of?
Well, let’s see…
- Apologizing to the people of Afghanistan for the military burning of Qurans (because the U.S. military never does anything wrong, and therefore, should never apologize)
- Huma Abedin, Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (and wife of former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner), and her family, who are Muslims
And that’s it, I guess. James Zogby’s piece at the Huffington Post goes into more detail about these particular “allegations,” which are laughably ridiculous. Nevertheless, Ellison has stepped up to the plate, and called them on their bullshit, issuing a letter demanding their evidence. He cites their use of information from notorious Islamaphobe Frank Gaffney:
Mr. Gaffney’s views have been widely discredited, including by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and conservative organizations. The FBI said his research made “unsubstantiated assertions” and relied on “outdated information.” After the ACU board conducted a full investigation of Mr. Gaffney’s accusations against Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan, the board found Mr. Gaffney’s accusations “reprehensible,” “baseless” and “false and unfounded.” The ACU even barred Mr. Gaffney’s participation from CPAC in 2011.
Despite Mr. Gaffney’s record of unsubstantiated allegations, you appear to have based your letters to the Inspectors General on his views.
I request that you provide my office a full accounting of the sources you used to make the serious allegations against the individuals and organizations in your letters. If there is not credible, substantial evidence for your allegations, I sincerely hope that you will publically clear their names.
In other words, show us what you’ve got or shut your flippin’ pie hole.
Of course, while we would hope that would happen, there’s no amount of luck in the world for such things, and Bachmann fired off a 16-page, footnoted missive back to Ellison, which included this questioning of Abedin and her family ties:
“Given the reasonable assumption that Ms. Abedin has a high-level security clearance, as a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence I am particularly interested in exactly how, given what we know from the international media about Ms. Abedin’s documented family connections with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, she was able to avoid being disqualified for a security clearance. If these known and documented family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood would not disqualify someone for a security clearance, what specifically is the standard to be disqualified on foreign influence grounds?”
The letter goes on to rail against several Muslim rights groups, sharia law and the problems of Muslims living in non-Muslim countries, which, of course, are going to bring the United States crashing to its knees!
Somehow, I think Bachmann and her ilk have first dibs on that one.
About Beth
Poor Michele: Always trying to find an outlet so she can spout off her xenophobic views about Muslims in general.
Sad really.
I think Michelle Bachman should not be given any publicity. Maybe then she’ll just fade away like Sarah Palin.
Would Joseph McCarthy had just faded away if the most respected journalist of the day, Edward Murrow, had not repeatedly exposed the insane, racist and unAmerican things done by the Senator during his “Communists in the government” scare?
Knowledge is power. Knowing the batshit crazy things Bachmann says and does exposes her, and will eventually lead to her downfall (as history shows). Ignoring her (others like her) empowers them to continue because they think no one objects to their activity.
@ Stew Steve, I can’t tell you how much I want Bachmann and all like her to just quietly sllip between the political floorboards. There’s a few “children” who oughta be left behind!
To me, she is the Sarah Palin clone. In fact, they were probably joined at the hip at one time or perhaps joined at the brain. She has to go. Either she has to be kicked out of office or the people of MN need to start a recall petition. Her lack of governmental and historical knowledge, her acid tongue and the fact that she is married to one of the biggest queens who claims that he can cure homosexuaity is outrageous.
Tom Emmott