Bachmann the Coward

It is not a secret that Michele Bachmann has been distorting the truth to present herself as THE fiscal conservative. I'd call it an intentional lie, but that could be an overstatment.

Michele's response has been to invoke the 11th Commandment. "Whoops, don't talk bad about me. I'm a liar but I don't want it to be broadcast, so remember the 11th Commandment."

Well, I had one last hope that at least to a person's face she would be honest. I was wrong. She flat out lied. Here's how the conversation went between her, her husband and me.

Michele [as she was leaving the auditorium after her speech]: Hi, Tony
Tony: Hello, Sen. Bachmann. I have a question for you.
Michele [stops walking and face me]: OK
Tony: In your lit piece about your Taxpayer's League Score you are using outdated 2004 information. Why did you not use the information released last September?
Michele: No, that is a lie from Krinkie's campaign.
Tony: I'm talking about YOUR lit piece using outdated information.
Michele [starts to walk away]: You should look it up for yourself at the Taxpayer's League Website. My information is straight from there.
Tony: I understand that. My question is why are you using outdated information?
Michele kept walking away, turned back again looked and continued.
Tony: Ms. Bachmann, why are you using outdated information for your literature?
Michele: I don't know.
Tony: Is that the answer I quote tomorrow on the air?
Michele: You quote whatever you want.
Tony: Thanks, but only what you actually say.
Michele's husband (muttering and barely audible so I could be wrong about this): Asshole.
Michele's husband then shouting back: You're inappropriate.
Tony: I'm sorry, I don't understand. How is trying to understand your campaign's disortions 'inappropriate'? Is seeking the truth 'inappropriate'?

At that point one of her volunteers got in the way, "Is there a problem?"
Tony: Yes, I want to know why your candidate is using misleading information on her literature.
Volunteer: I don't know, I'm just a volunteer.
Tony: Oddly enough Michele doesn't know why she is doing that either. That is a problem in a candidate.
By then Michele and her appropriate (what the hell?) husband were gone. I went back to get more donuts from her table. (Dammit, make them spend their money!!)

As I was walking back in I heard from quite a few people.
"How is she going to react from really tough questions?"
"If she can't handle the heat now how is she going to be in the general [election]?"

Exactly.

Not only did she try to lie directly about the literature pieces, not only is she a nasty person behind-the-scenes to people who cannot help her, but she is a poor excuse for a candidate. She is the GOP's version of Cynthia McKinney.

She is a coward and cannot handle tough questioning. When we were going to have her on our show back in September there was a lot of activity from her opposition trying to organize many callers to ask her tough questions. She called and said she will hang up if we take any calls.

I know Michele's campaign reads this blog. I offer this challenge to you and your leader. Come on our show for a hard interview. Do not lie to us, do not try to blow smoke. We will be respectful and fair...but you will NOT get a single softball. Do that, and I will back off of calling you a coward. But the colors I saw today were yellow, yellow and more yellow. That is NOT a candidate that can be trusted to have a "spine of titanium". That is NOT a candidate that can be trusted to avoid scandals.

********** UPDATE **********
After thinking about this incident I decided I should take away endorsement points. - 6 for the unwillingness to answer a direct question, - 8 for the face-to-face lie and - 6 for losing her composure. This brings her total to -44. See, character does matter and in doing this I have learned that poor character is actually worse than a disagreeable platform.

These represent deductions larger than any other single deduction on the scoreboard. The reason is these are negative actions that I have physical witnessed. Those are more impacting than positions I disagree with. These are obsevered by my own eyes/ears and not someone else's. For me there is no game of telephone that can distort the accounting of what actually happened on the way to it being relayed to me.

********** UPDATE **********
Since I was getting a ton of traffic on this post I reread it and decided I had to make a clarification.

While Bachmann's husband was a bit of a jerk (and what the hell was "inappropriate"?) I actually commend him for doing his job. Someone was under fire and the spouse tried to thwart the arrows. That was his job as a protecting spouse. He is going to busy considering the lack of character from his wife, but he should not be condemned or attacked for his role on Saturday.

I wanted that clarification out right away.