Tony Garcia hosts Race to the Right with Marty Andrade. When they had Bachmann on as a guest last summer, they seemed to be huge fans of Bachmann - and asked her softball questions.
Lately Tony has been writing some hard hitting posts about Bachmann's lack of principles and commitment to the Republican party.
In a nutshell she mobilized many people to attend the caucuses with one intention: become delegates to become delegate to endorse Bachmann. The mobilization part is great. The problem is that these people are not party activists. They are robots being led to do one thing: endorse Bachmann.
On the surface that seems like an innocuous thing. But the cost will be the destruction of the BPOUs in the 6th district.
Bachmann's lemmings are succeeding in one thing...kicking out as many people as possible that to not support Bachmann. The people that are getting kicked out to the streets are the longtime grassroots people. The people who man the executive committees, the chairs, secretaries, treasurers and even state legislators. That leaves these single-minded drones in those positions. Since their sole purpose of being a delegate and being in the process is to endorse the least electable candidate, their objective will be completed by mid-summer. They will not be filling and or performing the roles they are supplanting. They will also have chased away a few of the activists from continuing their role (myself and a few others that I have talked to will be either inactive or leave the party as of the convention if Bachmann wins).
I know, I am assuming quite a negative aspect on these people. From what I have heard from many eye witness accounts the Bachmann sheep are rude, impolite, nasty, and disinterested except for voting for each other.
For the record, I did talk to the Bachmann volunteers at her table in Blaine, and I did not find them rude. Things may have been different on the convention floor. Andy Parrish, Bachmann's campaign manager was concerned that I would interview Bachmann supporters and attribute some wacky idea from a supporter to Bachmann.
Bachmann is undermining the grassroots of the GOP. Each claim in the future of being a "grassroots candidate" will warrant a deduction on the scoreboard. Bachmann's tactics to serve her own personal ambition will severely damage the GOP from July 2006 through March 2008 at the least (I think the damage will take many election cycles to overcome). The damage to the GOP in the 6th will be felt regardless of if Bachmann wins or loses the endorsement simply because her method is to remove the very party foundations that make the party run...simply because they do not pledge their support.
That is going to be a problem. I've heard from a number of others that established party people are offended by the methods used by Bachmann's campaign.
Garcia continues:
She knows that she cannot win on her own GOP credentials within the party activists and I believe is ignoring the fact that she cannot win in the general election at all.
The only way she can win the GOP endorsement is to remove the people who actually look at the candidates. She is NOT the fiscal candidate (though she brazenly lies about that). Krinkie is THE fiscal candidate. She is rivaled by Knoblach as the social conservative and thus will split that vote. She can win the bible-thumpers (the people who would support the Bible becoming the law of the land and believe in the separation clause EXCEPT when it comes to Christianity) but cannot win the majority of the religious people (people who believe in a higher being AND also understand the importance of the separation of church and state). All four candidates will split the religious people as that is the majority of the pre-Bachmann coup GOP delegates.
The antics of the past few weeks have angered much of the grassroots (with the exception of the ones who were already on the Bachmann wagon...to these people their ox is not being gored so they see nothing wrong).
As for the general election Bachmann will be facing stronger opposition money than the other three candidates would combined. (Eva, correct me if you think I am wrong here, please.) There are boat loads of pro-gay money from all over the country that will be dumped into any DFL candidate if Bachmann is the GOP candidate. While money does not guarantee a victory or defeat, it does guarantee lots of negative exposure for Bachmann.
If Patty Wetterling's the candidate, Tony's analysis is right on. If the candidate is Elwyn Tinklenberg, and he continues to support the Federal Marriage amendment (it's still unclear where he is on that one - because he is now saying that he supports civil unions - which the FMA prohibits), the money won't go towards Tinklenberg - but there could me money going towards attacking Bachmann. Michele Bachmann will certainly be a fundraiser for the DFL.
That being said, I don't think Michele Bachmann should be underestimated. There will be money going into her race from all over the country because this is a swing district.
This is Tony Garcia's scorecard for the 6th District:
6th CD
Michele Bachmann (R) -22
Jay Esmay (R) +23
Jim Knoblach (R) - 1
Phil Krinkie (R) +19
El Tinklenberg (D) -10
Patty Wetterling (D) - 6
Tony's got another post going after Bachmann's efforts in SD 51 here.
What Bachmann is doing is ANTI-grassroots. To believe Bachmann's lie that she is the "grassroots candidate" is to believe anything you hear. Furthermore the fact that she has adopted an "anything to win" mentality proves to me why she should NOT go to Washington. I would even go so far as to say that she should not be in St Paul but that is not within my control.
Warning to the Bachmann campaign...you better NOT try this crap at my BPOU. I have no problem rolling up the sleeves and playing nasty right back. What you are doing is 100% about winning, not at all about doing what is right. I also have no problem doing the same at the 6th CD convention.
What is the most disappointing is the Bachmann slate members who are "Republicans". Republicans have been preaching since Clinton's days that character matters. This tactic from Bachmann may be legal, it may be within the rules and it may prove organizational skills. It also proves a lack of character. Bachmann is interested in one thing: Winning. That means that everything else (principles, morals, ethics, platform, etc) take a second seat at best. With all due respect (what little is due) that is the type of person that ruins this country, politics and everything that the Founders wanted.
I am disappointed in the party's members for not recognizing this for what it is. The moral character of the party is disintegrating before my eyes this year.
It's always worth checking out Tony Garcia's blog. |
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