This time Abe Sauer from the Awl writes:
Bachmann, who has made it a campaign point to accuse her primary opponents of being bought and paid for, has lived the lavish life for a couple weeks nearly every summer at the expense of pro-Israel lobbyists. A new book, The Madness of Michele Bachmann, notes that Bachmann and her family "enjoyed free trips to Israel in 2007, 2008 and 2009, to the tune of $44,380." In 2009, a single trip for the rep and her daughter ran $19,414.74. All compliments of the American Israel Education Foundation. (Late last spring, Bachmann began a speech: "I am convinced in my heart and in my mind, that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States.")
A collection of reporting, insight and posts from the authors behind the blogs DumpBachmann.com and Ripple in Stillwater, The Madness of Michele Bachmann paints a finger-painting of a Congresswoman who has made a career of refusing to comply with both the explicit and implicit rules of "the game" even while making herself out to be a victim when opponents and detractors do likewise.
Though it does a remarkable job keeping the sarcastic, spiteful commentary to an absolute minimum, the book, like its authors, is biased. Yet its straightforward recounting of Bachmann's lesser known boondoggles—like personal rapid transit, or the third party commercial she unblushingly shot inside the state legislative chambers—raises a journalism conundrum: Is it actually bias to just state the facts?
To say the book is a hit piece would not be a misstatement. But it's a hit piece that reflects the authors' longstanding coverage of a politician who, even by the standards of the circus of late-stage American democracy, is a clown. (The founding author of Dump Bachmann was a Republican; another is a constituent.) While a lot of Bachmann's migraine-inducing mutterings are contained in "The Quotable Bachmann," the final chapter, the book's focus is well beyond the worn media trail of "crazy eyes" that launched one- and three-dollar-a-word profiles by Rolling Stone and The New Yorker and that controversial Newsweek cover.
Read the whole thing. |
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