Michele Bachmann BS on Her New Congressional Campaign Website

The home page shows an image of self-described Iowan Michele Bachmann superimposed on a image of the Stillwater lift bridge, the bridge she has trash-talked to support the megabucks boondoggle replacement. The "About Michele" page is a real hoot - who doesn't know about the real Michele Bachmann by now? True to form, "About Michele" tells a bunch of whoppers and leaves a lot out about the 6th Congressional District representative like how she spent most of last year in Iowa campaigning for POTUS and ending up getting dumped. Here's a few lies: Bachmann developed a reputation as a “principled reformer” who stays true to her conservative beliefs while pushing for real reform of the broken ways of Washington. Really? Only 5% of caucus-goers in Iowa believed that one. Bachmann spent most of last year on the campaign trail instead of pushing reform or fixing anything in D.C.. Prior to serving in the U.S. Congress, Bachmann served in the Minnesota State Senate. She was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in 2000 where she championed the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. Wrong. We wrote about Bachmann's record in the Minnesota Legislature in our book "The Madness of Michele Bachmann" Bachmann turned down a chance to have TABOR in a committee hearing - see October 24, 2005 DB post titled "Bachmann Refuses Hearings on TABOR". The post includes this letter (click to make it bigger): And, prior to that, Bachmann spent five years as a federal tax litigation attorney, working on hundreds of civil and criminal cases. Apparently, the word "working" has a different meaning to Michele Bachmann. For years, Dump Bachmann was unable to find more than one case that Bachmann brought to trial. During the campaign, national reporters investigated that claim and interviewed co-workers and reported Bachmann had a lackluster career at the IRS, spending most of her time on maternity leave. Bachmann also claimed during the campaign she was " kind of secret anti-tax mole whose mission was to get to know the place in order to better undermine it later". Congresswoman Bachmann currently sits on the Financial Services Committee. This committee is tasked with the oversight of numerous financial sectors including housing, real estate and banking. True, but that statement does not say what she actually did on the Financial Services Committee last year - little to nothing. Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, live in Stillwater... Wrong, not Stillwater. Bachmann lives in a $1.27 million McMansion on the 18th hole of Stoneridge Golf Course in West Lakeland Township. ... the Bachmann BS goes on and on and will likely continue for the rest of the campaign. The local media will continue to publish puff pieces about Bachmann and Bachmann will continue to refuse to speak to reporters who may ask tough questions. So, it's very likely in spite of the dumping she got from Republican voters in Iowa, she will have no trouble keeping her no-show job in Congress (for more reasons why Bachmann will likely get re-elected, see this Aaron Klemz post at The Cucking Stool). .... but, there is a fly in Michele Bachmann's ointment to prevail in 2012, and his name is Frank Vennes who is scheduled to go on trial in May for fraud and money laundering charges related to his role as the financier of Tom Petters multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. As I have said before, Bachmann's letter in support for a pardon for convicted felon Frank Vennes could spell big trouble for her. In her letter, Bachmann mentions that she knows "from personal experience" about how Frank used his "business position" to help Christian charities. Bachmann's personal experience may be called upon during the trial. Bachmann could be called by the defense as a character witness. Bachmann has two very bad choices if she is called to testify; she can testify under oath that her letter was bullshit, but that letter was addressed to an assistant U.S. Attorney and lying to a Federal law enforcement official is a felony. Bachmann could claim that she really meant what she wrote and Vennes was and still is a stand-up guy, but there is already sufficient evidence that implicates Vennes in the financing of Tom Petters Ponzi scheme. All of the money Vennes donated was dirty and as we reported back in December, a bankruptcy trustee in Florida is clawing it back including money donated to Bachmann's campaign. Another interesting part of the Vennes case is how important it was for Vennes that his felony record be erased so he could take a more prominent role in funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to Tom Petters' totally fraudulent scheme. This effort seems to have included donating boatloads of money to politicians like Bachmann. Frank Vennes was not a constituent of Bachmann. Reporters need to ask her if there was a quid pro quo - cash for a letter of support for a pardon. If there was a quid pro quo, Bachmann could be considered at least, an unwitting accomplice in a scheme to defraud even more investors of millions of dollars - for more about the campaign to win a pardon for Vennes read Karl Bremer's three-part series on the effort to win a pardon for Frank Vennes including a timeline of donations and events relating to the Vennes request for a pardon Parts One, Two & Three]. Keep up with the pre-trial motions, clawbacks and other info at my Vennes Info blog. Here's a couple of letters from Vennes from 2002 that describe his role shoveling hundreds of dollars to Tom Petters - click links to make them bigger (and click again on the letter to make it bigger): 2002 Letter from Frank Vennes to Tom Petters: 2002 letter to Palm Beach Finance partners: