Can Colin Powell Defeat Right Wing Extremist Michele Bachmann?

We don't have a dog in this fight, not really. Sure, Michele Bachmann is one of the dozen most reactionary members of Congress, a delusional extremist way at the bottom on the barrel with ideological twins Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Steve King (R-IA), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Mike Pence (R-IN), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), and Thelma Drake (R-VA). She, she has an even worse voting record than misfits Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO). Yet, as we mentioned earlier, Esquire singled Bachmann out as the third worst member of Congress:

One gets the impression that if, in the name of "traditional values," Bachmann could rescind the vote for women, she would. Her vacant, wild eyes recall a doomsday prophet, or one of Charlie Manson's girls. Equal parts religious hack and party hack, she's got spunk and not much else.

Her almost nonchalantly divisive and McCarthyite rant on Hardball a couple days ago, has suddenly propelled her to national fame, or, mostly, infamy, something DWT readers have been aware of for the last couple of years. It has also made her Democrat opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg an unlikely hero of the netroots. Since Bachmann unmasked herself on MSNBC, netroots donors from all over America have contributed over $600,000 to his campaign. Probably as few of them know he's a Blue Dog who will consistently oppose progressive solutions to the nation's problems, as knew what a kook Bachmann was before this week.



Now Minnesota's 6th congressional district, the suburbs north, west and east of Minneapolis, is 95% white. It gave Bush his strongest support in the state in 2004 (57%) and also was the state's most supportive CD in 2006 for both Mark Kennedy and Tim Pawlenty who were running, respectively for senator and governor. Kennedy, the furthest right of anyone in the Minnesota delegation represented the 6th and resigned for the ill-fated Senate run, Bachmann, even further to the right, replacing him, with 50% of the vote in a 3-way race, Democrat Patty Wetterling taking 42%. Recent polls show Tinklenberg catching up with Bachmann, only 4 points separating the two.

Today's Star Trib reported that the Minnesota Poll shows Obama up over McCain by double digits in that state but doesn't break down the voter preferences by CD. The 6th is still a deeply red bastion and, even with Bachmann's national disgrace I wouldn't have bet on Tinklenberg. Until today. Today, Bachmann's defeated GOP primary opponent, Aubrey Immelman, went one step beyond not endorsing her. He registered as an official write-in candidate against her. He mentioned that Minnesotans "cannot tolerate this festering brand of neo-McCarthyism in our midst" and that the Republican Party's need "to rebuild its image... cannot be done when its elected representatives say these kinds of things." In a close race, he can kill her chances for re-election. I think he may.

Meanwhile Norm Coleman, in a losing re-election campaign himself, is desperately trying to distance himself from Bachmann, just as he has been desperately trying to distance himself from George Bush, quite a feat considering that he has tended to rubber stamp Bush's entire agenda since being elected 6 years ago and that he and Bachmann have tended, in most instances, to vote as though they shared one brain between them. Meanwhile, Coleman has refused to sign the censure petition that The Nation has started circulating.