Minnesota: Bachmann Accused Pawlenty Administration of Imposing State-Controlled Economy Based On Marxist Principles

Here’s two excerpts from a speech by GOP Congressional candidate Michele Bachmann. In this first quote, she's talking about Governor Pawlenty’s Tax-Free Zones initiatives:

“…it’s all for the planned redistribution of wealth which is also stated in this document, the redistribution of wealth which is based on a new concept called equity. And it says this: we must not lose sight of equity, or fairness based on need. Where have you heard that here, today? From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” --Senator Michele Bachmann, speaking at EdWatch conference sessions, held on October 10 and 11, 2003.

In this second quote, she's talking about how the current GOP administration is changing Minnesota from a free market, free enterprise economy into a kind of socialist state--in which Administration bureaucrats use public schools to impose career choices on students:

“I don’t believe for a minute our Governor (Tim Pawlenty) wants eighth graders choosing careers, I don’t believe for a minute our elected officials want that. But you know what? Everything that I read, all the documents, point otherwise.” --Senator Michele Bachmann, speaking at EdWatch conference sessions, held on October 10 and 11, 2003.

What’s so weird about this is that Bachmann and Governor Pawlenty are both conservative members of the same political party. The Governor is the last person you would suspect of trying to impose some sort of half-assed socialist economy on Minnesota.

Throughout his career he’s prided himself on being a “no news taxes” Republican. He’s also one of the poster boys for the Taxpayers’ League, a political lobby inspired by Grover Norquist (the tax policy maven who’s said he want to get government “down to the size where you could drown it in bathtub.”)

And Pawlenty has lent his support and personal presence to Bachmann on past occasions (most notably as a speaker at her anti-gay marriage rally.) So why is Bachmann attacking one of his key policy initiatives as some kind of covert attempt to turn Minnesota into a socialist state run on Marxist principles—behind his back, telling this to an audience of conservative voters, when the TV cameras aren’t rolling?

Two possible reasons: One possibility is that she really believes the charge is true; that Pawlenty and his ostensibly conservative administration really are trying to impose a socialist economy on Minnesota. Scary, if true; is a person that deranged really the Republican nominee for Congress?

The other possible reason she did it is: she doesn’t care about what happens to any other member of the Minnesota GOP. She is quite willing to imply that the Republican Governor and administration are sneaking Communism into Minnesota government, if that advances her own career and firms up her credibility with conservative paranoids that form part of her own political base. These voters leave her speeches thinking: “Wow, even Governor Pawlenty’s administration has been tainted by socialism! But Michele knows; Michele can see the communism creeping into the Minnesota GOP, I must listen to Michele, not Pawlenty and his bureaucrats…I must follow Michele, the loyalty and judgment of the Governor, and all other Minnesota GOP, are suspect.”

But why would the Minnesota GOP continue to support Michele Bachmann’s candidacy for federal office, if she’s so disloyal to fellow conservative Republicans in Minnesota? Well that one’s easy: it’s because she’s a loose cannon, because she has no loyalty to her fellow Republicans, that they want her out of Minnesota state government.

If one of your own is going around the state charging her own conservative party with having a socialist agenda, what do you do? You can’t expel her, you can’t denounce her without alienating thousands of her Christian fundamentalist followers and her paranoid right political base.

If you’re the Minnesota GOP, you have to do everything is your power to get her out of the state political machine--if supporting her candidacy for federal office is the only way to do that; so be it.

By th way: this kind of irresponsible careerist lunacy by Bachmann might explain why the state GOP promoted her and then demoted her from a leadership position in the Republican Senate Caucus.

Minnesota GOP thinking in 2004: “We can’t have a GOP politician winning points among conservative voters by leveling nuthouse accusation against fellow GOP conservatives. Let’s shut her up by promoting her into the party leadership. That will get Michele on board and in line; she’ll have a stake in supporting the GOP instead of dissing it in front of conservative voters.”

Minnesota GOP thinking in 2005: “My God, we promoted her but she won’t shut up. She’s still denouncing conservatives in her own party as sell-outs! She doesn't give a rat's ass about what's she's doing to the party, she only cares about her own career! The woman’s nuts, demote her, get her out of the leadership!”

GOP thinking in 2006: “My God, she’s STILL crazy! We can’t disown her, she’s got a lock on the state’s Christian fundamentalist voters, if we piss them off, we’re toast at election time! So we have to get her out of the state, any way we can! Send her to Washington, if that’s what she wants, but for Jesus' sake get her out of Minnesota state government before she busts up the GOP!”