bachmann really believes this stuff - it's not a calculated ploy, it's who she truly is. i've been watching her antics since she was hiding in bushes spying on people.

I knew that "the times, they were a-changin'", when George Felix Allen "macaca-ed" himself. An acquaintance of mine, a life-long Repub who actually *knew* and liked Allen, decided to vote for Webb because her Virginia pride wouldn't let her stomach the shame of being the laughingstock of the country.

To me, Bachmann is a "she-Allen" and, hopefully, will follow his career path.

Accountability from the grassroots. What a concept to our democracy?

Kari

Hilzoy,
I believe you left a part of this story out. If I recall correctly, Susan Smith at first claimed that her car had been hijacked by two black men. Furthermore, if I recall, Newt said, taking Ms. Smith's claim for fact, that it was an example of the moral degredation liberal welfare state. Am I not correct?

Elphage , I believe you're correct but I can't find a complete quote. I found this much, though.

Two days later, less than 24 hours before the polls opened, Gingrich defended his comments on the Smith case as no different than what he'd been saying for years -- that violence and related ills arise from a Democratic-controlled political system: "We need very deep change if we're going to turn this country around."

Asked if the change he was offering the country would stop killings like those in South Carolina, he replied, "Yes. In my judgment, there's no question."

Gingrich & The Susan Smith Case

(And I forgot Gingrich blamed both Columbine and the Virginia Tech tragedies on liberals. Jesus.)

I've never forgotten Gingrich's shameless gloating over the Susan Smith tragedy and it seemed to usher in a RW mentality where any disgusting thing could said be by high-ranking Republicans without fear of reprecussions.

I sense the possibility for a sea change, also...I hardly dare believe but it would be wonderful. I'd love to recognize my country, again.

A few more episodes like this and we might just see politicians thinking twice about vileness as a political tactic.

That would be a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Except... For most of those Republicans who have used that type of language in the past, they'll start doing it behind closed doors again. It's not as if what happens to Bachmann is actually going to turn them in honorable human beings.

Some of those people (politicians as well as the people who vote for them)seem to have it in their DNA. They honestly feel they are right and that something needs to be done about the 'rest' of the country that happens to infringe on their way of life.

Our local newspaper endorsed McCain earlier this week. It was stomach churning how they 'lied by omission, misrepresented Obama's record, exaggerated McCain's policies, lied outright about Obama raising taxes, didn't even mention McCain's flip-flops, and much more.

The irony was that they have a clause for their "letters to the editor": IF they find any factually wrong statements, the letter will be rejected outright.

The only thing she and her ilk will learn will be never to say these things outloud. Is that a victory? I suppose.

We're seeing this pent up aggression being released across the nation at McCain and Palin rallies. Shaming these people into not saying these things only represses these feelings, it doesn't change their mind. One needs to find the source of this anger and address it at that point.

bachmann really believes this stuff

So, apparently, does culture warrior Rep Steve King (R, Iowa Taliban). Please notice when he does stuff like this

Elphage: I went back and checked, and Gingrich did go on saying it after it was clear that it was Smith, not the mysterious black man. From the Ottawa Citizen, Nov. 8 1994:

"Republican House leader Newt Gingrich took the theme to absurd lengths Sunday by linking Democratic government to the "sickness" in the country that contributed to last month's horrific killing of two children by their mother, Susan Smith, in Union County, S.C."

I had forgotten this delightful episode (WaPo editorial, 11/23/95):

"On Tuesday the speaker plumbed new depths: The horrible Illinois murder in which a healthy infant was torn from its murdered mother's womb was -- what else? you guessed it -- the fault of "a welfare system which subsidized people for doing nothing; a criminal system that tolerated drug dealers; an educational system which allows kids to not learn and which rewards tenured teachers who can't teach, while destroying poor children who it traps in a process with no hope.""

Also: I think behind closed doors would be a huge improvement. Part of what bothered me in 1994 was that this did not seem to bother the voters. I hated that. I'm thrilled if it changes.

Susan Smith also blamed/lied that a black assailant had kidnapped and subsequently committed the murders. How much as changed since Newt Gingrich (a true gas in a wind storm) made equally false accusations for his own gains.
Note the recent and current Ashley Todd story from Bloomfield (suburb of Pittsburg); where she was robbed by a "black" Obama supporter who upon noticing her McCain/Palin bumper sticker on her car not only robbed her but gave her a black eye and carved a "B" (purportedly for "Barrack").
The "B"; however, is backwards as if carved on seemingly by oneself while looking into a mirror.
Now I ask you, what has changed?
Gingrich is as much responsible if not more so for his cheerleading support of the demonstratively obvious failure of "trickle down economics". Reagan had himself a pompom bullhorn brown nose with Gingrich. Words that this man utters should be considered not only with a grain of salt; but, try a ton. The only vision this man had was one of an opportunist.

Funny, half way through the post I was sure you were going to talk about this--

A McCain staffer in Pittsburgh claims she was mugged at an ATM and that an angry (large, black) Obama supporter "carved" a (backwards) "B" on her cheek.

Even Michelle Malkin thinks the story is too fishy to be believed.

Since Gingrrich's comment he's been exposed as a blatant hypocrite doing the same and much worse than Clinton while slamming Clinton. One of the great American hypocrites of all time coming from Glenn Greenwald's book of the same name. A lying manipulating authoritarian goober who never learned to keep his mouth shut after making known what a fool he actually is. Only Fox and other right wingers give him a platform for they have no shame and only want eyeballs and voices going yuck at his gooberism. Some people you enjoy watching grow old, enjoy their company and wisdom, and some you just wish would hurry up...Gingrich belongs to the 2nd category.

To those who worry about whether it is enough to restrain public figures to making bigoted or insane comments only in private company ... it is exactly enough.

I went horseback riding this past weekend in the sixth and I don't believe I saw any Tinklenberg signs. The road was lined with McCain signs and several of Bachmann's.

This is hardly any real measure of significance, I wasn't driving through neighborhoods were the majority of voter would likely post their signs.

But I haven't seen a single ad endorsed by Tinklenberg. Plenty from the DCCC, but none from the candidate himself. I'd be curious to know what his debt looked like prior to the influx.

Gingrich is still making a good living on a cable news network. He might have lost an election, but he gained a career. Karl Rove has followed him to the gravy train. I suspect that if she loses Michele Bachmann will make a good living as a cable news bobblehead.

I won't believe anything is changing until the hypocrites pay a real price.

Amen, hilzoy. I expect there is a warm corner of Hell waiting for Newton Leroy Gingrich.

It's like we're in a life boat- and one side keeps standing up rocking the boat and saying "Keep Bailing", while by their actions the keep bringing more water in over the side. We need to see if those asshats had swimming lessons.
Sink or swim biotches, sink or swim.

I don't think that republicans consider the actions of this congresswoman to be vile in any way, shape, or form. My belief is that this is really the way the majority of people in Palin's "Real America" feel about the rest of us. It's time to recognize that the cultural divide in the USA is real and persistent, and that Pat Buchanan was very successful in identifying and promoting that war.

One small factual error. The father of those boys was David Smith, Susan's husband, not boyfriend. And there is no evidence that he did not want his kids. They were having marital difficulties.

Gingrich's comments about Smith are echoed by all the McCainiacs who talk about Obama coming from Chicago as if Chicago were uniquely wicked, corrupting place. They see themselves, their rhetoric posits, as somehow beyond Evil.

Of course, it's all just a cover for racism, so it's not really all that interesting.

Having reread your piece, I see I misunderstood. You are correct that her paramour did not want her kids.

It really irks me that NG is treated like some sort of elder statesman by asshats like Broder. Sure, Broder and his pals love to "blame both sides" for the lack of cordiality in congress, but fail to see it was NG's list of approved derogatory adjectives for Democrats.

But getting to the point where politicians are responsible for their own words is only the first step. Republicans also need to be responsible for the mighty noise machine of Limbaugh, Hannity, Malkin, etc.

If memory serves me right, Gingrich also circulated a memo containing a list of perjorative adjectives that Republicans were always to use in describing Democrats in the media. The idea was to use the media time to inject negative perceptions of Democrats..

As we can see, it has worked like a charm, to the point where even some Congressional Democrats seem to have internalized the criticism, like any victims of abuse.

Besides the many ways in which blogs help catch these Republican slime as they wallow in the gutter, let's not fail to credit the liberal blogosphere in uniting proud Democrats. The biggest sin of the Great Orange Satan and Atrios is that they don't apologize for being liberal -- they know they're right, and they're proud of it.

Personally, I think the proper response to intellectually dishonest loonies like Jonah Goldberg, Michelle Malkin and the morons at Red State is not to spew invective, but to point and laugh. It's high time the Gingrich / Rove brand of politics -- which we know as "Republicanism" -- was as discredited and vaguely embarrassing as the GOP tried to make the word "liberal."

There's an old saying that comes to mind:

Those that fail to remember History are doomed to repeat It.

Time and again in the History of this Republic, we the People have "failed to remember"; we have let our guard---our collective, rightful means to remember---down, and the vile, creature that is the ultra-conservative element residing today within the soul of the GOP has assaulted us. It did so when it twice defended an English King's right to own us; it did so when it waged war upon the Union in defense of one's right to own another man; it did so during the decades of lynchings and cross-burnings and church bombings and butchery thrown against the Civil Rights movement---and it continues to this very day, in the guise of Bachmann and her pathetic breed.

We now find ourselves at a crossroads---and our Republic at that crossroads yet again. We can---and in many cases, obviously will---remove that vile creature from its hold over us. We can, for a while at least, drive it back behind its closed door; back into its soiled, foul cave; back under its rock. We will relish the victory; we will forget---and it will eventually rise once again to power when we do forget.

This is our History---and in forgetting It, we will repeat It.

OR---we can once again, as the Founders did, rededicate and reconsecrate ourselves to that which is necessary to breaking the chain that is forgetfulness, and pursue this vile creature into its lair. We can defeat it on the political field---which appears now to be a rather foregone conclusion, then resting on our laurels allow it to rise once again---or we can continue the asualt without remorse until the demon that is today's Republican Party has been not only defeated, but wiped from earthly existence.

We can tear asunder the closed doors behind which the monster will again take form. We can immolate the deepest regions of the cave. We can pulverize the rock, leaving the hate and wickedness of Conservatism to wallow, wither, and expire in a smoldering heap of ashes and dust.

We can set the coming victory of November 4th aside, and say with righteous indignation that it is not enough.

We can endlessly bombard those institutions that financially support the multi-headed hydra of the Right's noise machine with our disdain for that support---and then support our disdain with our wallets by buying their competitors' products and services.

We can boycott the local businesses; the shops, the restaurants, the gas stations, the churches, and even the schools that are owned, operated, and/or administered by those who willingly and gladly supported the evil beast.

We can even go so far as to combine trips, and in some cases even employ the not-so-novel concept of carpooling, to take our buying power from a community that is predominantly Republican and transfer our purchasing power to a neighboring community, or county, or in some cases even a neighboring state, thereby denying a bastion of Republican political power its ability to tax us for our purchases.

If I purchase gasoline at a Democratic gas station, I may pay a few cents more for my purchase---but I will expand the value of my investment in the knowledge that the extra coin or two was placed in a Democratic pocket at the expense of taking the entire cost of the purchase from a Republican pocket.

The gain is not merely mathematical; it is exponential in a nature that is both economical and political.

The point is---in 11 days, we win the battle, but one battle does not win a war.

This time, we must Remember our History.

This time, let us resolve to win the War....

The Catch-22 here is that, if we start exacting some sort of accountability or somehow try to restrain them for saying things like this that WE find inflammatory, they'll come back with the whole "political correctness" bullshit. Nine times out of ten "PC" is viewed as a bad thing.

The best way to move forward is to, well, move forward. Expose the hypocrisy. Hammer the hypocrites. Hang them on their own words. And get them voted out.

It's not as if what happens to Bachmann is actually going to turn them in honorable human beings.

No, but in this day and age the idea of making them own their shit draws closer and closer. It started with Macaca, then spread with Bachman, and is related it to the TPMs of the blogosphere and others working to expand the radar.

Idiots who still think it's 1988 haven't foreseen the blowback. The Rs can't hide about their robocalls like they did even 2 years ago. Candidates can less separate themselves from those acts with words about "running a postive campaign" and pronouncing things "off limits".

if we start exacting some sort of accountability or somehow try to restrain them for saying things like this that WE find inflammatory, they'll come back with the whole "political correctness" bullshit.

Of course...Orwell noted the power of language to control the public discourse half a century ago.

Unfortunately the Todd "B" case is getting coverage. The Today Show covered it saying only that the woman was attacked by someone who "after noticing a McCain bumper sticker" carved a backwards B on her face.
I think when there's a case as obviously fishy as this, the media needs to show a bit more restraint.

If this is a hoax, I hope it blows up in Drudge's face and slams that S.O.B.'s influence 6 feet into the ground.

Re: the Todd woman: have any of you seen a picture of her injuries? That B looks like it was just a scratch made with a needle or safety pin. It certainly doesn't look like an injury inflicted by an enraged man with a knife. Seriously, I've gottan scratches that look worse than that from the cat or from working in the yard. I smell a hoax.

The Todd story is being treated by the police with great suspicion- they even gave her a polygraph. They have stated that there are too many inconsistencies in her story.

If it is true, it's awful. But if she lied? As a pittsburgher and obama supporter I'm offended and saddened. I hope the poor girl gets the mental health support she needs, either way.

I would love to agree, but unfortunately the only reason she is paying a price is because the R's are cash strapped. Has this happened 4 or 8 years ago, the cash probably would have increased, not only from the NRCC, but from private donors.

While the country progresses, the R's haven't, the fact that she thought this was acceptable really proves my point. A near example would be Jean Schmidt, who suffered nothing but a mild embarrassment for calling John Murtha a coward.

I would like this story explored more. This is fascinating to me. It's history in the making.

What changed here? What accounts for the outrage that has otherwise been absent for so long? What has moved us from indifference to speaking out?

Is it that perhaps we see in Obama something so humane, so necessary for our preservation, so affirming for who we are and who we want to be now more than ever? That we now finally insist our better instincts will not be trampled on?

Is it this, along with the fact that our country is in dire straits it's not seen since the Great Depression?

Is it that we can only take so much hatred and fear mongering in one short span of time? After all, this has to be the most horrifically debase campaign on record....and that Pit Bull wears a heck of a lot of lipstick.

It it this, along with responsible news coverage that raises the bar, shows like Olbermann and Maddow that put things into a coherent context, that educate cogently for an otherwise harried and ill-informed public?

Is it folks like Chris Mathews who are awake and alive and willing to ask tough questions when an absurdly dangerous suggestion is made on his watch?

Is it blogs like this, is it Cable T.V with 24 hour news cycles along with the internet--which can admittedly do much harm, but at their best can also enlighten and reach a stressed out and confused broad base like no other entity?

Is it just that we have it on tape and we can play it back again and again and look at ourselves in the mirror?

I say it's a little of all this. What do others think?