With this assignment, the cumulative IQ of the House Intelligence Committee went down about 10 points. And the RepubliConfederates already on the committee aren't exactly rocket scientists either.
Putting Bachmann on this committee is like making Sarah "The Whore of Babblin' On" the President of MENSA.

You would think that her past history of just blurting out the most ridiculous statements and claiming they are factual would immediately disqualify her for assignment to such a sensitive committee but here in the Bizzaro World of American "leadership" she appears extremely qualified according to our next Speaker of the House Boehner, moron that he is.

Prediction: GuanoNutz Bachmann will go before the cameras and say, "I just saw some secret stuff, up in that room under the Capitol dome. I can't tell you what it is, but we need to impeach Obama. Immediately!"

This is about Pissing Off Liberals.

That, Punishing Poor People, and Funneling Cash to the Rich, accounts for 90% of Republican "strategy."

This sounds like a response to WikiLeaks -- WackyLeaks.

While members of the committee are 'encouraged' to stay out of the media spotlight, there is absolutely no way tha Michelle Bachmann is buying into that 'Washington Insider' behavior. Watch for bizarre announcements with more detailed leaks of confidential information.

The voters in her disrict disagree with you. Ain't it a bitch.

No matter how stupid something she spouts is, she never has to cite a source, all she has to do is say it is classified. She will be practically living on Fox News now.

Is Boehner putting the squirrels in charge of the Nuthouse? Heh!

This is going to be a fun couple of years.

I think the Republicans are grooming her for a presidential run. She is as wacky as Sister Sarah (I love "the whore of babblin on" reference by the way) but she hasn't quit half way through her term and has actually run for reelection.

For Bachmann, this is perfect: Everything she does will be secret so she will have no culpability for earmarks, cutting funding for programs or actually doing any work. She can sit in the back and criticize.

For Boehner, this is also good: Bachmann might squawk when pork is added to a bill or deals are cut or too much is spent. She's a loose cannon. With this appointment, she is out of the way on a committee that has been asleep at the wheel for years. And it makes it look like he is treating Bachmann and the Tea Party with respect.

For the rest of America this, of course, sucks.

Bachmann before election: Government is the problem!

Bachmann after HIC: Government is the problem!

Bachmann is a member of the problem now.

BTW I also bet that even on the HIC she will still say it cost a billion a day for Obamas trip.

Patrick Leahy was kicked off the Senate Intelligence Committee some years ago for leaking secrets and Rockefeller's staff was widely believed to be the source for the NY Times leaks that devastated our intelligence gathering ability under Bush. I wouldn't say Democrats have much to complain about.

I'm thinking this move is designed to placate her by giving her an "important" committee assignment, but one in which she will be pressured to keep her mouth shut. It's also an area in which she has no expertise or reputation (not that she has expertise in any other area).

If she goes off the reservation and makes inappropriate public statements, the Republican leadership can reprimand her without angering the Tea Party element in the party, since foreign policy/intelligence is not an important issue to that part of the party and they will understand the need to be discrete.

I see this as an astute move by the Republican leadership.

Bachmann's a complete idiot. The more exposure she gets the better. There are millions swing voters like myself, registered Independent, who look for common sense, competence, intelligence, and people who have demonstrated they are not driven by radical ideology. The current Republican leadership in the House and Senate is a national embarrassment and dangerous to this country. Any self-inflicted wounds by these numbskulls are apppreciated. We will bury them with money in 2012 just like we did in 2008 and thin out the herd.

More mindless repug-bashing, giving obama and dem leadership a free pass for empowering them and enabling everything you blog about.

How come obama and dems are not held accountable here?

steve, why do you think it is constructive to hammer one side all day when the other side does nothing but preach "bipartisenship", capitulate to the folks you deride here, and directly insult the folks that worked their butts off putting this corporate shill in office in the first place?

So, max? Where were you and your millions of like-minded souls last month? Inquiring minds want to know.

Where is George Carlin when we need him?

Talk about a contradiction in terms! Bachmann and intelligence are complete strangers to each other.

Putting Bachmann on this committee is like making Sarah "The Whore of Babblin' On" the President of MENSA.
Posted by: c u n d gulag

I find this hard to reconcile with the fact that(according to Wikipedia) she has an LLM in tax law, and from 1988 to 1993, Bachmann was a U.S. Treasury Department attorney in the US Federal Tax Court located in St. Paul.

I think she must be more clever like a fox than dumb like a rock.

jjm - I agree, backman and intelligence are difficult words to use in the same sentence.

So why does obama say we need to reach out to them and compromise?

Why, since appointing rahm (gratefully, he's gone now) has the administration repeatedly publicly slammed his base while publicly proclaiming we need to meet the wackos on their terms?

This post, like all the one-sided chatter steve writes, would be meaningful if it included some dialog about dem/obams's role in giving these people a platform by repeatedly using the lie of "bipartisanship"?

If the repugs are batshit-crazy, dem leadership and obama says we need to adopt at least 50 percent of their batshit!

Actually, he more likely capitulates 100% - his "signature" piece of legislation, a fraudulent insurance company bailout, was richard nixon's idea!

Why the free pass?

bachman would be irrelevant if obama stood some ground and did not give them credibility with his lies about "bipartisanship".

Some here need to take a time-trip back to last fall and remember how obama insults his supporters, empowers his enemies, and is giving them a launching pad back into power.

Unfortunately, we are likely to see mostof the decade of 2000 all over again.

And obama and dem leadership are largely to blame.

Wouldn't know that by reading steve's posts though.

She's already demonstrated she doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. What makes anyone think she's going to start now, just because national security is at stake?

The DREAM ACT goes DOWN in flames... (55 for 41 against allowing it to come to a final vote)

Co-presidents Snowe and Ben Nelson voted against.

Sorry dudes! Dreams are not allowed in our country.

NEXT UP on the senate floor is killing repeal of DADT!

Patrick Leahy was kicked off the Intelligence Committee

Er, no. He shared an unclassified report that was not "secret" at all. This was against committee rules and he stepped down but he was not kicked off.

The report he shared with the media concerned the Republican administration breaking the law by selling arms to Muslim terrorists on the one hand and breaking it again by funding Nicaraguan terrorists on the other. You remember that one, dontcha Mike?

Rockefeller's staff was widely believed to be the source for the NY Times leaks

It is widely believed that you have encouraged violence against people in the Middle East because you entertain the racist belief that all they understand is force, and that you have no respect for the institution of marriage. Given the deep respect for rumor you just displayed here I knew you would have no problem with this being reported in a public forum.

Being from Minnesota, I have a long time to observe Bachmann. I don't think I would call her stupid although she's not exactly a scholar either. Her biggest problem is that she is pretty much completely divorced from reality. She's had an unbelievably long history of saying the most bizarre things.

1) Teacher's unions are plotting to enslave us all and turn your children gay.
2) She claims to have been held hostage by militant lesbians in a bathroom once.
3) She claims to have knowledge of a secret plan to divide Iraq and give part of it to Iran.

"this is his way of forcing her to keep a lower profile."

Exactly what I thought even before you said it. There is no other explanation.

She's only interested in investigating Democrats for Un-American-ness, so what's the problem?

"If you haven't done anything wrong..."

Thanks Boehner, now you're making me cry.

It's not stupid, but calculating as usual: Bachmann will carry the neocon torch - harsh saber rattling, use of Iran as a bogeyman, reflexive support of Israel, political manipulation of patriotism and the supposed traitors (but never real traitors for money like the USCOC), etc. The baked jackass knows just what he's doing, even as half-baked Alaska rarely does.

Mike K: typically libercon style obsession to use real or alleged hypocrisy as a red herring / ad hominem diversion away from the facts, as if the issues themselves were any different because of supposed "right" of complainer group X to talk since blah blah ...
Asshat.

"this is his way of forcing her to keep a lower profile."

If Boehner were a little more machiavellian and a little less of a drunken oompa-loompaish bully, I'd say exactly the opposite. Bachmann is incredibly likely to leak something she shouldn't. Chances are that that something will be relatively harmless when leaked, as are pretty much all government secrets these days. Still, when she leaks classified information and brags about it in public, there will be more than enough excuse to expel her from the House, and expelling her from the House is something that Boehner, more than anyone else in the country other than those in her district, should want. Bachmann's primary role in government is as a political embarrassment and a political danger to the Republican party, and I do think that even the Republican leadership is smart enough to realize this.

My guess is that she will be used as a 'throwaway piece' by the Republicans in the event one is needed...if I were in Bachmann's position, I'd watch my back.

Nothing will be able to force this goofball to keep a lower profile.

She'll just think all her gibberish is vindicated and pretend she heard on the committee.

And that will presumptively extend to Sarah Palin.

My guess is that Boehner wants someone expendable to make wild accusations about imaginary threats to national security caused by Obama Administration policies.

It's win-win for Boehner: either the accusations stick, or he can blame the loose cannon.

Alcee Hastings, a former federal judge impeached and removed from office (one of only 19 federal officials impeached in this country's history, btw) not only sits on the House Intelligence Committee, but was also in the running for the chairmanship after the Democrats retook the House in 06.

Bachmann may be crazy, but I'm not aware of any professional or legal improprieties that rise to that level.

It's probably not in the Dems' best interests to raise too much of a stink over this.

KLG:
"So, max? Where were you and your millions of like-minded souls last month? Inquiring minds want to know."

I voted and contributed. I'm an Independent - best player on the board. I voted for Republicans for several State and local offices as well as Democrats. However KLG, you be sure to stop back here in November 2012 when the Dems eat your lunch again. Republican over reaching put Obama in office. You think this gang of imbeciles about to take over the House won't over reach, I've got a bridge I want to sell you.

In a Just, or Even a Sane World
any screw-ups by Bachman would be blamed on her and quite possibly the Republicans in general.

In 21st Century America, it's Obama and the whole Democratic Party who will get the blame if she spills "secrets" or angers foreign partners.

But look on the bright side - we've clearly got too many "secrets" that ought to be common knowlege, as Wikileaks proves every single day. If Bachman's big mouth makes it necessary for our spies and "diplomats" to do a lot more of their work under the glare of public scrutiny, good for her.

Although it pains me to have to say that... ;-)

Re Bachmann's intelligence. Don't make the mistake of confusing intelligence and sanity. Bachmann is plenty bright; she is just paranoid and delusional. Most Republicans are, these days! She is just more so than most; she's what emboldens the rest.

I think it is a shrewd move by Boehner. It seems improbable, but she might learn something. A better informed Michelle Bachmann would be something to behold And either she'll have to keep her mouth shut (a good thing) or she'll say something egregious and Boehner gets to silence her (I expect he would consider that a good thing.)

A look at Bachmanns wiki page shows she doesnt do well on committees and usually gets booted off by her own peers.

And when she leaks some classified material, as she's sure to do, I wonder if she'll be treated like Bradley Manning and locked up in solitary....

Bachmann is the leader of a significant faction of the in-coming majority party in the House. Boehner had to put her on some important committee. That's the bad news. The good news is she doesn't hold the chair.

The other good news: She will have access to information the CIA wants to keep secret and they will protect that information with their poisoned umbrella tips. Michelle had better learn to watch her mouth.

Voluntarily assigning her responsibilities related to top secret intelligence related to national security is more than just a mistake -- it's arguably dangerous.

I've heard some whispers that have suggest Boehner is actually thinking strategically on this.

Uh, Steve? You might want to forego the Christmas eggnog before writing a post.

And when she leaks some classified material, as she's sure to do, I wonder if she'll be treated like Bradley Manning and locked up in solitary....

You have just divulged Boehner's Super Top Secret Plan for dealing with the Bachmann Problem.

Can Bachmann get a TOP Security clearance??
One way to shut Bachmann up is to assign her to a highly sensitvie position on Intelligence Committee. She opens her mouth and spills some classified info, she commits treason! Good bye Michelle. Good for all the country.

I think Josef just trumped what I was thinking. If there is anyone who is going to go shooting off her big mouth inappropriately, it is Bachmann. Then she can spend the rest of her career in solitary contemplation of her misdeeds.

I'm glad I have moved to Canada

Hey, Bachmann MUST be smart! She has a JD from Oral Roberts University!

She's an idiot, but there's no reason to think that she'd publicize classified info.

She's a lawyer, and on top of the usual consequences, could lose her law license.

Boehner was trying to do the right thing by putting her in a place where she was unlikely to hurt anything, unlike, e.g, Ways and Means.

I just don't see how this insane woman gets a security clearance.

Honestly, when I first heard about this I thought it was a joke. I find it completely disgusting that Boehner would treat our national security with such disdain. It's despicable and there should be a national outcry about this. If this is any indication of his utter lack of judgement and respect for the integrity and function of the office, then we are entering a truly frightening tenure.

Mike, you never explained why any of that makes Bachmann a good choice for anything, and your examples were about fluff and not serious thoughtful issues. Nor do you even know what you want. Your party (?) just voted for a tax bill that means yet more increasing deficits, further enshrining the turd in the crown of Bushism: deficit-financed tax cuts for the rich. And what the hell kind of America do you "cats" want anyway - a wrecked, Dickensian banana republic? That's where you're taking us.