Free Republic

Those who bet on Al Franken changing his mind had better prepare to hear from their bookies. The Star Tribune reported earlier this afternoon that Franken formally submitted his resignation to Gov. Mark Dayton as promised, two months after a series of allegations regarding sexual misconduct emerged. His replacement will join the Senate tomorrow as planned: U.S. Sen. Al Franken is quitting the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.A spokesman for Franken said he had formally submitted a letter of resignation to Gov. Mark Dayton. A copy of the letter was not immediately available, but the spokesman said the resignation would take...

Outgoing Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told reporters Wednesday that President Barack Obama was seeking to grant legal protection to millions of “illiterate” immigrants who would then become Democratic voters by 2016. “The social cost will be profound on the U.S. taxpayer — millions of unskilled, illiterate, foreign nationals coming into the United States who can’t speak the English language,” Bachmann said. “The president has a very single-minded vision. He’s looking at new voters for 2016.” Bachmann told the Washington Post’s Robert Costa that “illiterate” wasn’t her word: “I’ve been down to the border. The reason why I would say that...

The congressional office of Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) recently had several items and cash stolen from her Washington D.C. office, according to a police report obtained by Townhall.Camera equipment with a retail value of $1,079 and $220 in cash vanished between Oct. 3 and 6 of 2014. Bachmann’s press secretary, Dan Kotman, declined questioning as to whether or not this incident is believed to be from a staffer or if these items were purchased with taxpayer money.Capitol Police have declined any comment about the case, citing an ongoing investigation. When asked if there are security cameras in Bachmann’s office, Lt. Kimberly...

Conservative women sexy, liberal women not so much? A British journalist who describes himself as a “liberal-lefty-pro-feminist” claims that politically conservative women are way more sexy than their left-wing counterparts. Writing in the London Spectator, Cosmo Landesman opines that right-wing women (and he specifically offered examples such as pundits Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter) are “super sexy” and that stereotypes and generalizations about conservative women in general being uptright or prudish are way out of date. He also argues that looks have nothing to do with it. Instead their attractiveness is about what he calls “a certain mindset and sensibility”...

The Congresswoman from Loonyville says Americans can’t handle a woman in the Oval Office—never mind her own presidential run. As the only woman to win a delegate to the Republican convention in almost forty years, Michele Bachmann now says many Americans “aren’t ready” for a female president. “I don’t think there is a pent-up desire,” she told syndicated columnist Cal Thomas last week. I’ve been in Washington a long time, and I’m accustomed to hypocrisy, mendacity, and good old-fashioned flip-flopping. What I don’t understand is a woman who ran for president, who asked people to give her substantial sums of...

Conservative Minnesota congresswoman and former U.S. Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has drawn the ire of the Internet for declaring that America is not ready for a woman president and Barack Obama only became president because of white guilt. With less than a year left in her fourth and last term in Congress, the woman described as the "founding mother" of the Tea Party suggested to syndicated columnist Cal Thomas in an interview last week that if Hillary Clinton runs for the White House in 2016, her sex will play a huge role in her electability. A lot of people,...

(snip) RUSH: Ahem. Michele Bachmann. I have said on countless occasions: She's one of the candidates that if she were to secure the nomina, if she were to be elected president of the Unites, I have not a shred of doubt that she would be fighting for this country every day, she'd be fighting for it exactly as she talks about it. If there was ever anybody who would govern as they campaign, it'd be Michele Bachmann -- and you could say that about almost every one of the Republican candidates seeking the office. (snip)

Meghan McCain, MSNBC's newly hired contributor, conducted her first interview for the cable news network on Wednesday with Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann. McCain--who in January called Bachmann "a poor man's Sarah Palin" on MSNBC--said that the interview will air "soon" on "Now With Alex Wagner," the network's lunch hour show. On Lawrence O'Donnell's "Last Word" in January, McCain took vigorous issue with Bachmann's tea-party rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union. "I think it's important to note that Michele Bachmann is not a leader, and she's not the leader of the Repbulican Party," McCain said. "Michele Bachmann is no...

Top-level staff departures from Michele Bachmann’s campaign are raising fresh questions about her durability heading into the post-Labor Day stretch of the 2012 presidential primary contest. As POLITICO first reported Sunday, her campaign manager Ed Rollins will be moving from day-to-day campaign managing to a senior advisory role. His deputy, David Polyansky, is leaving the campaign. Both played a critical role in vaulting Bachmann to a first place finish at the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa on Aug. 13, an event that served as the first critical test of organization in the first-caucus state and one where she eked out...

I have yet to see anyone post a serious discussion, or heck, even a mention of the victory the Tea Party landed in this straw poll. Bachmann and Paul, the two candidates with strong support from Tea Party types, both vocal supporters of the Tea Party themselves, together took nearly 60% of the votes, and were twenty points up on the closest other challengers. Heck, the next closest candidate couldn't even break 15%! Yet the only discussion I've seen now on FR and TV is about individual candidates and what the impact will be on their presence in the race....

Colby King of the Washington Post comments on the GOP field.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has gained considerable momentum over the past few weeks. She raised more money than any of her presidential rivals in 2011’s first quarter, her presence at political events regularly swells crowds, and she’s running surprisingly strongly in early 2012 polling, despite relatively low name recognition. Yet, for all that, leading pundits still dismiss her chances to become the eventual nominee. Their argument is that her appeal is restricted to a limited constituency — the Tea Party faithful and social conservatives — and that while those groups might boost her to a strong showing in Iowa and...

The crowd undulates as the tea partiers on the Capitol's front lawn make way and pull out their cell phones for a photo. The professionals move in, too, snapping stills and rolling video. Whoever is speaking to the rally at this moment has been forgotten. The source of the commotion is too short to see from afar, but it's obvious that Michele Bachmann has arrived. Tim Phillips, the president of rally organizer Americans for Prosperity, asks the several hundred people if they know whose birthday it is. Of course they do. Michele is 55, though she could pass for far...

Michele Bachmann, pressing her case against the Obama administration’s health care overhaul, announced legislation Wednesday to remove the $105.5 billion in automatic funding that she says was “buried in ObamaCare.” The bill, which has yet to get any traction with Republican leaders in the U.S. House, would give Congress the authority to take back the funding in future years. It also rescinds all existing unobligated balances in the health care bill, a top target for Tea Party groups across the nation.

ABC News’ Amy Walter and Michael Falcone report: Rep. Michele Bachmann, the leader of the House Tea Party caucus and a favorite of conservatives, is wading deeper into presidential waters this weekend with a multi-stop trip to the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire. Bachmann’s main event in the Granite State will be a Saturday speech at a fundraising brunch organized by the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. A source close to Bachmann said the Minnesota Republican “will be talking about how beating Obama starts with defunding ObamaCare and the need for a constitutional conservative to be the Republican nominee.”...

Washington (CNN) - Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is increasingly serious about joining the wide-open race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. And a growing number of conservative activists, legislators and political operatives in key states stand ready to help her if she does. Bachmann, the chairwoman of the House Tea Party Caucus, arrives in New Hampshire on Friday for a two-day barnstorm of the first-in-the-nation primary state, her first foray there since floating her potential White House candidacy back in January. News of the trip immediately stirred up grassroots excitement: A Bachmann-headlined fundraiser Saturday for the New Hampshire GOP...

Forget the fervent chatter speculating that Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann is considering launching a campaign to challenge Sen. Amy Klobuchar for the Minnesota U.S. Senate seat in the next national election cycle. Think bigger. ABC News has learned that Bachmann, R-Minn., also is seriously weighing whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012. A source close to the three-term congresswoman said Bachmann will travel to Iowa this month for multiple meetings to seek advice from political forces there and party elders close to the caucus process before coming to a final decision regarding a potential presidential...

The Tea Party has been shaking up the American political landscape since it came into being in 2009. While it helped the Republican Party rocket into the majority in November's midterm elections, its permanent effect on American politics is yet to be determined. Sanford V. Levinson, professor of government at the University of Texas, spoke to members of both the Tower Center Student Forum and the Tower Center on Friday, regarding the Tea Party and its rise to popularity. Levinson said it was "way too early to tell" how long the Tea Party would last, or what form it would...

Anderson Cooper is giving Michele Bachmann an F in U.S. history. The CNN host slammed the Minnesota Republican congresswoman's recent remarks about diversity in America, including claims that the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more" and skin color "didn't matter" in the early days of democracy. During his "Keeping Them Honest" segment on Monday night, Cooper said Bachmann simply "airbrushed herself some new history," adding the U.S. representative's remarks are "either a deliberate rewriting of our history or signs that she has a shaky grasp" on what really happened. Bachmann, a rising Tea Party star who is...

Rep. Michele Bachmann made history tonight–not just for being the first representative of the Tea Party to give a State of the Union response, but also for flatly refusing to look America in the eye. Bachmann, who came equipped with charts and Iwo Jima photos, began her speech looking slightly off camera. As Bachmann spoke, viewers–including the former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann–took to Twitter to ask a simple question: “what’s she looking at?” As Olbermann tweeted, “Why isn’t Rep. Bachmann LOOKING AT THE DAMNED CAMERA?” He added later, “Seriously, somebody at the Tea Party needs to run on the stage,...