Posted on 06/18/2011 7:39:04 PM PDT by Hawk720
After her speech at the Republican Leadership Conference, I asked GOP presidential candidate and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann about her repeated claims that she has "raised" 23 foster children, a comment she reiterated in an interview with CNN following her speech.
Writing in the Daily Beast this week, Michelle Goldberg quoted Kris Harvieux, who worked as a senior social worker in the foster care system in Bachmann's county, who said at least some of Bachmann's placements were likely short term.
"Some of them you have for a week. Some of them you have for three years, some you have for six months," he said. "She makes it sound like she got them at birth and raised them to adulthood, but that's not true."
According to Goldberg, the Minnesota Department of Human Services reports that Bachmann's foster care license allowed her to care for at most three children at any one time; she had the license for 7 1/2 years.
Asked to explain her situation with her foster children, Bachmann said "we took children in as teenagers."
"Their family was facing a challenge and they weren't going to be able to be at home with their parents and so we took them in as teenagers," she continued. "And our job was to see that they graduated from high school and were successfully launched into the world."
Asked how long they lived with her, she said "it varied."
I asked Bachmann to explain the parameters of how long the children lived with her - was it as short as one week? As long as three years?
"It varied, it really varied depending on the children," Bachmann responded. "And we've never gotten into specifics about the children because we've always wanted to observe their privacy and that of their families."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
bookmark
Michelle Goldberg is slimy. What does she think about Gabbie Gifford’s attempted assassination?
http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/55460/targeted/
Now Giffords has been shot allegedly by a crazy young man who had imbibed elements of Tea Party conspiracy-ism. We don’t know exactly what the reasons were for the attack. Still, it was precisely what the Tea Party, with all its gun brandishing and talk of armed revolution and “second amendment remedies,” has been hinting at for over a year.
SeeBS at it’s Commie finest. Where was that Raila Odinga, Frank Marshall Davis, Rev. Wright and Tony Rezko expose’?
No, they attack Bachmanns foster kids like the good little Marxist arsepimples they truly are.
Great! So when are they going to delve in our president’s past and wonder why the editor of the Harvard Review never published anything? or never was considered for recruitment by a large firm?
When are they going to wonder how a guy who described himself as a dabbler in recreational drugs and unserious about his schoolwork - how DOES such a person get accepted into Harvard in the first place?
Somebody needs to look up the definition of foster care.
I’m not for Bachmann. I don’t think she should be running for president to begin with, and I believe she has exactly ZERO chance of winning....
But how many foster children has the CBS reporter taken care of for even “a few weeks”—?? And if it turns out to be none then he should just STFU about Bachmann and foster children.
Well said.
See, she never said “raised” but according to the whining reporter, she “intoned” raised and therefore should be held to that statement, even though she didn’t say it.
Makes perfect sense, right?
I have a good friend who does this service .
Its a stressful life and rewarding.
The bottom feeding, muck eating, Obama-rumpswabbers must have finished sifting through Sarah’s weekly garbage.
Now they are turning their attention to Michelle.
Expect this on a daily basis. By next week they will be accusing her of child abuse or something. It never stops.
CBS Cares! /s
How many foster kids have you taken in Brian Montopoli?
“but she has implied she raised the children.” Implied? When? What did she actually SAY that “impled” she “raised” the 23 children from birth? see Digger48’s post above.
Actually said it to Wolf Blitzed.
I guess Rollins told her to dial back the exaggeration.
uh, do you know how hard it is to find good foster parents for teenagers? A lot of them end up in “group homes”...
And in some ways, it’s easier to take in a young kid and keep the kid for ten years (where you get used to him and can parent him) than take an often traumatized kid from his parents or from another foster home or a relative’s home where his placement didn’t work out and then take care of him.
That’s what foster care is all about...
Bachmann needs to clarify this before it becomes a big issue. She needs to come out and give specifics. Maybe she should not use the word “raise’ when referring to children that were in her care for short periods of time. She should say “cared for” or “provided assistance” or something like that. Be honest. Even if some of these kids were only there for short periods of time she should and will still receive praise. The voters don’t like dishonest politicians (the phony Vietnam vets come to mind here) and this could hurt her.
Bull. No one, especially a social worker in foster care, would have that as a take away message. The man is a partisan hack.
PLEASE!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.