Free Republic

DES MOINES, Iowa -- “I like Sarah Palin a lot,” Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said at Thursday’s night’s Republican presidential debate. “We are very good friends.” Bachmann’s charitable words were the latest in a long line of glowing public comments that the two potential Republican rivals have showered upon each other since 2008. But a personal relationship between the conservative female leaders has, in fact, been nonexistent for the past 16 months, as aides from Bachmann’s camps have privately -- and sometimes publicly -- disparaged Palin to an extent that has caused growing exasperation in Palin world. That behind-the-scenes rancor...

It’s common these days to hear media talking heads refer to Michele Bachmann as the “Tea Party favorite” in the upcoming 2012 GOP primary race. Unlike Governor Palin who has always stated that the Tea Party doesn’t need one specific leader, Bachmann has tried to cast herself into such a role. She created a “Tea Party Caucus” in congress and gave the “Tea Party response” following Obama’s State of the Union Address last January. The Tea Party is comprised mainly of independent-minded small government activists who are sick and tired of the way Washington is operating. These are people who...

Much has been written about Michele Bachmann's lack of any executive experience and the crippling disability it poses for her campaign for the GOP nomination and for the Presidency. But candidates with no executive experience have won the Presidency before. Both JFK and Obama come to mind. It is true that no GOP nominee in well over 100 years has lacked executive experience. (Even Senator Warren Harding had served as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and William Howard Taft had been the Governor of both the Philippines and Cuba). It is a major obstacle for her, especially in this cycle and...

While Rep. Michele Bachmann has forcefully denounced the Medicaid program for swelling the "welfare rolls," the mental health clinic run by her husband has been collecting annual Medicaid payments totaling over $137,000 for the treatment of patients since 2005, according to new figures obtained by NBC News. The previously unreported payments are on top of the $24,000 in federal and state funds that Bachmann & Associates, the clinic founded by Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist, received in recent years under a state grant to train its employees, state records show. The figures were provided to NBC News in response to...

Via POLITICO's Jennifer Epstein, Michele Bachmann isn't accepting an apology from Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace for asking her yesterday, "Are you a flake?" Continue Reading ABC News' Jon Karl, who's been getting face-time with Bachmann in Waterloo in advance of her formal campaign announcement, played a clip of the web video in which Wallace said, "I messed up. I'm sorry." When Karl asked if she accepts the apology, Bachmann brushed aside the question this way: "I think that it's insulting to insinuate that a candidate for president is less than serious."

Michele Bachmann's efforts in 2007-8 to have Drug Dealer and Money Launderer Frank Vennes pardoned for his 1987 convictions have begun to receive some light scrutiny in the media. Some embarrassing details have emerged, including the fact that, while Bachmann was lobbying hard to secure a pardon for him from President Bush, Vennes himself was engaged in a brand new, massive $3.65 billion ponzi scheme, for which he was recently indicted by a Federal Grand Jury. Worse yet, Vennes and his family had donated money to Bachmann--a lot of money--in the 2006 and 2008 campaign cycles, $27,400 to be exact,...

Bachmann wrote the letter urging the president to pardon Vennes for his 1987 conviction on federal money laundering, illegal firearm sales and cocaine distribution charges. He was sentenced to five years in federal prison. Vennes, has been a major financial contributor to Bachmann since 2005. Was Bachmann’s letter in support of Vennes’ presidential pardon a quid pro quo for Vennes’ largesse? Until Bachmann releases her original letter, the motivation behind it won’t be known. Bachmann chief of staff Michele Marston told Minnesota Independent Monday that “We’re trying to track down a copy of that letter."

The 2012 Election cycle is shaping up in many ways to be a mirror image of the 1980 election, which brought the Country and the world the great Ronald Reagan. The Democrats are set to renominate another monumentally failed and politically weak President, as they did with Jimmy Carter in 1980. The GOP Establishment is threatened, genuinely threatened, for the first time since Reagan menaced it thirty years ago, by the advent of a new Conservative superstar, Sarah Palin. And the Establishment champion who is designated to slay the new Conservative dragon? Well, you might say, "The cupboard has never...

According to House expense reports, Bachmann and three conservative GOP colleagues — Reps. Tom Price (Ga.), Steve King (Iowa) and Todd Akin (Mo.) — each paid $3,407.50 that day, a total of $13,630, to a sound and stage company called National Events, apparently for the sound system used at the rally. The money came from the Members' taxpayer-funded office accounts, despite House rules prohibiting the use of these funds for political activities.

Just happened, very strange! Wolf Blitzer Interview with Michele Bachmann. Blitzer asked Bachmann 5 times do you agree with Tim Pawlenty that Mitt romney is disqualified from being the Republican nominee for president because he supports mandated healthcare.? She kept responding that she's against obamacare/mandates. Blitzer tried again to pin down some kind of answer. She evaded the question at every turn, didn't want to touch it and finally a frustrated Blitzer then says, "You obviously don't want to answer the question?" I know people say that nominees shouldn't attack other nominees yet but if not now, when? because Romney...

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Friday that it's her sense that Republican voters are "very satisfied" with the field of presidential candidates. Following Monday's debate in New Hampshire, Bachmann said voters were happier with their options. "I think people, especially after the debate on Monday night, were very satisfied with what they saw with the candidates," she said on Fox News. [...] She passed, though, both at the debate and on Fox, at leveling tough criticism at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) state healthcare law. [...] Rather, Bachmann suggested she's more likely to train her sights on President Obama...

I'm just wondering why Tim Pawlenty is the only one taking heat for not taking on Romney. Yes, he passed on it in the debate, but he has been forceful ever since. See his interview with Hannity on HotAir. Bachmann continually passes on opportunities to take on Romneycare. Why is that? Full Disclosure: Palin supporter who'll probably vote for Pawlenty if she doesn't jump in. Bachmann would have been my second choice but the Rollins thing and her reluctance to take on Romney has changed my mind.

White House political maestro Karl Rove urged money and other forms of support for Republican congressional candidate Michele Bachmann at a Stillwater fundraiser Friday.The Bachmann fundraiser at the Water Street Inn in Stillwater attracted about 60 supporters, who paid $250 for lunch. Couples who contributed $1,000 to Bachmann could have their pictures taken with Rove. The Bachmann campaign did not immediately release the total amount raised.

Bachmann may also be plagued by her involvement in a controversial pardon. In 2007, Bachmann wrote a letter requesting a presidential pardon for a convicted drug-smuggler and money-launderer named Frank Vennes. Vennes was convicted of money laundering in 1988 and pleaded no contest to a cocaine and weapons charge. Making matters worse, he and his wife donated a total of $27,600 to Bachmann’s 2006 and 2008 election.