Tea Party Congress member Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is running for president against Barack Obama not against the Fox News creation Sarah Palin. Bachmann loves the presidency. In fact, she couldn’t resist giving then President George W. Bush a full-mouth kiss as he left his 2007 State of the Union speech in the House. But she is driven by forces beyond her control to seek every opportunity to message her belief in the role of religious faith … Continue reading »
I’ve a plaque that says “No one’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” It used to bring a smile to visitors. In today’s world of instant celebrity and “gotcha” video and fact-free opinion and 24/7/365 entertainment media, we need to make policymakers take a ”time-out” from making anything but their self serving speeches. And recruit some election challengers that will make thinking and learning, rather than polling, texting, and fund-raising, something they learn to do “everyday … Continue reading »
Newt just can’t help himself. Like Congressmen Anthony Weiner and Chris Lee. The mass exodus of Gingrich for president leadership and staff reveals there is more to his “campaign” than a two week trip to the Greek Isles with the lovely Callista. Gingrich did not need to be in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina six months before the primary/caucus campaign begins. Everyone knows him and most have made up their minds about him already … Continue reading »
Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) was as instrumental as anyone in Barack Obama’s election as president. Having lost a re-election bid to John Thune (R-SD), the former majority leader turned his talents to health policy reform and wrote a book on the subject. Drawing on several decades in the House and Senate he concluded that health system reform was impossible without changing the Medicare program. Changing Medicare, like changing health care generally, depended totally on every elected official’s … Continue reading »
Michele Bachmann has picked up much of the Sarah Palin/Mike Huckabee support. With her early and heart-felt commitment to the Tea Party added to her origins in the big-box religious values base of the GOP, she is a force Tim Pawlenty has decided to deal with. Especially because she’s from Iowa and she’s for real and she doesn’t need to shout “don’t tread on me” to convince audiences she means it.
Bachmann is frequently quoted as saying she “can’t … Continue reading »
Catholic bishops use abortion to try and kill access to health care for all Americans. They kill Bart Stupak instead and make Michele Bachmann a candidate for president. Republicans have been trying to kill family planning for decades, seeing it not as a social program essential to prevent unwanted pregnancies, but as a social “values” program to encourage young couples and families to avoid using contraceptives to interfere with God’s will and abortion as a means … Continue reading »
That is the opinion of former MN Republican Congressman Vin Weber, a respected GOP insider in D.C. This prospect may come as a surprise to some, but Vin is right. Not only will Bachmann influence the 2012 primaries and the presidential candidate rhetoric, but she is more likely than not to be a candidate for president and will do quite well in some primaries, starting with Iowa where she was born. When your passion matches the mood of the times, … Continue reading »
We all know that one of our MN presidential candidates has made it into the ring on her beliefs and her opinions about public policy. But journalists do employ fact-checkers to follow up on all her allegations/promises because she so frequently misstates reality. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) has been quoted with increasing frequency, “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Would that he were alive today with his own TV show, “Fact-Checker-Follies” because … Continue reading »
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has been a “take charge” kind of Senator since her election in 2006. She was the first to make the decision to endorse her Senate colleague Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton for the presidency. She recently introduced legislation to tighten up on Senate spending and foreign travels, and to set up a watchdog to investigate the operations of the Senate. “It’s true; too many people in Washington live in an … Continue reading »
It is astonishing that one of our two major national parties is capable of speaking with one voice on issues of national, state and local policy. We are, after all, a nation of 50 states and some 3,140 counties whose diversity has contributed greatly to our “American exceptionalism.” But every elected Republican speaks on so many critical issues with the same voice and the same rhetorical jargon. . . Nowhere is that more obvious than in the … Continue reading »
Senator Durenberger is currently a Senior Health Policy Fellow at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis Minnesota and chairs the National Institute of Health Policy (NIHP).
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