On Wednesday evening, Bachmann confirmed her disinterest in participating in a bipartisan process by calling the upcoming health care summit of Democratic and Republican leadership a White House “PR stunt” that was “a clear assault on the intelligence of the American people” in a piece she wrote for conservative Townhall.com.

“The Democratic leadership of this Congress and White House simply refuses to take no for an answer when it comes to a government takeover of your health care,” she wrote, “They simply refuse to consider any idea being proposed by me or any of my Republican colleagues. Is this the leadership you want in Washington, or more importantly, the leadership you deserve?”

Bachmann’s complaint, in this case, is that Democrats are poised to use reconciliation to get health care legislation passed through the Senate regardless of Republican input.

via Bachmann: Health Care Summit An Assault On The Public’s Intelligence.

Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she won’t attend the event, scheduled for early February in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn has announced she’s dropping out as well.

Both lawmakers are prominent backers of the tea party movement. However, their offices released statements Tuesday citing concerns about how funds raised by the convention might be used.

Many tea party activists across the country are boycotting the convention over its $550-per person ticket price and the $100,000 speaking fee being paid to Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee.

The convention is being run by a Tennessee lawyer, Judson Phillips, who has said he hopes to turn a profit on the convention.

via Bachmann Backs Out Of Tea Party Convention.

arlen specter's 'arrogance' stuns michele bachmann

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) says she was “stunned at the arrogance” when Sen. Arlen Specter told her recently to “act like a lady.”

The two were on a Philadelphia radio show Wednesday when the Pennsylvania Democrat grew frustrated with Bachmann.

“I’m going to treat you like a lady,” Specter said to Bachmann. “Now act like one.”

Appearing on conservative host Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Thursday night, Bachmann said she was “stunned” by Specter’s outburst.

“This was the first time I had ever met Sen. Specter,” Bachmann said. “We began a discussion, and immediately it was as though he had turned on me because he was trying to talk about all the wonderful bills that Sen. [Barack] Obama had passed.”

“The person interviewing us had asked what I thought about President Obama’s year,” she said. “I told him that I think we should focus on prosperity and job creation. And Sen. Specter turned and then questioned whether I was a lady and told me to basically sit down and be quiet.”

Asked if Specter had called her to apologize, Bachmann said: “No, not at all. We didn’t hear anything.”

Bachmann then tried to use Specter’s outburst against her to make a bigger point about the Democratic majority that she frequently rails against.

“What was really stunning, again, about that whole interchange is it’s emblematic of the message the voters sent on Tuesday evening. The voters repudiated the arrogance that’s come out of the Democrat Party,” she said. “And what I heard yesterday on the radio with Sen. Specter was more of that arrogance. They haven’t sobered up yet as to the reality that the people are in charge, not this very liberal majority.”

Tea Bagging

In the latest sign of rancor in Tea Party circles, a convention billed as an effort to bring together conservative activists from across the country is being attacked by some leading Tea Partiers as inauthentic, too tied to the GOP, and — at $549 per head — too expensive for the working Americans the movement aspires to represent.

The National Tea Party Convention, scheduled for early February in Nashville, grabbed headlines after announcing that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann would appear as speakers, Palin as the keynote. According to a message on the convention’s website, the event “is aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation.” But organizers are a long way from unifying the notoriously fractious movement.

more…..

‘The Tea Party Movement Is About To Be Hijacked’: Activists Slam Plan For Convention | TPMMuckraker.

Minnesotans have extra incentive this year to be sure they are counted — and counted here — by the decennial U.S. census that will begin in March. The retention of the state’s current complement of eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives is on the line.
State demographer Tom Gillaspy has been warning for months that the next census could result in the loss of one congressional seat in Minnesota. In fact, he confessed last week that, until the recession hit, he was almost resigned to the probability that Minnesotans would be allowed to elect only seven U.S. House members from newly drawn districts in 2012.

Biggest Victim Of Michele Bachmann’s Anti-Census Stance Could Be Michele Bachmann.

Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism. What her followers probably don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.

And she’s not the only one who has been padding her bank account with taxpayer money.

Bachmann, of Minnesota, has spent much of this year agitating against health care reform, whipping up the so-called tea-baggers with stories of death panels and rationed health care. She has called for a revolution against what she sees as Barack Obama’s attempted socialist takeover of America, saying presidential policy is “reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom.”

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen – Truthdig.