The paper endorsed Bachmann's opponent. They always do. This time they even identify Bachmann as an extremist, in a subtitle preceding the editorial:
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's extremism is roadblock to balancing the budget.
Their reasons for endorsing Graves are specific and well-founded. They note that Graves--a Sixth District native and entrepreneur who's spent his entire career in the private sector--is a proven job creator. The Strib editors believe his plan to use his position in Congress to bring more jobs and business into the district deserves support. Especially so, because:
...(Michele) Bachmann has little to show for her six years in Congress besides empty rhetoric in self-promoting TV appearances and a presidential bid that quickly ran out of steam when her extreme positions became too much for her own party to stomach.
The Strib describes Bachmann's characterization of Graves as a "big spending liberal" as false and "cartoonish." (It is, but try getting Minnesota media fact checkers to print that.)
And even though they're running an endorsement of Graves, the Strib Editorial Board spends more time talking about Bachmann.
The Strib references the "nut" stuff, the smear and lie strategy that have made Bachmann so popular with voters on the extreme right for so many years. The editors limited themselves to just two specific examples, both fairly recent:
1) Bachmann falsely claimed that a cancer prevention vaccine caused mental retardation (That attempt at starting a panic led to an anti-Bachmann editorial in the conservative Wall Street Journal.)
2) Bachmann falsely accused the US State Department of allowing itself to be infiltrated by agents of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Just two examples; there are countless other examples of unfounded Bachmann lies and smears throughout her career. (The Strib editorial does allude to those other "extreme positions.")
Oddly, the Strib's main problem with "Bachmann's nuthouse charges" is that these undercut her effectiveness as a legislator. ("...(the) lack of respect (for Bachmann in the GOP and Democratic Party) undercuts her ability to pass bills...")
We could infer that Strib editors would have no serious objection to Bachmann's crackpot attempts to sow panic via circulation of lies if she was good at getting legislation through.
It doesn't matter, because Bachmann has never been good at getting legislation through. Her record as a legislator (in the State Legislature and three term in Congress) is an empty wasteland. She practically admitted this when she refused to meet with the Strib editors for an endorsement interview.
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Her refusal to meet with the Strib endorsement board shows that she believes she has no achievements to show them--nothing to persuade the most influential paper in the state that she's done anything on behalf of her district or the nation after twelve years in government.
Ducking the endorsement meeting was also cowardly. It puts the lie Bachmann's regular claim that she has "a titanium spine" when it comes to standing up for her political agenda.
The Strib also notes another lack of spine: Bachmann wouldn't agree to debate her opponent until one week before the election. That supports the Strib contention that Bachmann's been that "running scared" this year. A pathetic situation for a three-term Republican incumbent running in a "trends-Republican" district, another indication of absence of any actual achievements by Bachmann.
Bear in mind that "tangible achievements" could have included Bachmann delivery on her regular promises of conservative reform to her conservative supporters. She hasn't achieved any conservative reforms, despite the fact of a GOP Congress.
On the contrary, Bachmann's regular efforts to secure federal deficit spending in her district represent her sellout of conservatives and conservative principles. She attempted to evade the GOP moratorium on earmarks--after signing on to it. It's a matter of record, in Bachmann's own hand: she's regularly sought to practice same-as-usual tax and spend liberalism via the federal government. According to her own "principled conservatism," that Bachmann behavior means that she is herself "an enemy of freedom, a supporter of big liberal government."
And this tea party icon's ongoing attempts to increase deficit spending and the taxpayer's burden were fails. What about the project Bachmann identified as "her signature achievement"--federal deficit funding for a new bridge over the St. Croix River? Here's the Strib:
While Bachmann touts the St. Croix River bridge as an achievement, the heavy lifting on its passage was done by others in the state delegation.
Yeah. But she continues to present the bridge as "her" achievement. Lacking a record of achievement after twelve years in government, Bachmann takes credit for stuff she didn't do.
The bridge represents liberal federal government in action, deficit spending by taxpayers to create employment and markets in a time of recession. It also represents every liberal governing principle that Bachmann claims to have always opposed--the triumph of liberalism that Bachmann says she will always fight against. And she's bragging about how "she" got that through.
And she tells her supporters she's a "principled conservative?" On November 6th, Bachmann fans in her district will be voting for hypocritical lies and craziness, for a wild-eyed and deeply dishonest sham conservatism. They'll be voting for all that...again.
LINK: Strib endorses Graves: