Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Let there be snark.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The words do not have to be perfect.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

All your base are belong to Tunch.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

“But what about the lurkers?”

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Bark louder, little dog.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You are here: Home / Running With the Devil

Running With the Devil

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Looks like Bachmann finally might have gone too far for even the lunatics in the GOP:

Even La Grande Orange is chiming in:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has joined a growing list of Republicans in condemning Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) unsubstantiated Islamophobic attacks against top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The flap started when Bachmann all but directly accused Clinton aide Huma Abedin of working on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood in a letter with four colleagues to the State Department’s Inspector General demanding an investigation.

“I think accusations like this being thrown around are dangerous,” Boehner said during a press conference on Thursday

Who knew they had limits?

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  1. 1.

    Princess Leia

    Let’s not be fooled by their surprising outrage. They have “limits” because they are trying to bolster Romney’s chances. The limits will collapse after the election.

  3. 3.

    Dee Loralei

    He doesn’t think she is dangerous enough to throw off the House Intel Committee though. So, this is a minor slap to her nutjobiness.

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    You know darn well they quick-polled it first before orange boy spoke up. I have to actually give Walnuts credit for smacking Bachmann down yesterday, for some reason I actually buy it.

  7. 7.

    Antonius

    Maybe she just annoys her colleagues a lot with this kind of thing in private and they’d like to convince her constituency to send them someone sane.

  8. 8.

    jl

    True, it’s a minor demur after years of disgusting hate and fear mongering on their part, and probably disingenuous as commenters above note. Unless Bachmann is crazy or stupid enough to make a fuss, the flap will disappear within days.

    But progress all the same. Their BS cannot stand any scrutiny at all. Think of the little Dutch boy with all his fingers and toes rammed into leaks in a dike (that was outsourced to some shady construction corporation), and he just has to take one out for a minute or two.

    Their racket is falling apart and little scenes like this just bring that day closer.

  10. 10.

    ericblair

    Remember when the goopers at least pretended to believe that “politics stops at the water’s edge?” Good times. I’m guessing Bachmann is getting too unhinged even for Boehner. We throw around “crazy” with justification to explain current gooper behavior, but with all this crap on one hand and the Swiss citizenship thing on the other I think Bachmann’s really clinically bonzo and don’t think she’s controllable at this point.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    I hope you’re not still mad at me.

    I think that should be Le Grand Orange. (French has that rule about gendered definite articles and adjectives).

    Not sure if domestic political considerations would make Republicans tell Bachmann to dial back the Islamophobia, which I gather is red meat to the party base. Could it be that some foreign friend has had a quiet word in someone’s ear?

  12. 12.

    Ash Can

    She’s been like this for years and now she’s getting tsk-tsk’ed? I call bullshit.

  13. 13.

    anibundel

    There’s a rumor on the twitters that I’m still trying to confirm that there was an assassination attempt on Hillary in Israel today.

    So there might be more than one reason they’re telling Bachmann to can it.

  14. 14.

    Svensker

    It’s only because she went after someone they all know and presumably like. And suggested that agencies they all have friends in were corrupted.

    She’s messing with the Old Boy Network and the Boys don’t like it.

    Other Islamophobia? A-OK!

  15. 15.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    I’m surprised she gets re-elected; I would think that having brought so much embarrassment to her constituents, they’d vote her out already. Of course, this presupposes that her constituents (those who voted for her — not those who simply must suffer this fool) are semi-informed and self-aware. Don’t know who said it first, but “The stupid — it hurts!”

  17. 17.

    The Moar You Know

    Who knew they had limits?

    They don’t. Witness the utter lack of action to muzzle her. That’s not an accident. She’s promulgating/reinforcing the rightie meme that Obama’s packing the government with Sharia-law Muslims and she’s doing a goddamn fine job of it.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    Not sure if domestic political considerations would make Republicans tell Bachmann to dial back the Islamophobia, which I gather is red meat to the party base. Could it be that some foreign friend has had a quiet word in someone’s ear?

    Rachel Maddow’s show a few days ago linked Bachmann’s nonsense to the protestors who pelted Secretary of State Clinton’s motorcade with tomatoes and shoes during her recent trip to the Middle East. Some of them had signs claiming that the Obama Administration was supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. Some people who were interviewed claimed that they had seen this on right wing blogs which quoted Bachmann, among other crazies.

  21. 21.

    wiscomom

    My wild guess? Boehner and McCain have heard high level reports about the safety risks for Mitt’s upcoming trip abroad. Remember Hillary’s motorcade getting pelted by a mob when she was in Egypt? There’s likely been a security alert sent out for Romney’s trip. So NOW they are scared of the monster they created.

  23. 23.

    tam

    OT: DC Abortion ban passes the House judiciary committee. Call your representatives, folks. I’m sure ABL will be on this soon, but wanted to give a heads up anyway.

  27. 27.

    Lord Jesus Perm

    It’s telling that the right’s idea of speaking out against Bachmann is saying something as vague and empty as, “I think accusations like this being thrown around are dangerous.”

    Page me when this clown woman is censored, or when the right comes up with something a little more forceful.

  31. 31.

    pluege

    shouldn’t that be: “L’Homme Orange”? “La Grande”…I don’t think so.

  32. 32.

    Lord Jesus Perm

    RE: the assassination attempt.

    I’m not seeing anything from an actual news site (Israeli or American) reporting it yet. In fact, the top three links I found were from the Economic Voice site that was linked above, David Icke’s Site, and a God-Like Productions meesage board. Not saying it isn’t true, but I’d hold off for a bit, personally.

  33. 33.

    FormerSwingVoter

    @Linda Featheringill: That source is pretty clearly insane, since it states as fact that America and Israel are gearing up for war against Iran and possibly Syria. I’d like to see confirmation from a non-crazy source, and haven’t found a one.

  34. 34.

    Ash Can

    I object to calling John Boehner “Le Grand Orange” (adjusted for spelling). It besmirched the good name of a fine baseball player.

  37. 37.

    Punchy

    Huma Abedin

    Hafta side with the Bachy here. Say this name slow enough, you get “Huma(n) Ah Be Dyin'”. Surely a Sharia Sleeper.

  38. 38.

    gbear

    90% of the people who voted for her love her for doing this kind of stuff. It’ll be hit-and-miss as to whether enough people in her district are finally too embarassed by her to vote for her. She may never go away.

  40. 40.

    hep kitty

    She’s just not relevant to them anymore. Like Palin, who hasn’t been asked to the dance. :( How long before a Bachmann reality show?

  41. 41.

    MattF

    Well, Frank Gaffney is, in fact, psychotic, and even Republicans are aware of this. It could well be that the ‘R’ establishment has drawn a line at outright mental illness. I approve.

    The good news is that no one now needs to cal McCain a ‘maverick’.

  42. 42.

    Nutella

    @hep kitty:

    She’s just not relevant to them anymore.

    Which is why she’s making noise about this. She can’t stand being out of the headlines.

  43. 43.

    Southern Beale

    On the flip side of the coin, Tennessee nutwagons attack our very Republican governor for being not sufficiently conservative because he’s hired a Muslim to head the international arm of our state economic development office. I mean, it’s fucking outrage central here: county GOP chairs all across the state have passed resolutions condemning this person and the governor for hiring her.

    So this is an amazing story the Nashville alternative paper has done on the implosion of the Tennessee GOP. This is your state on Tea Party: looking for an ass to kick. Completely devoid of reason or thought, just filled with hate. Eating their own (good! Enjoy the meal! Want some whine with that cannibalism?)

    This is why I say Tennessee is where the Republican Party has gone to die. This was so inevitable.

  44. 44.

    kindness

    I know this is the ‘dog days of summer’ but why does that have to mean that because Michelle Bachmann claims the skid marks in Bachmann’s undies were created by Islamocommunifascists from the Obama Administration that ANYONE (outside of the WorldNetDaily folk) would listen to her? Why?

    Same thing with Mittens and his daily Zinger. If the claims are insane, the people making those claims either think you are incredibly stupid or those people are insane. There isn’t another answer.

    OK MSM, we’re going to try this without the fail, one more time from the top….

  45. 45.

    Southern Beale

    @kindness:

    She’s a member of Congress, she’s head of the Tea Party caucus and she tried to secure the GOP presidential nomination. That’s why.

    She’s not some lone voice crying in the outer reaches of the AM dial. This crackpot has influence.

  48. 48.

    seanindc

    actually bachmann didn’t even start this particular line of bullshit – it started with Frank Wolf trying to work the issue behind the scenes, then gave it to crazyeyes for her to play the role of bird-dogging this particular political football. There is a significant movement on the right to paint Obama as a puppet of the Muslim Brotherhood and a product of a decades long plan to implement Sharia Law. You think silly season is here – you ain’t seen nothin yet.

  50. 50.

    pseudonymous in nc

    So, are the five House nutjobs — most of the dumbest fuckers in the chamber, whose names are all too familiar — going to be put on the cablenews shitlist, never to be booked again? Or are they just too easy to use to fill up time?

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    @Linda Featheringill: I’m not sure the story at that link passes for a newspaper article. Filled with cheap attacks and bullshit. They can’t possibly expect to be taken seriously when they report a story in that fashion.

    Edit: The story may be true, but they certainly seem like a crappy source for “news”.

    Edit 2: I see FormerSwingVoter got there first.

  52. 52.

    James E. Powell

    Boehner’s audience is the Village; Bachman’s is the base. There is no real conflict between the two messages.

    Propaganda: they are not trying to convince their base, they are only telling them what to repeat.

  53. 53.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):

    I’m surprised she gets re-elected; I would think that having brought so much embarrassment to her constituents, they’d vote her out already.

    As has been noted here before, her district was carved out in the 2002 redistricting to include the nuttiest bits of Minnesota from the St Paul exurbs to the fundie belt. The most recent redistricting rejigged the 6th and moved her home into another district, but she’s still running.

  54. 54.

    daverave

    @Southern Beale:

    My former neighbor here in California, the one who listened to Limbaugh in his garage while chain-smoking and leaf-blowing his yard twice a day every day, picked up and dragged his family to Tennessee last year so that “he could get away from the liberals and be with people more like him.” Sweet FSM, I was happy to seem him depart and I’ll bet he’s pretty happy, too, in Central Wingnutistan.

  55. 55.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    John Cole @ Top:

    Who knew they had limits?

    I’m still not convinced that they do have limits. The reprimands so far seem almost tentative, as if Republican leaders are testing to see if they can get away with criticizing crazy Islamaphobic personal attacks on State Department aides or not.

    The GOP has a vested interest here. After all, leveling personal attacks against the aides of high ranking gov’t peers hasn’t worked out too well for them in the past — c.f., Joe McCarthy and Joseph Welch.

    .

  56. 56.

    oogabooga

    Once again Cole you fucking moron because you don’t seem to understand how a democracy works or at least what is left of it in America.

    It’s not these crackpot snake oil salesmen who are the problem. It’s the fuckheads who keep re-electing them.

    Just declare Bachmann’s district the new location of American nuclear waste. Put it next to schools and churches and say we are doing it because god told us to. That is what the knuckle draggers that keep electing her deserve.

  58. 58.

    Heliopause

    Dammit, Bachmann. I was really hoping you’d get a prime time speech at the convention. That would’ve gotten your message out to the widest possible audience. Trust me, I was rooting for that to happen.

  59. 59.

    gbear

    Did something really stupid happen between comment 55 and 58? I think so, but I can’t be bothered find out.

  62. 62.

    Comrade Dread

    Who knew they had limits?

    They don’t.

    Giving a gentle tut-tut to a reporter in an election cycle where you’re trying very hard to hide the crazy doesn’t mean much.

    Actions speak louder than words, my friend. When they kick her off of the Intelligence subcommittee for being a lunatic and consign her to the corner of the cafeteria, they’ll show they have some limits.

  64. 64.

    the Conster

    We’re in the wingularity now where words have no meaning and everything is just part of the matrix – everyone’s got their role to play including crazy eyes Bachmann who as long as she keeps being re-elected will have to keep probing the perimeter of wingerdom and the media will have to follow her there, because reality as we used to know it has stripped a gear. Once upon a time she would be called out and shamed, but that was when TV was young, reporters believed in journalism and the news was a loss leader and source of pride for the networks.

  65. 65.

    NCSteve

    Not about limits, its about score-settling. Michelle does not score well on the “plays nicely with others” and “respects other people’s property” part of leadership’s scorecards.

  67. 67.

    JGabriel

    the Conster:

    Once upon a time she would be called out and shamed, but that was when TV was young, reporters believed in journalism and the news was a loss leader and source of pride for the networks.

    … In the time of legends and myths.

    The truth is that McCarthy carried on with his witchhunts for years before anyone in the mainstream openly criticized or opposed him.

    We tend to glorify the era based on the heroes it produced, like Murrow or Welch, but the truth is that it was an era of cowardice and conformity. That the mere actions of reporting on and calling out a fearmonger are considered acts of bravery, and they were for that time, is evidence of the era’s general cowardice, not its courage.

    .

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @JGabriel:

    The truth is that McCarthy carried on with his witchhunts for years before anyone in the mainstream openly criticized or opposed him.

    And if he hadn’t gone after the Army, who knows how much longer he would have gone on?

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Did Michelle Bachmann reach peak wingnut?

    Not even close. There’s so much more crazy to be had before they can even begin to see Peak Wingnut with a good telescope.

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