Michele Bachmann is making the most of her exit tour, whipping her constituents up into a frenzy over President Obama’s imaginary legalization of terrorists. It’s no wonder the Tea Party is always so angry. If you thought the President was legalizing terrorists from his home country of “Kenya”, you’d be pretty mad too.
Ben Terris at the Washington Post detailed one of her farewell tour stops in which she told the crowd that Obama was going to make everyone legal, and that could include – gasp – terrorists!
On immigration: “What the president wants to do now is grant wholesale amnesty,” she shouted to the gaggle that quickly formed around her. “He’s planning to do an executive order and make everybody legal. Presumably, it could include terrorists that are here in the United States.”
The crowd chimed in. “Well, kick him out then.” “Impeach him.” “Send him back to Kenya!”
Bachmann laughed. She opened her arms wide, harnessing the energy from the room.
…
“He’s a dictator now,” Bachmann parroted back. “He’s making up the law as he goes along.”
Speaking of making things up, Bachmann totally made up President Obama’s executive action on immigration. But this is what she does best and it’s one reason her bright star burned out so quickly. Bachmann never figured out where to go after calling for insurrection and warning about Obama’s FEMA camps that never came to be. Poor thing never realized that she needed to get out while she could, ala Sarah Palin, who was also facing many ethics charges but who fled public office before they could tarnish her further than she had managed to tarnish herself on the VP trail.
Of course Bachmann didn’t correct the crowd regarding Obama’s birth place. These are the people and mindset she worked hard to create and get famous and wealthy over.
Obama is not a dictator for using executive power and he’s not making up the law. This is part of what comes with the office, and even though Republicans seem to think that its totally cool if they run on nothing and refuse to tell voters what their agenda is, Obama did not do that.
The President was very clear about his policy agenda, and it included raising the minimum wage and reforming our immigration laws, among many other issues. So for him to have won in a landslide and then take executive action within the established purview of his office in order to advance the agenda the people voted for is the opposite of being a dictator.
The President was only forced to weigh his options under the law as the Executive because Republicans refused to do their duty as lawmakers, due in large part to the Tea Party caucus’ disdain for immigrants of a certain type/color. After much political back and forth, Obama agreed to wait until after the midterms to issue new executive action on immigration. Is it possible that a “terrorist” could be legalized? It’s unlikely, but so is the idea of Bachmann on the House Intelligence Committee and yet there she stood. But it is just as possible that a terrorist is here illegally, what with terror being their job. It seems they would be unlikely to announce themselves to the feds at any rate.
Republicans like Darrell Issa have warned the President to give up any ideas of immigration reform ASAP. But that was back when they were going to sue him, before their lawyer quit on them. They’ve been rather silent on their previous hysteria, perhaps they no longer believe their own claims and there is no alleged constitutional crisis,or they figure the constitutional crisis can wait until after their bread is buttered with reelection.
And this is partly why Bachmann’s prospects are much bleaker now than they were in 2010. The Republican Party knows how to use the true believers and toss them away when they’re busted and their public image is bankrupt. The party encourages the faithful and the egotistical to get out there and raise holy heck, demand the president’s birth certificate, whatever it takes — but when the piper comes calling, the GOP turns its icy back. Bachmann joins Palin in the trash bin of Tea Party queens used and tossed away like rubbish by a desperate party with no ideas.
Bachmann told Terris that she was hoping to work for a think tank on foreign policy issues, among other plans for her future. A conspiracy theorist on foreign policy? She’d be perfect for any number of conservative outlets fronting lobbyists’ agendas under the guise of “think tank”. If only her image isn’t too toxic even for the GOP.
In its desperation to avoid discussing its policy agenda, the Republican Party use bright lights like Palin and Bachmann to distract the voters. To rile them up into a frenzy of rage over things that have not happened and never will happen under this President. Bachmann still has her core fans, just like Palin, but she earned the scorn of the nation the hard way.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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