"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, October 20, 2008

Another Question for Republicans: Do You Agree with Rep. Bachman That Media Should Investigate "Anti-Americans" in Congress?

Michele Bachman - Congresswoman from Minnesota - told Chris Matthews on Hardball on Friday that she suspects Barack Obama may be "anti-American," and news media should vigorously investigate whether there are "anti-Americans" in Congress.

Colin Powell cited this in his endorsement of Obama on Meet the Press on Sunday as one of the things that disturbed him about the Republican Party and the McCain campaign.

Obama today spoke eloquently of there being no dichotomy between "real and fake Americans," no anti-Americans in this campaign.

So, another question for sensible Republicans: do you agree with Bachman, or with Powell and Obama? Are you concerned that a Congresswoman from your party is raising the spectre of Joe McCarthy and witch hunts against Americans that beset us in the 1950s?

Is this the kind of change you're after?

6 comments:

gone said...

Where do these people come from? Good lord, this is only part of the problem I outlined in my latest article on 'Quite Frankly.' These are the nut-jobs that are driving Al Franken into the U.S. Senate. Right now, it is all hands on deck to keep a bad campaign from sinking. They need to clean up there act. Maybe i'll write a letter to Mike Duncan...

Anonymous said...

Hang on a second Paul. You use words like "witchhunt" to describe the mcarthy era, but the reality is that there really were communist spies. It is disingenuous of you to use terms like that.

And frankly, if you have people in the government working against the interests of the nation what is wrong with calling them to account for such behavior ?

Paul Levinson said...

Jason - your problem is that you are writing from ignorance. The McCarthy witchhunt was against people who had nothing to do with spying - they were being hunted because of their allegedly Communist beliefs. And, "frankly," there is no one in the Congress that anyone other than Bachman has said is working against the interests of America.

Frank - I'm glad you feel that way (truly). It confirms my sense that you are reasonable. :)

I've been to your blog - fine title, by the way - but haven't had a chance to read. I will, soon.

mike's spot said...

I'm not a republican, but I appear as one in NYC.

The lady is batshit crazy. Every party has em, and the media loves all of em.

I like the dichotomy of the question. do you agree with a batshit crazy person, or someone who is just politically opposed to you? I move for a third direction: lady is batshit crazy, Colin Powell made a great speech, and chris matthews still manages to provide me with yet another 'funny'.

Man some of the people that have come out of the woodwork for this election really make me question my faith in the general populous as an informed, reliable, constituency of voters.

for an example from the other side of the isle, I give you Howard Dean.

Howard Dean says stuff like:

"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pick up trucks"

or

"I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can't play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it's called."

or better still:

"Now that we're on dog pee, we can have an interesting conversation about that. I do not recommend drinking urine…but if you drink water straight from the river, you have a greater chance of getting an infection than you do if you drink urine."

sure that last one is out of context and dean was talking to an eighth grade science class- but really, is dog pee that interesting? I'd argue no.

My prediction:

Obama wins, by about 8-10% of the popular vote, and slaughters in the electoral college.

you heard it here first.

james said...

Paul: That Minn. congressperson has strayed a bit TOO FAR from anybody's reservation. Someone in the GOP will need to reel her ass back to reality. If not, hopefully the high-minded Minn. electorate will take care of Madam Wackness.

I don't believe you need a new GOP witchhunt to root out any anti-American sentiment in the House of Congress or any other House in the land. Thanks to the Bush Administration (aka the old GOP witchhunters) we now are the proud owners of a domestic surveillance program that in concert with Homeland Security/FBI/CIA is charged with ferreting out any anti-Americanism on our shores. Since I haven't heard of any accusations coming from this governmental group overseeing domestic security on any members of Congress to date, I think it is safe to assume that our legislative branch is clean as far as internal threats to America. I can't vouch for their personal peccadilloes ... a wink-wink, nod-nod to Larry Craig, Mark Foley and the latest poster child for GOP family values Florida representative Tim Mahoney.

The problem with the McCain campaign of late and their legion of fanatical surrogates is that they are not observing the first rule of "holes": when you are in one, stop digging!!
/jimy_max

Carrin Mahmood said...

Hey Paul, it's come to this since Lost hasn't made an appearance. Alas I am from Michelle Bachman country. Tinkleberg is the DFL candidate running against Bachman in the district right next to ours. He was basically a sacrificial lamb which the DFL threw in because no one thought Bachman could be beat. (Of course he and his people would argue that point!) All of a sudden he is a household name. I believe Michelle should have stayed on the horse and ridden it to the finish line. If she would have said, "anyone who associates with people who bomb buildings in America can't be surprised if their patriotism is questioned" or "I'm the only one who has the guts to say what the rest of the GOp is dancing around" or something along those lines instead of back peddaling I think she could have ridden it out. Sure makes for interesting politics. Just when the Hillary andObama thing died down and I thought it was going to get boring, we get Palin, Feye and Bachan to entertain us. I haven't had this much fun watching a campaign since Jesse V was Gov!

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