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The country has a new guardian for its national security secrets: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).
The outspoken Minnesota congresswoman, and Tea Party favorite, has been tapped by House Speaker John Boehner for a coveted slot on the House Intelligence Committee, giving Bachmann a new role as overseer of the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community, her office confirmed today.
The move comes at a time when Bachmann is seeking to burnish her national security credentials, as as she weighs a possible run for higher office. Bachmann's spokesman, Doug Sachtleben, confirmed this week that she is planning to speak at an Iowans for Tax Relief fundraiser in Waterloo, Iowa, later this month, a move that has fueled speculation that she may be planning to carry the Tea Party banner into the GOP presidential primaries.
"She's not taking anything off the table as far as her political future," he said.
Sachtleben said there was "no connection" between Bachmann's possible future plans and her recent request to Boehner serve on the House Intelligence Committee. Bachmann, who until now has not served on any committee that deals with foreign policy issues, wanted to serve on the intelligence committee, because "she was concerned as a mother" about the threat of terrorism and other national security issues. He did, acknowledge, however that the new position will be "helpful" in giving her "further credentials in the international area."
The selection of Bachmann to serve on the intelligence committee has already created a buzz among our House colleagues, especially among Democrats who noted her penchant for provocative, if sometimes not fully supported, statements on a range of issues. Bachmann, for example, was one of a number of conservatives who fueled false claims that President Obama's official trip to India after the election was costing taxpayers $200 million a day. (When challenged, Bachmann told the BBC she was only "quoting a newspaper out of India.")
One House Democrat, who asked for anonymity, said the real issue about Bachaman is "will she able to keep quiet" about everything she gets briefed on in the intel committee since almost all of it is classified. Sachtelben, Bachmann's spokesman, said the congresswoman has already discussed this with her staff and "she understands the terms."
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OMG !!
Lurker-1909193
OMG !!
Yes, indeed Oh My Good God !! Let her run with Barbour. All her looney conspiracy theories are coming true.
Fall on you knees. It's the Gopcalypse, the end of the world as we know it.
The sky is falling. Birds are falling from the sky and dying. Crabs that have washed up on English beaches because ice caps are still melting and the crabs are dying from hypothermia. In Australia people's mode of transport is a boat because lots of poisonous snakes and crocodiles from floods. There was snow in LA.
It's all President Obama's fault.
Your destiny awaits!
better take the front seat.....the drama is about unfolding.
SNL writers are going to have an easy year again, I see.
Who was the bigger mouth, Michele Bachman or that Wikileaks dude? If Bachman leaks classified information, can we arrest her for treason?
Do you think that she is going to get to see any classified intelligence? Just because one is on a intel committee does not mean that she/he is cleared for all levels of classification.
Amazing, I can't think of a bigger oxymoron than Michell Bachman and intelligence. The fact that se is a Tea party darling tells you all you need to know about the Tea party.
Snap :)
"Oxymoron" of course has its official meaning. You can also break the word down and decide that it refers to someone who is of very low intelligence as well as a mouth-breather.
But I figure this appointment helps Bachmann in one very important fashion - thanks to her new position and its demands, she should be first in line for a brain transplant.
Oops, make that "implant" - "transplant" implies she has one already.
Yeah, Bachmann and the Tea Party, what an improvement over what we have now, demo special interest groups, Czars and big spenders of money we don't have. Way to go.
Bachman on the intelligence committee? Is that not an oxymoron?
LOL, said the same thing..
That's JUST when we need! The broad who appears perpetually stoned and speaks a lot like Joe McCarthy!
God help us!
I would have thought the this job would require intelligence - I guess I was wrong !
Guess not..
Feisty - funny, I though she spoke the words Joe McCarthy used, but she sounded more like Charlie McCarthy.
Oh, and Feisty - your clip from the story raises another point:
If Michelle Bachmann is supposedly a "new guardian of our national security" - should we be heading for the hills? I feel now as if I should be en garde!
This is stupid.
Touche! ;o)
As you can tell by this move, the GOP are definitly headed in the right direction! OVER A CLIFF! This is surely going to be an interesting year. When they read the Constitution, they might want to have someone to explain it to the morons.
This may actually be difficult for Ms. Bachmann. She is a big fan of conspiracy theories (as are many in the Tea Party) and now she may be accused of caving in to the CIA etc., if she doesn't "find" any conspiracy theories.
Bachman and the word "intelligence" have no place in the same sentence.
Well it will be interesting to see if she can refrain from revealing state secrets.
Loose lips...sink ship...
Yep, let's see if she can manage to keep her lips closed, although I seriously doubt it. She loves the spotlight and loves to bash the administration and any chance she gets she will talk about something she shouldn't be talking about.
It just shows what a total loser Boehner is ...just because your next in line .... doesn't mean your mentally fit for the job...This is the crybaby's way of shutting her up !
Come on now, we can't expect them to understand it yet, they just are hearing most of it for the first time. It became painfully obvious during the elections that the Tea Party does not value education, since most of their candidates could not speak intelligently on any of the issues, they could only utter catchphrases.
They will be suprised to find out that the income tax is constitutional, that in fact non whites do have rights in this country, that cruel and unusual punishment is illegal, and that congress does have powers above which are "expressly" granted to them by the constitution. That last one is the real kicker, they have been mixing up the articles of confederation with the Constitution at every rally. It is time for them to face up to the fact that their radical, extremist views are unconstitutional, and have no place in America. It is the land of opportunity, not the land of selective opportunity for corporations and the extremely wealthy.
You know what I really don't understand is how decent middle class folk do not see the truth that the republican party is the party of the rich and the large corporations. Just a look at how and what they vote for in congress should be enough to tell people that they are not for the middle class that all the rhetoric they spew is a smoke screen to stick up for policies that favor the very wealthy and big business.
Could anything be more frightening? The woman has not met a camera she does not love, she says the most ridiculous things, and now she is on the intelligence committee. OXYMORON. This is getting more frightening by the day. Speaker Boehner cannot see how this looks? Really? And how can you put someone on this committee who, as they politely put it, has a penchant for making provocative statements, and statements with no basis in truth? Intelligence committee.
Consider that if she had won, that Christine O'Donnell would have been his first choice..... I'm just sayin'
House Intelligence Committee?
Well, it was. Now? Not so much.
Here- let me toss one in the ring for my pal JoAnna:
"My, but you lefties are mad or something today. Why are you picking on a genius like Bachmann? Are you mad about something today???"
It's quite clear now... If you want political insight into the next two years, dig out the Three Stooges comedy movies. I hope she makes a presidential run. Can you imagine the GOP field of candidates with Bachmann and Palin in the running? If you think congress had a low approval rating, just wait a few more months...
There has been much speculation on how Boehner would seek to appease the Tea Party. Putting Buck McKeon - a legislator with NO military experience - on the Armed services Committee, and putting Michelle Bachman - a legislator with no identifiable intelligence- on the Intelligence Committee seems to be his strategy.
Of course, I see this is a cynical and shrewd move by the GOP leadership. These two will create innumerable distractions with demands for investigations and hearings which the GOP wants, but will be able to blame on the extremist Tea Party folks in order to marginalize them going into 2012.
Again, it is all about gaining power, and has nothing to do with competent or responsible government. It has been said many times, and repeatedly proven, that the GOP knows how to invent slogans and win elections, but is very incompetent at actually leading or governing in a way that is beneficial to the average people of the country. [They are competent at raiding the Treasury and taxpayers in order to shift wealth to the most affluent, however.]
This just in... SNL has been found GUILTY for the murder of Liberal American Citizens via asphyxiation because of the skit they played when they found out that Rep. Bachmann would sit on the House Intel Committee. The UN's Chief Medical Examiner testified that their bodies were in various states of repose with varying degrees of internal and external trauma. The autopsies reveal a COMPLETE loss of bodily fluids and neural and muscular system were in total chaos from the laughing fits. He further stated that "I have not witnessed this level of carnage since John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be her running mate. From what I gather, they were highly warned NOT to laugh this hard when the former Governor of Alaska announced that she was considering to run for President." Before sentencing of the entire SNL lot, Tina Fey, who was once famously renowned for her imitation of Sarah Palin, bitterly wept, stating that "This is indeed a great tragedy."
Are you kidding me? Don't worry about her passing secrets. She hasn't gotten a story right yet.
Don't let this nut job anywhere near the other key and password to our Nukes. I hope Bachmann and Palin both run and debate each other. Call it Bachmann-Palin Overdrive.