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James Novogrod / NBC News
Tamara Scott and former Iowa state Rep. Danny Carroll, increasingly visible surrogates for Michele Bachmann, speaking at an Ottumwa, Iowa, restaurant Thursday night.
By NBC's James Novogrod
BLOOMFIELD, Iowa -- Michele Bachmann’s 99-county bus tour reached the eight-day mark Friday, and the candidate was losing her voice. In a whisper she circulated tables at the Oasis Coffee House, greeting voters, autographing yard signs and posing for photos.
While the grueling schedule left Bachmann quieter than usual, a group of surrogates raised the volume this week on a message the campaign hopes will resonate among Iowa’s evangelical voters, in the run-up to the Jan. 3 caucus.
“Do you know that the qualifications for public office are found in the Bible?” asked Danny Carroll, a former state representative, during a visit to a restaurant in Albia on Thursday.
Carroll was citing a passage in Exodus in which Moses is counseled to trust those who "feared God, were capable, and hated dishonest gain."
“I believe that Michele Bachmann fits all of those qualifications,” he added.
Carroll, who has supported Bachmann since the summer, has hosted her at his farm in Grinnell – but had rarely joined her for public events around the state. His presence, the campaign says, sends a signal to Iowan social conservatives.
“He has a tremendous amount of credibility in that state, and people look to his opinion,” says campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart.
After a 12-year career in the Iowa statehouse, Carroll was chairman of the board of the Iowa Family Policy Center, a group that was later spun into the Family Leader, one of Iowa’s most high-profile evangelical groups.
Carroll's message seems designed in part to punch back at the Family Leader's current CEO, Bob Vander Plaats, who earlier this week endorsed one of Bachmann's chief rivals for the evangelical vote: Rick Santorum.
The endorsement directed unwelcome attention on the Bachmann campaign, after Politico reported that Vander Plaats had tried to influence the race more directly, by calling Bachmann to urge her to drop out.
Bachmann acknowledges the call happened, but disputes the account of the discussion. (A source close to the telephone call tells NBC News that Vander Plaats called to ask that she merge her ticket with Santorum, or with Rick Perry. Bachmann, according to the source, declined.)
Since the endorsement, the Bachmann camp’s pushback has been polite but sharp.
A second surrogate, Tamara Scott – the Iowa director of a conservative women's group, Concerned Women for America – called out the Family Leader and Santorum by name Thursday, during a stop in Ottumwa.
"The Iowa Family Leader had a series of meetings, and the papers said it was to make sure [Mitt] Romney was not the nominee," Scott said.
"Bob Vander Plaats turned around and endorsed Santorum, who had endorsed Romney in the last election. I just don’t understand those kinds of politics," Scott said.
In an interview with NBC, Scott stressed that she is not speaking on behalf of Concerned Women for America, and added that Bachmann was the only candidate she felt comfortable endorsing.
“Her integrity is intact,” Scott said.
The effect of the campaign’s effort is unclear so far, but the bus tour itself has seemed to win points in rural counties. Voters in small restaurants and bakeries often said they appreciated Bachmann’s attention.
“She stands for Iowa,” said caucus-goer Kay Rouch, in Keosauqua, on Wednesday. “This is where her roots are, her beginnings, and I think that she basically has a real concern for the people in the Midwest.”
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This is a message for "David" whoes post said "he became an Atheist by reading the Bible several times".
Hi David-885677, that was funny when you wrote: --- Actually I credit the Bible as moving me from the realm of belief to atheism. What you don't know is that the level of (God) consciousness of Atheism is one step higher than that of any believe in a "conventional" religion, such as Christianity. (Congratulation)
An exception might be the Wicca spirituality, but there too are lots of fraudulent members, such as maybe the self proclaimed Wicca "Butterfly-Mage" here on this forum. I did meet a "real" Wicca beauty many years ago --- she had a consciousness as high as that of Jesus Christ. I might post this story here later, but first the address for my paper fjust or Atheists:
http://www.msmisp.com/logos/foundation-for-evolutionary-spirituality.htm
The Wicca Goddess in the “Yellow pajamas”
It was at my second visit to the Edgar Cayce Institute in Virginia Beach; this time for a seminar on research and abilities for psychic perceptions. I saw her for the first time when she entered the very large room crowded with more than hundred people attending the seminar. I am sure that every one of them noticed her, because she had dressed herself in bright-yellow pajamas covered with symbols of witch-craft. --- My thoughts at first where also on these “ridiculously silly” pajamas with might have been appropriate for a visit to a Kindergarten to tell and entertain the children about the Witches in the story of “Allis in Wonderland”, but not here. My second thoughts however were about the stunning beauty of this tall young lady, but mostly about her “poise” and her way of walking which clearly spoke to me, it said: “I own this place”.
She must have found a seat in the last rows of the room, because I did not see her during the talk, but when the speaker came to the end and put a sealed box on the podium to give us some examples of clairvoyance, she eventually showed up again. The Speaker at first demanded a 5 minutes silent meditation about the content of this box and then asked for volunteers to try their psychic perceptions. Several raised their hands to tell what they perceived was inside the sealed box, but the speaker shook his head every time. Apparently no one had any correct answers, but then that “stunning young lady” with her ridiculous pajamas walked slowly down the long isle until she stood beside the podium where she described a long list of items inside the box. --- Now even the Speaker was speechless, but finally he said: “Now I don’t need to tell you what’s in the box, this lady has described it all”. But when he turned to talk to her, she had already left the room. (That’s typical Witch-behavior; they just “disappear’).
It was many years later when I met her a second time, or better, it was “her” who found “me” again. --- How could she have possibly remembered me from the hundreds of babbling psychic transmissions in the large room? --- Simple, at a previous seminar for “hands-on “psychic healing I discovered that my 5th chakra, the first psychic and healing center had opened up and since in this seminar there also were over 100 participants instead of the 30 expected, I worked the room together with a Dr, John Upledger. http://www.msmisp.com/logos/CAM-2.htm Apparently I was the only student who had an open 5th chakra to channel healing energy. My strong compulsion to understand things fully let me discover other uses for this first psychic center. One can transmit emotions and even thoughts (such as my feelings for this Wicca’s stunning beauty and poise which must have hit her like a lightening strike, overriding all the other “babble” in the room.) It is via this 5th chakra that I can talk to animals, but I need to keep it very simple, because most animals (just like most people) are not very bright. (Here is a picture of some of my many deer animals: http://www.msmisp.com/logos/Composite-home-s.jpg they all have names, including the little Bambi whose name is “Toyshka”.
So where did she meet me? Not in this manifest world, but on the other side of life, the Unmanifest Cosmos. (Most of us are strolling around there during our sleep, but we don’t know it, but I now do!) I was in a place of an ancient Greek temple when she walked strait up to me and said “It is a shame what they are doing to you!” Her words give me hope I will not be alone with my convictions after death. I now understand why she wore these silly yellow pajamas with Wicca symbols, because:
------ She actually was visiting a Kindergarten with 100 grown-up children! ------
Saw a list of delegates in Tennessee today, another VERY evangelical area.....not ONE SINGLE DELEGATE for BACHMANN OR SANTORUM.....so who again did you say was the "evagelical pick"?
Bachman is a non factor in primary, Pres. race. Lets just hope she has been exposed enough that people in MN see what they elected and throw her ass out next time around. Country is " movin" on, or at leat trying to, don't need biased, obstructionists, impeding progress.
Emil