Bachmann Calls Her Own Comments an "Urban Myth"

During the election campaign, I wrote repeatedly about the demand by Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minnesota) for an investigation to see which members of Congress have "anti-American" views (see Republican Congresswoman Follows Palin's Lead and Calls for Investigation Into Anti-Americans in Congress, Bachmann Misreads Herself! Huh?, and Another Republican Accuses Liberals of Being Unpatriotic). Following her initial comments on Hardball, Rep. Bachmann claimed that she had been "misread" and later suggested that she had been led into a trap. Somehow (and I have a hard time understanding how...), Rep. Bachmann won reelection. Shorty after the election, Rep. Bachmann seemed to include herself in the group of people who had elected President-elect Obama, calling his election "a tremendous signal we sent" (see Bachmann Now Supports Obama? Do These People Ever Listen to Themselves?).

So what does Rep. Bachmann have to say about her calls for an investigation into the "anti-American" views of members of Congress now that the election is over? She says she never said that and calls the allegation an "urban myth". Watch:



Now, go back and watch this highlight reel from her original appearance on Hardball:



It sounds to me like Alan Colmes (how can he stand to share a stage with Sean Hannity?) repeated Rep. Bachmann's comments verbatim, yet she has the nerve to claim that she never said those things. Has she never heard of YouTube? Has she never seen that interview replayed time and time again across the networks? The question to ask yourself is whether Rep. Bachmann: (a) is simply too stupid to understand what she said and how offensive it was, (b) is simply too stupid to recognize that most people today have the ability to go back and check to see what she really said, (c) really does believe the things she said but is looking for some kind of cover, or (d) doesn't really care what others think, so long as her base (remember, these new comments came on Fox News) continues to support her.

Perhaps someone needs to explain to Rep. Bachmann how YouTube works and that simply claiming that you didn't say something doesn't make those words disappear. Moreover, things that really happened are not urban myths. You see, to be an urban myth requires an absence of truth; hence the word "myth". When an event is demonstrably provable as true, it is, by definition, not a myth. And if she can't understand that, should she really be representing anyone in anything, let alone in Congress?

But then why should truth or semantics worry someone like Rep. Bachmann? After all:

• She says she doesn't believe in global warming;
• She says that women who get abortions have been "horrifically violated";
• She claims that "hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel prizes" believe in Intelligent Design;
• She has made statements that suggest that she knows precisely the "secret" plans that Iran has to divide up Iraq (including the name that Iran plans for part of Iraq after its secret plans come to fruition);
• She blamed the mortgage crisis on "loans made on the basis of race and little else";
• She says that if homosexuals are allowed to marry, "little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it";
• She believes that a homosexual relationship is a form of bondage ("It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement");
• She hides in the bushes to spy on gay rights rallies; and
• She wrote that there is "almost no wildlife" in ANWR (on the basis of a single aerial flight over a tiny portion of the 19,049,236 acres; apparently she doesn't understand that the 2,000 acres where drilling would be conducted is non-contiguous and scattered throughout that enormous area).

Rep. Bachmann is far more articulate than Gov. Palin; you almost have to wonder whether Rep. Bachmann will become a standard-bearer for the right-wing of the Republican Party. In any event, I'd love to hear some of the conversations between her and her Democratic colleagues in the House: "Gee, Rep. Bachmann, how was your vacation, and do you still want an investigation to see if I'm anti-American?"