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Thursday, May 30, 2013

All You Need to Know About Michelle Bachmann's Retirement

     It's perfectly crystallized by two headlines today. We read that the GOP establishment is relieved she's gone. 

      "Michele Bachmann was as much a tea party hero as she was a constant pain in the neck for Republican operatives concerned with the party’s national image. That stark contrast was well on display Tuesday as the GOP reacted to the Minnesota Republican congresswoman’s decision not to seek reelection in 2014: sorrow and disappointment from the right-wing faithful, relief and gratitude from operatives who want what’s best for the party."
     "And as deeply as liberals detested Bachmann and everything she stood for, she was a dream come true for Democrats who profit politically from highlighting GOP radicalism."
“Bachmann fit the political tea party moment perfectly,” veteran Republican strategist John Feehery told TPM. “But that moment passed.”
     Therein lies the problem. The Tea Part is very sorry to see her go, but the party is kind of relieved. If anything, Democrats seem more sorry to see her go as she was a great lightening rod.    
    "Not every Democrat is cheering Rep. Michele Bachmann’s upcoming exit from Congress — specifically the party’s bean counters.
     "The conservative firebrand’s decision not to run for re-election takes a lucrative fundraising tool off the table for Democrats."
     “After Joe Walsh and Allen West were defeated, she was by far the most lucrative voice for Democrats in the GOP caucus,” said one top Democratic operative who has worked at a committee. “Direct mail writers are going to have to cultivate new villains.”
     That says it all. Republicans are glad to see her go, Democrats not so much. For me the big worry is not so much that I'll miss her loopy statements and all the votes against ObamaCare she led but she was very vulnerable for 2014. The candidate that replaces her may be considerably less so. 
      You can make the case that too much is made out of Bachmann. With all her buzz she has a very slim legislative record in 7 years as a Minnesota Rep. On the other hand, she is a leading Tea Party light. It's not clear where the TP goes for it's next one.
      Who will be the next Michele Bachmann? The Minnesota Republican’s announcement on Wednesday that she’ll be stepping down when her term wraps up in 2014 leaves a void at the top of the Tea Party Caucus she founded in 2010 — and a handful of conservatives could vie to take up her mantle.
     From the time Bachmann founded the caucus, the movement has had its ebbs and flows, at its high point having significant influence over the electoral landscape and at its low point becoming dormant to the point — some might argue — of irrelevance.
    
  
      What will probably happen is the Tea Party will try to make hay out of the IRS pseudoscandal, even though the real scandal is why so many wealthy, political Tea Party groups are tax exempt at all. 
    In many ways Bachmann is in the Sarah Palin mold-all sound and fury signifying nothing. Palin was less a politician than a cultural phenomenon, a conservative celebrity. This is also true of Bachmann. She obviously won't have trouble finding work. Her actual legislative resume is meager:
    "Establishment Republicans have spent years tiptoeing around the tea party, concerned that its hot rhetoric and deep pockets could wreak havoc in their ranks and further disrupt the national party leadership’s carefully laid plans."
    "But Rep. Michele Bachmann’s sudden fall exposes the reality of tea party players: Their power in Congress is mostly a mirage."

     "In six years in Congress, Bachmann was plainly unable to translate her cable-friendly bombast into traditional Washington power. And she couldn’t shake up the Republican establishment enough to convert her considerable resources into her own reservoir of muscle."

     "The Minnesota Republican never got a committee gavel. She managed one major legislative accomplishment — a bridge connecting Minnesota to Wisconsin. House GOP leadership didn’t place her on the Ways and Means Committee when they had the chance. The Tea Party Caucus — of which she was the public face — isn’t at all a force."
  
      "Here’s the image that Bachmann cut in the Capitol, according to several top level GOP aides and lawmakers interviewed by POLITICO on Wednesday: she was a sparse presence at GOP strategy meetings and didn’t particularly care about passing legislation. That bridge she helped build? She broke ground on it on Tuesday, one day before she announced her retirement, holding a shovel as she stood next to Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar."

     She's a Tea Party phenom. Palin was such a rock star she gave up a job as a real politician-Governor of Alaska-for a spot on conservative reality tv-Fox News, et. al. 

     "This i actually becoming very common: Jim Demint gave up a real job for a Heritage Foundation position. So what will this mean for the Tea Party in the long term? There are clearly some who can take Bachmann's place  We can probably look forward to countless Tea Party conspiracy theories.  about the IRS for years. Yet it seems what the Tea Party does best is put on a spectacle for the faithful. There is little in the way of legislation it can point to. Meanwhile some argue that Bachmann was "encouraged" by the GOP establishment to bow out; this encouragement took the form of saying If you run you're on you're own. You get no funding or any resources from us. Good luck, Congresswoman. "


      This means that the GOP is going to try to keep the Tea Party out of the way in the future. So their roll in legislation-never much-will if anything become even less. 
       
     
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1 comment:

  1. Tom BrownMay 31, 2013 at 4:32 PM

    "Direct mail writers are going to have to cultivate new villains"

    NOT a problem!

    ReplyDelete

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