Michele Bachmann's Truth to Power

The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has caved to pressure from the netroots left by withdrawing campaign support for Representative Michele Bachmann's relection to Congress from Minnesota's 6th District.

Bachmann appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews last week and spoke openly about Barack Obama and the Democratic Party's widespread anti-Americanism. For speaking truth to power, Bachmann's now the target of a vicious smear campaign of leftist McCarthyism. The story's even made the frontpage at today's Los Angeles Times:

On Friday afternoon, Bachmann appeared on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and made what has been dubbed the million-dollar mistake: Bachmann, 52, alleged that presidential candidate Barack Obama may hold "anti-American" views, and proposed a media investigation into "the views of the people in Congress [to] find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?"

While Sen. Obama's presidential bid has transformed the way campaigns use the Internet to reach volunteers and donors, the technology has also become a way for the public to instantly react -- even to races in which they can't vote.

Those quick reactions, often in the form of donations, can influence the outcome of a campaign, said Julie Barko Germany, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management.

Barko German said "the Internet can be an amplifier," enabling viewers to react instantly to something that incites strong support or fury.

"It's an excellent fundraising tool," she added, citing research indicating that "when you show someone a video online, they donate 10% more."

Bachmann's interview has turned the race into one of the country's most intensely watched. It also unleashed an online backlash against Bachmann, who many local political observers assumed would easily win reelection.

President Bush won the district in 2004 with 57% of the vote. In 2006, former state Sen. Bachmann was heralded as the first female Republican to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from the district, which is dominated by blue-collar and farming communities.

And this summer, one of the few polls conducted in the race showed that Bachmann held a 13-point lead over Tinklenberg.

But on Wednesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee pulled all of its TV advertising supporting Bachmann in the 6th District, according to a GOP source. Since her "Hardball" appearance, Bachmann's lawn signs have been vandalized. Callers spew profanity at volunteers and obscenities about the congresswoman at her district campaign office.

I wrote in defense Bachmann here, and the Hardball video's here:

At one point Bachmann says "the people who Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large."

Is that statement objectively in doubt? Can people honestly deny Bachmann's comments?

Even her concluding remark for the media to "investigate" the views of Members of Congress is hardly controversial, if one remembers that holding government accountable is the responsibility charged to the press by the Founding Fathers of this nation.

Michelle Bachmann has the honesty and integrity to speak truth to power. I want to direct readers to Bachmann's campaign website, Bachmann for Congress. Please join me in making a financial contribution to an outstanding Republican Congresswoman.

Conservatives need to stand up for moral clarity and traditional values. Michelle Bachmann's doing just that. Let's help her get across the finish line with a strong reelection win on November 4th.