Lulz Ahead: Rep. Michele Bachmann to Deliver ‘Tea Party’ SOTU Rebuttal
President Barack Obama on Tuesday night will stand before a joint session of Congress and deliver a State of the Union address filled with hits like “Look,” “Make no mistake” and “Let me be clear.”
Congressman Paul Ryan, immediately following, will likely stand before a smaller crowd and deliver a formal Republican rebuttal filled with hits like “follow the will of the American people,” “listen to the voice of the American people,” and “we must size and scope of the federal government.”
Then, in a political twist, a second such rebuttal will take place*. In an effort to make the PolitFact folks work even harder on Tuesday, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann will offer a Tea Party-tinged address filled with lots of “Gee,” “Oh my goodness” and “This Socialist president will not stop ’til he bankrupts our fine Christian nation and passes new anti-American laws for homosexters, foreigners and welfare mothers.”
Verbatim, we expect.
Bachmann’s superfluous, pre-recorded address was announced via e-mail on Friday afternoon to the group’s supporters and will be broadcast at TeaPartyExpress.org after the president’s finished his speech.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Tea Party favorite’s unique brand of leadership, Bachmann is a three-term Republican Representative for Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District who is often criticized for her outlandish quotes. Below are some gems that speak for themselves:
“Not all cultures are equal.”
“And what a bizarre time we live in, when a judge will say to little children that you can’t say the pledge of allegiance, but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it.”
“I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think its an interesting coincidence.”
“Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”
“If we took away minimum wage-if conceivably it was gone-we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.”
“A woman (Terri Schiavo) was healthy. There was brain damage, there was no question. But from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.”
“I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country.”
“I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?”
Congressman Ryan should be pretty pissed about this development. Tuesday night is his time to shine. If he doesn’t Jindal himself by seeming too much like Kenneth from 30 Rock, this is his breakout moment for the 2012 Presidential Sweepstakes. Ryan’s name isn’t mentioned in the same breath as Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney, but he’s a man with a policy focus and a fiscal background that appeals to both traditional Republicans and Tea Party debt-haters. And with a shrewd performance on Tuesday, there’s as good a chance as any that despite not being in the presumed field right now he could wind up at the top of the 2012 ticket.
But now he’s going to have to share the headlines with President Obama *and* Rep. Bachmann, and he’ll likely end up taking a backseat to the sensational coverage she’ll receive when she inevitably makes a controversial statement. There may not be a voting rift yet between those calling themselves Tea Partiers and those calling themselves Republicans, but it’s decisions like these that will split their media coverage.
*As Slate’s Dave Weigel points out, there is precedent for Bachmann’s second rebuttal. Both John Edwards in 2007 and Barack Obama in 2008 added second rebuttals to those of Sen. Jim Webb and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, respectively. But both men were declared presidential candidates at the time.
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