From E.J. Dionne at Post Partisan at The Washington Post:
I don’t think Rep. Michele Bachmann, the very right-wing Republican from Minnesota, is doing her party any favors by creating a Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives. In fact, I imagine that this is the first thing Bachmann has done in a long time that will make Democrats happy.
Not surprisingly, Bachmann declared herself chair of the caucus, for which she filed paperwork on Thursday.
“This caucus will espouse the timeless principles of our founding, principles that all Members of Congress have sworn to uphold,” she declared. “The American people are doing their part and making their voices heard and this caucus will prove that there are some here in Washington willing to listen.”
What? No penetrating exposé that will take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they pro-America, or anti-America? I’m disappointed. But let’s continue…
That last part, about proving that “there are some here in Washington willing to listen,” is what I suspect will make many Republicans nervous. This will put a lot of people on the line, and force some into an unappetizing choice.
A lot of Republicans would like the Tea Party to rally as many right-of-center voters to the polls as possible but not have to take any responsibility for the movement’s more radical stands or the unseemly rhetoric that issues from some of its supporters. (That now-infamous billboard in Iowa made even some Tea Party people unhappy.)
Bachmann’s move will make it harder for them to avoid the question of whether they are with the Tea party or against it. Those Republicans who do sign up could turn off more moderate voters. Those who don’t might have to worry about future primaries supported by the Tea Party. We’ve already seen how even very conservative Republicans — Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah is Exhibit No. 1 – can be declared not-right-enough by these folks.
Bennett himself issued a warning to his fellow Republicans about the Tea Party in an interview with the Associated Press. “With the tea party creating the mischief that it is in Colorado, we may not win that seat,” he said. “My sources in Nevada say with Sharon ([em>sic] Angle there’s no way Harry Reid loses in Nevada,” he said about the Tea Party Republican challenging the Senate’s Democratic majority leader.
He added that Rand Paul, another Tea Party favorite, could lose the Republicans what had looked like a safe seat in Kentucky. But Bennett credited Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with “pulling [Paul] back from some of his more dangerous statements.”
The clearest sign of Tea Party damage to the G.O.P. was a Mason-Dixon poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal released today. It lends support to what Bennett’s sources in Nevada have told him.
…snip…
So at the very moment many Republicans are trying to figure out how to finesse the Tea Party, Bachmann is setting out to make the finesse a little bit harder. You wonder if some in her party will try to talk her out of forming her new caucus. Very quietly, of course.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
My wife loves this image. Her only disappointment is that you don’t have a share function to make it easier to post to Facebook and Twitter. She had to do it by hand.
Now back to the image–oh, look, it already has trained elephants!
i think there’s a way to make the stuff here available on facebook and twitter, but i have to figure out how. maybe melissa will come along and tell me how to make that possible. you know that i’m not good with the technical stuff. where’s mighty mikk0mouse when i need him?
wouldn’t you know it? the latest update sent out by wordpress was about images and facebook. of course, i don’t understand any of it or how to do it, because i don’t have a facebook account. anyone here help me make sense of it?
Nonnie, don’t know all the WordPress stuff but it’s not real hard to get this image on my FB. All that I have to do is copy the linky and paste it into the link box and attach it and the image of the amazing hideous lady is on my FB page. I didn’t do it though because I didn’t want any of my friends to ruin their breakfast by seeing her first thing this morning – not a comment on your brilliant artwork, just that hard sharp face.
i read a little bit more at wordpress. i could link the raisin to twitter and facebook automatically, but i’d have to open a twitter and facebook account, which i have not yet done. not sure i want to.
C’mon Nonnie, get on FB and I can friend you. You can set your privacy settings and you’re no more out there than you already are!
but if it’s private, what’s the sense of posting hr over there? that may be a stupid question, as i have no idea how fb or twitter work.
All she needs now is the highly coveted Mickey Dolenz endorsement. Steele could prove goper coolness by producing them doing a rap version of Tea For Two!
mickey dolenz? 😕 i don’t think any of the monkees would be on the side of batshit bachmann.
Don’t you remember Circus Boy when Mickey was the title character with Noah Berry? When the Monkees came out I thought “I’ve seen that guy somewhere before”. He used to ride a baby elephant a lot.
ohhhhhhhhh!!!! leave it to you, jerry, to remember that! i very vaguely remember circus boy. i don’t know if it’s because i actually remember watching it or if i just remember reading about it. i’m glad to know that mickey dolenz is not on the side of evil. he was in d.c. last month fighting for artists’ radio royalties.
It’s clear Michele works without a net. They prolly scare her too much – you know the guys in white suits coming to get you and all that.
You really pimped her out with all the teaparty’s finest jewels and rightly so since she’s earned ’em all.
This poster reminded me of the Everly Bros’ “Cathy’s Clown”…
I laugh each time
I hear this sound
Here she co o o omes. That Bachmann clown
Good work nons 😀
you’re right about the net! 😆
i held myself back. i was going to put tassels on her boobs, but i thought better of it. it’s one thing for her to denigrate women with her ideas, but i don’t have to add to it. i’ll only denigrate certain women, and she’d definitely one of them.
If Batshit created her own caucus in Congress and no one joined, would there be any press to cover it?
well, you know that steve king would join. he wouldn’t really have a choice, since he resides in her rectum. wherever she goes, he goes.
of all the people worth hating in congress (and there are tons) – the three i hate the most are John Kyl, Jim Inhofe and Michele Bachmann.
she will have a special place in hell. but as much as we laugh at her and know what a complete idiot, asshole and evil wench she is, we really do laugh at our own peril
http://www.blackmagpietheory.com/2010/07/they-all-laughed/
just my sobering thoughts……
meanwhile – this will brilliant (as usual)
eggzellent commentary, dcAp (i mean at the link, not that you liked my pshopping 😉 ). you’re blogging all over the place these days, aren’t you?
Love the bat, nice touch 🙂
hey nunya! nice to see you! 🙂
batshit bachmann always gets the pooping bat as an accessory. it just looks so natural on her.
I’d like to see her shot out of a cannon, then fed to the tigers.
Oh but you know for evil reasons…. I want the tea party to somewhat succeed.
Plus all those misspelled signs– good laughs!
Go tea party! Do in the GOP!
Divided they fall = )
i hope the dems try to force the rethugs to defend the crazies in the tea party. the obtuse angle and little randy paul keep saying the most batshitty things, and the rethugs in charge keep making them walk them back. the dems have to keep reminding people how far out of the mainstream these extreme candidates are and how the rethugs have embraced them.