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Eric Black Ink

Bachmann gets the swine flu... wrong

By Eric Black | 04/28/09

I'm not sure which Michele Bachmann holds in greater contempt; the "Democrat Party," as she always calls it (you're off by an "ic" ma'am), or the facts when they are inconvenient to her beliefs. But, happily, she doesn't have to choose when she can get the facts wrong while attacking that other party, the whatstheirnames.

So she went for the daily double and nailed it yesterday on PajamasTV. It's a long interview, and Rep. Bachmann was in fine form, defending freedom everywhichway. But she got a coupla facts wrong and, by sheer coincidence, both created false negative inferences against Dems.

The first one, with a hat tip to City Pages, was an assertion that swine flu always breaks out under Democrat(ic) presidents. She said, mighty generously, that she wasn't blaming Pres. Obama for the current outbreak (but then why is she bringing it up?), but she couldn't help but notice the coincidence that the previous outbreak occurred under Democrat(ic) Jimmy Carter. Understand please, she's absolutely not trying to associate swine flu outbreaks with Democrats, just noticing the irony. Problem, of course, was that the 1970s swine flu scare started in 1976 under Republic(an) Pres. Gerald Ford. (Not that he caused it, mindya, just noting.)

The second and more important made-up fact was Bachmann's assertion that the likely use of the reconciliation process by the Dems to push through a health care bill without facing a potential filibuster would be "unprecedented." Not at all.

There is something wrong with using procedural maneuvers (reconciliation) to get around other procedural maneuvers (filibusters) and I'd be happy to see the process simplified and streamlined. But there's nothing "unprecedented" here. As the Washington Monthly put it, reconciliation is:

"a procedure used many times in recent years, usually by Republicans. Reconciliation was used to pass welfare reform; it was used to pass Bush's tax cut plans; and more recently, GOP lawmakers even wanted to use reconciliation to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

That last reference to ANWR seems a cheap shot, since apparently it wasn't used. But the whole Repub tantrum over the possible use of reconciliation to avoid filibusters certainly reeks of how-dare-you-do-to-us-what-we-previously-did-to-you.

Comments (22)

Submitted by dan buechler on April 28, 2009 - 5:04pm.

Good article. She sure does have some strange logic. P.S. You typoed swin flu once, feel free to correct. Otherwise keep it up!

Submitted by Kyle Eller on April 28, 2009 - 5:23pm.

"Bachmann gets the swine flu... wrong"

Did you seriously just make a play on words designed to suggest that a member of Congress with whom you disagree had contracted a serious and potentially fatal disease?

Submitted by Ed Stych on April 28, 2009 - 6:36pm.

I caught the spelling of "swin," too. It's not even a word, which means that not only are there no editors looking at this material, but the writers aren't even using spellcheck ... or at least paying attention to the results. And it's not the first time I've seen these kind of typos.

Yep, that's pretty nick-picky of me, but not any worse than continuing to go on about Bachmann's "Democrat(ic)" mistake ... or looking for urban rumors in every sentence she speaks.

It's getting rather tiresome. We get it. You don't like Republicans and conservatives, and you hate Bachmann.

Seriously, whatever "mistakes" she's making are no different than the "mistakes" made by Murtha or Ellison or Obama. I learn about those on Drudge or elsewhere, never here. Regardless of political stripe, these are human beings who make mistakes and politicians who exaggerate or lie to win a point.

Submitted by Joe Johnson on April 28, 2009 - 8:43pm.

You are right to correct Rep. Bachmann, no one should ever take the "ic" out of the Democratic Party.

Submitted by Paul Udstrand on April 28, 2009 - 8:43pm.

Thanks for keeping us up to date. The danger with bachmann is that she'll slip under the radar, you gotta keep light on dopes like her. Why do right wingnuts complain about bias so much anyways?

Submitted by Terry Hayes on April 28, 2009 - 8:50pm.

I love the headline. Quite amusing.
And I can't stand the way Bachmann says Democrat Party. Hello, Ed Stych--Bachmann and her kind do this on purpose, to show their lack of respect for Democrats. It's a lot different from an ordinary typo. But if you think Murtha, Ellison, and Obama are as 'mistake' prone as Bachmann, then I'm not surprised you weren't aware of this. Ellison and Bachmann aren't even in the same league. He's for real; she's a lunatic idiot, and there ain't no way around that FACT.

Submitted by Paul Brandon on April 28, 2009 - 8:50pm.

Some people make more 'mistakes' than others, and usually only in one direction.
Leads one to question their competence.

Submitted by Joe Johnson on April 28, 2009 - 8:51pm.

Is there any writer on this site that isn't a card carrying Democrat. Bachmann gets swine flu...wrong. Come on try to make to past the headline before before taking your shot.

Submitted by Terry Hayes on April 28, 2009 - 8:56pm.

By the way, Ed, I don't mean to be nick-picky, but is nick-picky a word? And from what I've read of Eric Black, especially when he was at the Star Tribune, he's not exactly anti-Republican. And I would say he's a hell of a lot more reliable than Matt Drudge.
HAHAHA! You're not putting us on, are you?

Submitted by Michael Ernst on April 28, 2009 - 11:38pm.

"'...GOP lawmakers even wanted to use reconciliation to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.'

That last reference to ANWR seems a cheap shot, since apparently it wasn't used."

I don't think it's a cheap shot, since apparently the Democrats merely want to use it at this point. Maybe they won't either.

Submitted by Ken Wedding on April 29, 2009 - 7:21am.

As one who is old enough to remember, I should remind you youngsters that the label "Democrat Party" stems from Sen. Joseph McCarthy's usage in the 1950s. Anyone using it today is paying homage to the old witch hunter. And intentionally.

Submitted by Dick Novack on April 29, 2009 - 8:08am.

"Democrat Party"

Try googling it, or simply looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(phrase)

Albeit obviously written by a "Dem" the wiki is pretty thorough pointing out it is a frequent and common "slur" used since at least 1890 - in part, as stated by our own Harold Stassen in 1940 because the party in his days was ruled by boss Hague and was not even close to being democratic.

Further checking will find that major Democrat(ic) websites show up on search engines when you key in "Democrat Party" because in addition to having the hidden key words "Democratic Party" the good webmasters also list "Democrat Party" as one of their alternate names! ( You can find this by checking a website's html source code. (In Internet explorer click View > Source.)

Personally I like "Democrat Party" over a party with "tic"s

Submitted by Jonathan Swift on April 29, 2009 - 8:50am.

I'm not sure why you think Repubs didn't try to use the budget process to force through drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge---Senate Repubs included a drilling provision in their budget in March 2006 specifically to get around the filibuster. That budget passed the senate 51-49.

Miraculously, a few House Repubs (led by MN's Jim Ramstad) demanded that the ANWR drilling provision be removed from the budget in the House and thus saved the refuge---but Repubs DID use the budget process to try to cram Arctic drilling through.

As for Bachmann, kudos for trying to keep the spotlight on her literally endless "mistakes" and falsehoods---the regularity with which she does this spewing of falsehood makes quite clear that it is intentional and willful on her part. Mere recklessness can no longer explain it. And her "conservative" MN supporters love her all the more for it!

She gets her "facts" wrong almost constantly and what she says amounts to baseless propaganda from an elected official. When this happens in almost every interview, there is no possibility of attributing it to good faith "mistakes". The ends justify the means, and Democrat "fascist-soci*lism" must be stopped! At least she didn't call for a "revolution"...

One is reminded of the "Big Lie" tactic specifically used by (another) authoritarian nationalist Rightwing "movement" of another day and place. But I digress.....

Submitted by Terry Hayes on April 29, 2009 - 8:54am.

Right on, Ken.
Thanks!

Submitted by Jonathan Swift on April 29, 2009 - 9:38am.

One more thing. Eric B asks (rhetorically) "why is [Michele] bringing [the 1976 flu outbreak] up?"

The quick answer is just a foolish (and erroneous) effort to associate Dem presidents with swine flu, of all crazy things. There's no "causation" (of course!) Michele assures us.

But assume a mind based not on reason or rationality, but on "signs" and portents and their proper "reading". A "faith" based mind.

In such a mind, the ominous "return" of a long dormant swine flu virus, which (Michele believes) last appeared during the woeful time of the last weak, soci*list Dem president Carter (conservative Repubs have been busy comparing Obama to Carter, remember)---well, such a mysterious "sign" can be deeply "meaningful" and should be "noticed".

So when Michele says she is "just noticing" something, she may be pointing out a "sign" (of something) to the rest of us who are trapped in our hopeless rationality.....

Submitted by Tom Hilde on April 29, 2009 - 12:14pm.

I find it interesting that Minnesota's first case of swine flu was diagnosed in Michelle Bachmann's 6th District.

Submitted by Alicia DeMatteo on April 29, 2009 - 12:35pm.

Tom Hilde -- you win the comment thread.

Submitted by Michael Ernst on April 29, 2009 - 1:58pm.

I find it interesting that it was back in 1918 that the flu pandemic broke out then under another Democrat president Woodrow Wilson. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.

Submitted by Chuck Grothaus on April 29, 2009 - 2:16pm.

I find it interesting that under President Gerald Ford's watch, more people died from the vaccination he spent $135 million in taxpayer money on than from the swine flu "outbreak" itself, which killed one U.S. citizen. And still, Bachmann flaps her chops. Keep it up Michele. (Source: NPR.org - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103582555)

Submitted by John E Iacono on May 3, 2009 - 4:13pm.

C'mon folks!

Don't you think MB's comments are deliberately designed to give a chuckle to her solidly repub base at home, and to stick a finger in the eye of the dems?

From the looks of these comments, it's working, at least on the "finger in the eye" side.

Submitted by heather brack on May 5, 2009 - 9:23am.

Could someone please tell me what the point of this article was?

Submitted by Wally Carr on May 6, 2009 - 4:26pm.

Oh I see - the headline of her getting the swine flu - wrong. Wow, some awfully thin skin there.