Noreen Malone of Slate provides a focused look at the costs and benefits — but Malone seems mostly interested in the costs — that the Repub House leadership gets from having Michele Bachmann in its caucus, especially after rejecting her from the leadership position she sought and declining to grant her a seat on Ways and Means.

Bachmann does head up the House Tea Party Caucus, which she founded, and she, like Sarah Palin,has talked about the danger the Tea Party could pose to the Repubs if the party doesn’t hold the Tea Party line. Writes Malone:

“Bachmann presents a particular headache for the GOP. The Tea Party helped propel Republicans into office by attacking Democrats; now, with the dirty work done and popular support for centrist compromise growing, wild cable TV statements are looking more like a liability. And Bachmann is Exhibit A. But by withholding from her the formal power she believes she has earned, the GOP has probably compounded the problem. As Bachmann's time in the Minnesota state senate made clear, rejection by party elders has a way of energizing her. If things had gone her way, Bachmann might have been tempted to move past Mama Grizzly extremism, but now, she'll be sticking with it. Boehner should have seen this coming...

"...Had Boehner and company given Bachmann a seat at the table, they might have contained her. Ambulatory, she'll run amok.”