Michelle Bachman: The Once and Future Dunce

Michele explains it all.

You've got to feel sorry for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota): All the pieces are there for her to be a sort of ready-for-prime-time, mainstream version of the ghastly Ann Coulter.

Congresswoman Bachmann doesn't frighten little children--so far as we know. She's extremely telegenic (with the TV on mute). She's an elected official, whereas Coulter is just a shock-schlock "author" who's usually peddling a book at the same time she's damning everyone from Democratic presidential candidates for their "French manicures" to the wives of 9/11 victims for supposedly exploiting their "exquisite grief."

Yes, Coulter knows how to pick her victims to make her look savage and screechy. But when Michele Bachmann tries to pull a Coulter, she just looks oafish and petty.

Take for instance her recent interview on a conservative video-news website. She sounds logical in presenting her partisan case until she starts talking about energy and the swine flu crisis. That's when the congresswoman completely melts down, yet again rolling out the aging anti-science of the last eight years, which denies the significance of human activity on global warming .

Then she bends reality, actually saying that, somehow, by not agreeing to the tougher emissions standards of the Kyoto Treaty, the U.S. has lowered its carbon emissions during the past year. Worse, she goes on to credit our nation's recent prosperity (huh?) for lower emissions.

I'm no expert, but if there were an economy-based reason for lower emissions in the U.S., maybe it's that industrial production has diminished during the Great Recession. In fact, an Apr. 9 USA Today article confirms that a slower economy has helped cut some emissions worldwide.

"...and it's because of our prosperity," Bachmann explains to the interviewer. "Prosperity has enabled our country to have cleaner factories, cleaner coal plants. When you have prosperity and you can have the new and the latest technology, then you have the best chance of being able to have a cleaner environment, and that's really a good direction to go."

Okay, so because business is so great (ahem) kindly utility companies decided to install expensive clean-air technology? WRONG! Can you say regulation Rep. Bachmann?

But the Ann Coulter-light comparison comes in when Michele Bachman is asked about swine flu. I need not spoil the fun. See how she twirls the issue like an unpracticed majorette (do we still call them that?) fumbling her baton at the phalanx of a high school marching band. Click on the image above for a link to the interview.