Joshua Lawrence Bachmann!
I was born too late to meet Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, probably the biggest individual hero at Gettysburg. And it wouldn't have occurred to me to connect Chamberlain with my friend Michele Bachmann, who is running for Congress in Minnesota's 6th District. But Hugh Hewitt interviewed Michele on his radio show tonight, and has proclaimed her Joshua Chamberlain Bachmann.
The story behind this is that the Democrats are running a woman named Patty Wetterling against Michele for Minnesota's open 6th District seat. Wetterling has absolutely no qualifications for high office, and consistently fails to show up to debate Michele even when she has committed to do so. Her strategy is to keep her far-left positions on the issues a secret, and trade on her local name recognition. That name recognition results, tragically, from the fact that some years ago Mrs. Wetterling's young son was kidnapped and presumably murdered by a pervert who was never apprehended. Locally, the case was very famous, and Wetterling now bills herself as a "child safety advocate." Personally, I think that the Democrats' putting Mrs. Wetterling forward as a Congressional candidate when she is utterly ignorant of the issues, in hopes of trading on the notoriety of her son's murder, is one of the most despicable things I've ever seen in politics.
It got even more despicable when the Democrats chose Wetterling to deliver their radio address on Saturday, and the Wetterling campaign released a new television ad that is obviously and outrageously false. Wetterling is trying to turn the Foley scandal, coupled with her own son's murder, into a political career. I leave it to others to come up with words adequate to describe this maneuver.
This brings us back to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Hugh awarded Michele the "Joshua Chamberlain award for counterattacking when others might have buckled." Michele won't take this outrage lying down; she'll give much, much better than she gets.
I hear a lot of people complaining about the GOP House, and the need to get back to a clear, straightforward advocacy of conservative principles, instead of the winning-for-the-sake-of-winning mentality that we have seen too often in recent years. If that's how you feel, go here and learn more about Michele's positions on the issues. Then donate to her campaign. The Democrats have made her race the eye of the hurricane, and are dedicated to keeping her out of Congress. There is a reason for this. Michele is a brilliant tax lawyer and an eloquent advocate of limited government, reduced spending and low taxes. She is also an unapologetic social conservative. The Democrats can't out-argue her, so, in typical fashion, they just hate her: at their 6th District convention, one of the speakers referred to her as "the Devil." She doesn't exactly look demonic to me:
Some pundits think that the Democrats will win in November because lots of conservatives will sit on their hands. I think conservatives are smarter than that. In Michele Bachmann, we have a candidate that we can be proud to support. If we let candidates like Michele be defeated by rank demagoguery, then we deserve the lousy legislation and higher taxes that will result.
