Bye, bye, Michele

Michele Bachmann announced today that she will not run for re-election in 2014.

This is a good thing.   She has been useless as a legislator (see her record below).  The amount of media-attention she garnered was directly proportional to the outrageousness of her statements, not her accomplishments.  Here's a partial list:

1.  Conspiracy theories:   She once accused "top State Department officials" of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.   Another time she said that the government was going to use the Census to round people up to put in interment camps.  Even Glenn Beck thought that was a bit nutty.

2.  Speaking for God:   Various storms were claimed by her as God speaking to politicians.  Both 9/11 and the Benghazi attack were God's judgment on us.

3.  Crazy links:   Financial regulatory reform was like "Mussolini style fascism."   Health care reform was "the crown jewel of socialism," while tax reform was "a weapon of mass destruction."   Remember, she claims to be a tax lawyer.   She also claimed that health care reform would lead to "sex clinics," whatever that might mean.  And then there was the one about the HPV vaccine, warning parents not to have their children vaccinated because it could lead to brain damage.

4.  Anti-intellectualism:   She once claimed that "a sizable portion" of the scientific community discredits the theory of evolution.   And:  "There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design."

What of her accomplishments as a legislator?   Here's the record, compiled by a service that tracks and records governmental actions in the interest of transparency:  www.govtrack.us.

Bachmann signed on as a sponsor to 58 bills;  53 of them were referred to committee.  Most of them (48) died in committee.   Of the remaining five, three were simple dime-a-dozen resolutions (recognizing Minnesota's 150 anniversary;  recognizing September as "Hydrocephalus Awareness Month," and honoring public service organizations for foster children).   One was a local river project in MN, which apparently got nowhere.

The sole bill that she co-sponsored that was passed by the House was the repeal of Obamacare -- which the House has now voted on and passed 37 times.    And, of course, it died in the Senate.

So in her six years in Congress, she was completely unsuccessful in passing any that became a law.  She made a lot of noise, and create plenty of heat;  but it was really much ado about nothing.

Perhaps Michele misheard God when she thought it was his will that she run for President.  Surely God must have better judgment than that.

Bye, bye, Michele.   It'll be good to have you gone.

Ralph