Joining the Race

Fox 9 KMSP
Oct. 20, 2008

Monday, more opponents took aim at Bachmann, including St. John’s University professor Aubrey Immelman, a fellow Republican who is reviving his campaign as a write-in opponent.      

Immelman, a Republican from Sartell, Minn., lost to Bachmann in the Republican primary in September. He says he wants his candidacy to be a Republican referendum on Bachmann and the direction the party has taken the country. …

Fox 9 Poll

What do you think of Michele Bachmann’s comments about Barack Obama?

They’re right on: 28.1%
They’re misunderstood: 9.6%
Totally out of line: 62.3%

(Total number of votes: 658)

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Click here or scroll down to Oct. 18 to read the rationale for the write-in campaign.

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Update: Fallout from Bachmann’s interview prompts more funds for her foe, a censure call and a new write-in opponent

By Doug Grow
MinnPost
Oct. 20, 2008

The reviews keep pouring in on Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Friday night appearance on “Hardball.”

So far, they don’t seem to be too positive for the 6th District Republican incumbent in her race against Democratic candidate El Tinklenberg.

Not only did Bachmann’s performance put more than $740,000 – and counting – into Tinklenberg’s coffers, but now the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says that it will spend $1 million in support of Tinklenberg. That’s an amazing sum, given the fact that less than two weeks ago, the DCCC was offering no support to Tinklenberg.

DCCC ads will start running Tuesday. Even before Bachmann’s television appearance, the Tinklenberg campaign had purchased its first metro-area ad buys. Those ads were to begin during news programming starting tonight. With his newfound support, Tinklenberg will be able to make ad buys up to Election Day.

Campaign spokesman John Wodele announced this afternoon that the campaign has purchased $188,000 in network and cable television time, $52,000 in Twin Cities radio and $20,000 in St. Cloud radio. More buys are being made.

In other developments, a St. John’s University professor of clinical psychology, Aubrey Immelman, announced that he has filed to run as a write-in candidate in the 6th District race, which stretches north and northwest of the Twin Cities area.

Immelman, who got 14 percent of the vote when he ran in the primary against Bachmann in September, is making an unusual request.

“I’m asking Democrats NOT to vote for me,” he said. “I want this to be a referendum on Michele Bachmann.” In effect, he wants Democrats and independents to vote for Tinklenberg, and moderate Republicans to vote for him as a protest, rather than for Bachmann.

It should be noted Immelman was a big supporter of DFLer Patty Wetterling, who lost to Bachmann two years ago. Still, he describes himself as a moderate who “leans Republican.”

He believes the area includes thousands of Republicans who share his belief that “Bachmann is an embarrassment to the 6th District.”

Meantime, a website – CensureBachmann.com – has collected more than 47,000 names on a petition calling for the Congress to “censure” Bachmann for her comments on the “Hardball” interview.

For her part, Bachmann continued to back off her statements during an interview Monday morning on KMSP-TV, Channel 9. In that interview, Bachmann said her comments were “completely misconstrued.”

“I did not suggest the word ‘anti-American,’ ” she said in the Channel 9 interview. “I said the media should look into (Obama’s) views.”

Bachmann also said that it was the host of “Hardball,” Chris Matthews, who first used the phrase “anti-American” in her controversial interview.

Bachmann was to team up at 5:30 p.m. today with a more-friendly interview on a nationally syndicated conservative talk radio program hosted by Michael Reagan, son of the late President Ronald Reagan.

One of the outcomes of the “Hardball” interview is that it may lead to closer examination of Bachmann’s political friendships.

For example, up until now, a story about her relationship with Frank Vennes, a major figure in the Tom Petters scandal, has been advanced only by the online publication The Minnesota Independent and reporter Karl Bremer.

Bremer has reported that Bachmann wrote a letter supporting Vennes’ effort to receive a presidential pardon for his 1987 conviction on federal money laundering, fiream sales and cocaine distribution charges. Vennes also has been a major contributor to Bachmann’s political campaigns since 2005.

Bachmann withdrew her letter of support for the pardon when Vennes’ home was raided last month by federal agents in connection with the fraud investigation of Petters.

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Excerpts from Eric Zaetsch’s “Developers are Crabgrass” blog 
(Oct. 20, 2008)

Eric Zaetsch

The big news IS the write-in decision, which gives GOP people offended by the recent Bachmann statements and conduct an alternative. …

Aside from other repercussions, the big result from Bachmann’s gaffe, from my perspective is, I now have a chance to vote for Aubrey Immelman on election day to be my representative in Congress. …

I hope that Rachel Stassen Berger, online at PiPress Political Animal (or even better, one of the print reporters from PiPress or Strib), would think to interview both [Bob] Anderson [Independence Party] and Immelman for a joint report, about Anderson with his unique position of “ballot IP candidate,” … and about Immelman as a write-in anti-neocon GOP conservative psychology professor. …

Full report
 
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IRAQ UPDATE

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Monday, Oct. 20, as reported by Reuters.

WASIT PROVINCE – Iraqi police have arrested three Iranians near Badra, a town close to the Iranian border east of Baghdad, said police Captain Aziz Lateef al-Imara. The suspects were carrying guns, binoculars and ammunition, and were believed to have had contacts with a local provincial council member in the town who has also been arrested, he said.

BAGHDAD – An employee at the Housing Ministry was killed and seven others were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their minibus near Mashtal district in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi army killed two militants and arrested 51 others on Sunday in different areas across Iraq, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

MOSUL – A man was killed and another wounded in a roadside bomb in eastern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – U.S. forces captured four wanted men and detained 11 additional suspects during operations in and around Baghdad on Sunday and Monday, the U.S. military said.

ANBAR – A U.S. marine died in a non-combat related incident at the al Asad base in the western province of Anbar, the military said in a statement without giving further details on the incident.