Summary: Minnesota presidential hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty are members of different Republican tribes, never at war but not exactly at peace either. Now the congresswoman and the former governor are on a crash course that could shed revealing light on an already distant and awkward relationship. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 7, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the date marked the end of 104 months of war in Afghanistan, making it the longest war in American history after the Vietnam War, which continued for 103 months following the Aug. 7, 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
Summary: When asked at a GOP event in New Hampshire why she did not try to oust Sen. Al Franken in Minnesota rather than try for the White House, Rep. Michele Bachmann responded, “because we need a person who is going to stand up to Obamacare.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 1, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann is making plans for a June 2011 presidential campaign announcement in Waterloo, Iowa, the city of her birth. State Sen. Kent Sorenson — a Tea Party Republican who would take a lead role in Bachmann’s Iowa campaign — says, “The people in Iowa are chomping at the bit and ready for her to jump in with both feet.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 28, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that North Korea accused South Korea of faking the sinking of one of its own warships, the Cheonan, and warned that the Korean peninsula was edging ever closer to war.
Summary: At a Lincoln Day Republican fundraiser in Archbold, Ohio, Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann sounded a call to arms, accusing President Obama of betrayal as the first president since 1948 “not to stand with Israel” and saying she was committed to repealing “Obamacare” (which she called “socialism”), 100 percent anti-abortion, and uncompromisingly for marriage between a man and a woman. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman posted a link to the nominating petition to help him gain ballot access as an independent candidate to challenge Rep. Michele Bachmann for her U.S. House of Representatives seat in Minnesota’s 6th Congression District.
Summary: Michele Bachmann, three-term Republican congresswoman from Minnesota and a favorite of social conservatives and Christian fundamentalists, is poised to announce that she will run for president in 2012, with a formal announcement expected by June 2011. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 16, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Dr. Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, former leader of the opposition in the South African parliament, had died.
Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann, in an address to The Family Leader — a conservative Iowa group — made many controversial statements, including the debunked claim that Planned Parenthood “wants to be the LensCrafters of Big Abortion” and falsely claiming that Al Franken “stole” Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election. But Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert keyed in on statements about same-sex marriage as Bachmann tried to prove her “anti-gay street cred” with social conservatives. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 14, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that GOP activist Luke Hellier, in an apparent attempt to taint the reputation of Michele Bachmann’s Republican challenger, Aubrey Immelman, posted a misleading report on the website “Minnesota Democrats Exposed.”
Summary: In a slow-starting 2012 Republican presidential field that lacks star power, Michele Bachmann is carving out a role as the polarizing Tea Party favorite with a dynamic, take-no-prisoners style. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 12, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. troops opened fire on a bus carrying Afghan civilians, killing five people and setting off anti-American protests in Kandahar, where coalition forces hope to rally the public for a coming offensive against the Taliban.
Summary: Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann is running for president. She is forming a presidential exploratory committee and will likely make an official announcement in June 2011. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 24, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that St. Cloud Times political reporter Mark Sommerhauser did what good reporters are supposed to: fact-check the public assertions of elected officials — and his preliminary finding is that “independent experts … are disputing [Michele] Bachmann’s abortion claims.”
Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann told political activists in Manchester, N.H., “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.” But those first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire. Bachmann’s mistake was striking given her roots in the Tea Party movement, which takes its name from the dumping of tea into Boston Harbor by angry American colonists in December 1773, 16 months before the Battle of Lexington Green. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 13, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann, addressing Tea Party activists, exploited U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan in an attempt to score some cheap political points by saying that passing the health reform bill would be a slam against the troops in Afghanistan and that the bill should be killed for the sake of the troops.
Summary: According to a new NBC/WSJ poll, 53 percent of respondents who said they expect to vote in the 2012 GOP presidential primary identified themselves as Tea Party supporters. Their favorite candidate right now: former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who shot to prominence after winning the Iowa primary in 2008. House Tea Party Caucus leader Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was not named in the poll. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 3, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the number of extremist groups in the United States exploded in 2009 as militias and other groups steeped in wild, anti-government conspiracy theories exploited populist anger across the country and infiltrated the mainstream, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) 2010 annual Intelligence Report.