Rep. Michele Bachmann does not meet face-to-face with constituents at town hall meetings in her district, but she’s active as ever on the talk show circuit.

Guest blogger Emily Aden comments as follows on Think Progress:

Bachmann: GOP Must ‘Do Everything We Can to Thwart’ Obama from Securing ‘A Power Base … for All Time’

Conservative talker Bill Bennett interviewed Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) on his radio show this morning. During the interview, Bennett asked, “Why [is Obama siding] with the liberal House Democrats rather than the more moderate [members]?” Answering his own question, Bennett continued, “The answer is because that may be where he is … the most liberal member of the Senate.”

Bachmann concurred, but added that she believes Republicans should “thwart” as much of Obama’s agenda as possible, specifically citing what she called “socialized medicine” and “the new tax on energy”:

BACHMANN: If you want to look at economic history over the last 100 years. I call it punctuated equilibrium. If you look at FDR, LBJ, and Barack Obama, this is really the final leap to socialism. … But we all know that we could turn this around and we can turn this around fairly quickly. We’re still a free country.

And as the Democrats are about to institutionalize cartels — that’s what they’re very good at — they’re trying to consolidate power, so we need to do everything we can to thwart them at every turn to make sure that they aren’t able to, for all time, secure a power base that for all time can never be defeated. …

In calling for the obstruction of Obama’s policies for sake of Republican political fortune, Bachmann seems to be taking her cues from the de facto leader of her party, Rush Limbaugh. During the recent fight over Obama’s economic recovery package Limbaugh warned that, should it be successful, the recovery package would hurt Republicans electorally because the plan would “buy votes for the Democrat Party” and “re-establish ‘eternal’ power for the Democrat Party.”

Bachmann’s references to “FDR” and “LBJ” suggest that she also found Bill Kristol’s recent column convincing. Kristol wrote that Republicans should “find reasons to obstruct and delay” the Obama agenda to ensure that he cannot succeed:

They should do their best not to permit Obama to rush his agenda through this year. They can’t allow Obama to make of 2009 what Franklin Roosevelt made of 1933 or Johnson of 1965. Slow down the policy train. Insist on a real and lengthy debate. Conservatives can’t win politically right now. But they can raise doubts.

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Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, “the first original talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio and the first live, daily webcast on the internet,” discusses Bachmann’s interview with Bill Bennett:

House Republicans Warn of Socialism Under Obama

Bachmann sounds the socialism alarm.
(Photo credit: CNN / Getty Images)

By Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer
March 5, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Some Republicans in Congress are continuing to warn that President Obama is intent on turning the United States into a socialist nation.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann pressed the socialism argument on Thursday, telling a conservative radio show that the Obama administration is “completely socializing the American economy” with its mortgage relief proposals and bailouts of financial institutions.

“What we’ve seen them do in the last five weeks is nothing short of a great leap forward toward than finalizing a place of socialism in American economic life,” Bachmann told radio host G. Gordon Liddy. “We have never seen this level of socialism in the history of our country, and I think the American people would be floored when they understand the dramatic steps that Obama has taken for our future.”

Bachmann called for a “a growth future, a prosperity future, a freedom liberty future.”

“Will we be a country that will go forward with liberty, freedom and prosperity, or will we be a country that’s mired in Eastern European, Western European doldrums, where freedom is limited and taxation remains high?” she asked. …

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Michele Bachmann on the G. Gordon Liddy Show

Bachmann opines with Watergate break-in mastermind G. Gordon Liddy why the bailout bill is “a horrible idea and will not stimulate the economy.” (March 5, 2009)

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OTHER RECENT REPORTS

Mortgage Relief Passes House: Bachmann Has Her Say

Andy Birkey
The Minnesota Independent
March 6, 2009

The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday by a vote of 234-191, mostly by a partisan vote. Minnesota Reps. Michele Bachmann, Erik Paulsen and John Kline, all Republicans, voted against the measure, while Reps. Collin Peterson, James Oberstar, Tim Walz, Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum, all Democrats, voted for the bill. The bill passed, but not before Bachmann had her say.

The bill would allow bankruptcy judges to alter terms of mortgages for families that have filed for bankruptcy and face foreclosure. Bachmann spoke on the House floor: “This is beyond belief. It reminds me of that television show ‘Deal or no Deal’ … It seems we are now in the business of turning normal Americans into crooks… These are graveyard economics.”

Two Conflicting Memes About Michele Bachmann

Avidor at the Dump Bachmann blog reports on the rift between the national perception of Michele Bachmann as “a right-wing nutcase who damages the image of Minnesota” and the local perspective, that Bachmann is “unsinkable.”

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Why She Wins

Bill Prendergast responds to people from other parts of the country who ask him questions such as these: “What is wrong with you people? They have footage of [Bachmann] lying on television, how can this nut even be taken seriously?”

Excerpt: We send stuff to the [local] press, letters, calls for corrections, documented evidence of her craziest statements and lies — the professional press and the big papers don’t run it. We’ve been putting it on the Web for years; they won’t go near it. Not one journalist in a big local newspaper is willing to report the crazy [expletive] that she’s said over the years on local conservative and evangelical radio. …