For a long list of reasons we won't go into today, it's rare that you'll see us defending Michele Bachmann much over the next year or two. Frankly, some of us really don't like her. Still, we dislike snake oil salesmen masquerading as legitimate news media sources even more.
Of course, since some of the planet's most well-known fake information peddlers are currently busy lying to the British Parliament and dodging pies, we've chosen to defend Ms. Bachman, at least a little bit today.
An online rag whose name we won't even mention ran a story yesterday, citing anonymous sources, stating that GOP presidential candidate and U.S. House member Michele Bachmann suffers from severe, somewhat debilitating migraine headaches. According to this unsourced story, Ms. Bachmann treats her condition with high levels of medication - which the story made sound as though Ms. Bachmann is a drug addict.
As we mentioned, there are many reasons we disagree with Rep. Bachmann - including the behavior of her bodyguards on Tuesday, which was far outside the range of acceptable conduct. Still - there is absolutely NO reason to accuse her of being a drug addict.
Bachmann addressed the spurious rumor herself on Tuesday morning, saying "Like nearly 30 million other Americans, I experience migraines that are easily controlled with medication." We applaud her for stepping up and addressing the slur directly. Thousands of her fellow Americans suffer from the same debilitating problem and also successfully treat it with prescription medications.
Whether someone has a physical or mental disease, or challenge, or handicap - or whatever you choose to call it - as long as they do their job to the best of their abilities, and try to be the best at what they do, we have absolutely no problem with them. We've had presidents and legislators who've been morbidly obese, had polio or Alzheimer's, were missing limbs, or have suffered traumatic brain injuries, or had any number of other challenges. Most of them have served honorably and ably. If Rep. Bachmann has some bad headaches now and then, and takes a few prescription pills to fight off the pain, we could frankly care less.
There are SO many more important things to worry about.
The insanity that is the debt ceiling and budget debate is still going on in Washington, DC. Yes, the plan put forward by the so-called 'Gang of Six' was praised by President Obama yesterday afternoon. Yes, it's basically the same three-dollars-in-tax-cuts-for-every-one-dollar-of-revenue plan the President has been pushing for some time. No, there aren't any real details in the plan yet. No, it won't likely pass. Yes, we and the rest of world are getting mighty jumpy about the whole damn thing right now.
Michele Bachmann's migraines certainly don't rate on our list of things to be worried about - and they frankly shouldn't rate on anyone else's list, either.
If the trash rag promoters who tried to take a shot at Rep. Bachmann were serious, there are SO many more questionable stories they could have focused on in her life - especially the continuing questions surrounding her husband's counseling "clinic". The Bachmann's so-called therapy center has been proven to try to "cure" homosexuals by "praying away the gay." Homosexuality has never been recognized by the medical community as a "lifestyle choice", as the religious right likes to call it. It hasn't even officially been considered a mental disorder that needed curing since 1973. Since there is nothing to cure, we see no point in Mr. Bachmann's highly questionable methods - and we can't understand why his clinic has received so much government money to cure something that doesn't need curing.
As we said at the beginning today, there are plenty of reasons we are not fond of Rep. Bachmann and what she stands for. But if a media organization is going to attempt to claim legitimacy, the least it could do when attempting to tar and feather someone is start with actual facts.
In the case of the slanted story about Rep. Michele Bachmann and her headache medicine, we hope the only ones that end up with a headache are the people at the organization that started the unfounded rumor against her.
