Bachmann Tries to Steal Beck's Thunder
Glenn Beck’s event was billed as non-political. The same can't be said for Michele Bachmann’s tea party rally also held on the National Mall.
Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” event was billed as non-political. While the accuracy of that description is debatable, it was definitely non-partisan. The same cannot be said of Michele Bachmann’s tea party rally which was also held on the National Mall. After three hours of being lectured to by Glenn Beck about honor, tea partiers were ready to sink their teeth back into the political red meat that had animated them before. The event was a showcase for Bachmann’s political savvy.
To gather a crowd before the congresswoman showed up, Bachmann’s campaign staff managed to get the band Bobby Powers & Party Time to play music before she got there. Their anti-tax lyrics were quite popular:
Take your haaaands, out of our pockets!
Don’t you have some pockets of your own?
We’ve got family and friends to take care of.
We’re all shouting out of the same megaphone.
Take your hands out of our pockets!
After, Bachmann -- the representative from Minnesota’s 6th congressional district -- was introduced to a rapidly expanding crowd as “Barack Obama’s worst nightmare!”
So why did Bachmann (who after all, should be taking advantage of the August recess to campaign and meet constituents in her home district) come all the way back to Washington DC for Glenn Beck’s rally?
Bachmann said: “So many of my constituents in Minnesota said, ‘Michele, join us. Come to the Glenn Beck rally!’”
Bachmann, who was only back in D.C. at the behest of her own constituents, made sure to remind the audience what number they should text if they wanted to make a donation to her campaign.
The rally also gave Bachmann a chance to explain her newly established Tea Party Caucus, and why they should not be afraid of it.
“We are not the mouthpiece of the Tea Party, we are the Ear Piece.”
Bachmann explained to the audience how the caucus was there to listen to what the Tea Partiers want and proceeded to read out its membership list, a process that took nearly eight minutes, before consoling everyone that while they have lost the "battle" on the healthcare bill, "We have not lost the war!"
She also noted how great it was that a bunch of likeminded individuals were attending a campaign rally for a congresswoman who had made a point of being front and center of the Tea Party movement. This was the result of freedom in action, "This is spontaneous! This is what freedom looks like. As Mark Levin wrote in his great seminal book: Liberty and Tyranny, we chose liberty!"
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"Bobby Powers & Party Time" warms up the crowd.
Michele Bachmann Speaks.
