Weigel: Being a "Crazy" Rep Pays Off
David Weigel writes:
TPM has the first of what I expect to be many updates on the "crazy" Republican members of Congress elected in 2010. They spotlight the much-covered Allen West, the covered-as-a-kook Renee Ellmers, and the less-covered Vicky Hartzler and Tim Walberg. And in my cynical way I wonder if the success of Hartzler and Walberg will come in getting better known for their "craziness."
Let's go back in time. Michele Bachmann's fame dates back to a pre-election Hardball interview in which she speculated about investigating some Democrats for anti-American attitudes. Outraged Democrats (who were channeling their annoyance at the campaign against Obama, which sounded a bit like this) threw a million dollars at Bachmann's opponent, but he lost, and Bachmann became, like Palin, a woman who said what Republicans were thinking and was punished by the media for it. So instead of being weakened for a "gaffe," she became a fundraising and media dynamo.
