Bachmann's Greatest Hits!

From the City Pages! The article is great and has a nice sidebar and Bachmann's greatest hits!

Enjoy...

Michele Bachmann's Greatest Hits

How did she become the most divisive pol in Minnesota? Let us count the ways
By G.R. Anderson Jr.

· March 14, 2001 Just weeks after taking office, Bachmann introduces a bill that would prohibit the use of state money for abortion services. S.F. No. 1748 is referred to committee and dies.

· April 26, 2001 Bachmann votes against a bill that would provide funding for higher education across the state—some $138 million in new funding for the U of M, and another $130 for the MnSCU system.

· February 19, 2002 A bill that would require that stillbirths be noted as official births with the state registrar is introduced in the Senate by Bachmann. It dies in committee.

· September 29, 2003 Bachmann is quoted in the Stillwater Gazette after giving an interview on religious station KKMS-AM (980) in which she weighs in on creationism. "I give more credence in the Scripture as being kind of a timeless word of God to mankind, and I take it for what it is," she's quoted as saying. "And I don't think I give as much credence to my own mind, because I see myself as being very limited and very flawed, and lacking in knowledge and wisdom and understanding. So, I just take the Bible for what it is, I guess, and recognize that I am not a scientist, not trained to be a scientist. I'm not a deep thinker on all of this. I wish I was. I wish I was more knowledgeable, but I'm not a scientist."

· October 31, 2003 Bachmann attends a "Ten Commandments Rally" on the steps of the Capitol, which has Bachmann and 200 others calling for the commandments to be displayed in schools and public buildings.

· March 9, 2004 Bachmann introduces a bill in the Senate proposing an amendment to the state constitution "recognizing as marriage only a union between a man and a woman." S.F. No. 2715 goes on to propose that "any other relationship shall not be recognized as a marriage or its legal equivalent."

· March 2004 Bachmann conducts a series of interviews with Jan Markell, founder of Olive Tree, a "Jews for Jesus" ministry. On KKMS, Bachmann calls the gay marriage issue a "ticking time bomb" that must be voted on by Minnesotans before "an activist judge could impose his morality on all Minnesotans."

"Little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal and natural and perhaps they should try it," she continues, claiming that a gay agenda would infiltrate schools. "It will take away the civil rights of little children to be protected in their innocence, but also the rights of parents to control their kids' education and threaten their deeply held religious beliefs.
"This is not about hating homosexuals. I love homosexuals," Bachmann concludes. "But should we allow them to teach sinful ways [to] our children?"

· January 26, 2005 In a Senate subcommittee hearing, Bachmann is a voice of dissent on a Senate bill that would raise the minimum wage. "Literally, if we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level," she offers at one point. "I had wondered, if most employers are doing this anyway, isn't minimum wage just superfluous? Why do we even have one?"

· February 3, 2005 Bachmann authors a state resolution to honor the birthday of Ronald Reagan, a president who never carried Minnesota in an election.

· February 4, 2005 Bachmann proposes legislation to designate I-494 and I-694 as the "Ronald Reagan Beltway." It doesn't get a hearing.

· March 11, 2005 Bachmann reintroduces her gay marriage ban bill in the Senate.

· March 11, 2005 Bachmann introduces a bill called "Free Speech for Faculty and Students Bill of Rights." In it, she proposes that students be graded "according to reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge" of their studies, and "shall not be discriminated against on the basis of political, ideological, or religious beliefs." In a fit of political correctness, Bachmann also proposes that "faculty shall not be hired, fired, granted tenure, or denied promotion or tenure on the basis of political, ideological, or religious beliefs."

· March 30, 2005 Bachmann, as a co-author, gets her gay marriage ban proposal to the House. H.F. No. 6 proposes an amendment to the state constitution "recognizing as marriage only a union between a man and a woman."

· April 7, 2005 Bachmann is caught on film crouching behind the bushes during a pro-gay rights rally at the Capitol. The implication is that she's spying on people who march in favor of same-sex marriage. After much publicity on the internet, Bachmann tells the Strib: "I had high heels on and I just couldn't stand anymore. I was not in the bushes."

· April 9, 2005 Two days later, at a public forum on the gay marriage ban, Bachmann leaves early after an incident in a bathroom at the Scandia City Hall. She files a police report claiming she was held against her will by two members of a "gay and lesbian activist group." "I don't think there's a crime for us to investigate," Sheriff Jim Frank tells the Star Tribune at the time, even though the police report suggests that Bachmann was briefly blocked from leaving the restroom.

An account of the episode posted on an anti-Bachmann website reports that people outside heard her "piercing screams" of "Help!!!!" and that when she emerged "in a crouching run" she cried, "I was being held against my will!" The Washington County Sheriff's Department investigates Bachmann's complaint and forwards the results to the county attorney's office. The case is dropped.

· November 12, 2005 Bachmann shares her views on cultural diversity at a GOP forum at the Mermaid entertainment center in Moundsview. She calls the 2005 riots in France the "fruits of leftism," according to the St. Paul Legal Ledger. And, according to the Stillwater Gazette and other news accounts, she adds: "There's a movement afoot that's occurring, and part of that is this whole philosophical idea of multicultural diversity. Which on the face sounds wonderful. Let's appreciate everyone's cultures. Guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal."

· May 3, 2006 Bachmann tells Minnesota Public Radio that the United States has to be "very aggressive" dealing with Iran, adding that "We can't remove any option off the table and we should not remove the nuclear response."

· August 30, 2006 The congressional candidate weighs in on the visit from President Bush with Jason Lewis on KTLK-FM (100.3). First she notes that Dubya is an "awesome date," before adding, "He's so buff. He's like you, Jason, he has 1 percent body fat."

Karl Bremer, Eva Young, and dumpbachmann.blogspot.com contributed source materials to this timeline.

That's one heck of a good timeline!