The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A Prediction Comes True?

Posted on | July 19, 2011 | 65 Comments

When Michele Bachmann’s campaign caught fire last month after the New Hampshire CNN debate, I was pleasantly surprised. I had met Bachmann backstage at the Tax Day Tea Party rally in D.C., and was pleased to see a Tea Party-backed candidate doing well. My only caveat was that, historically, House members don’t win presidential campaigns.

Anyway, while I was working the phones over the Fourth of July weekend trying to get some background on Herman Cain’s staff changes in Iowa, I talked to a GOP operative (who is not currently working for any candidate) who predicted that the Bachmann campaign would “implode.” The operative specifically mentioned disgruntled ex-staffers who spoke ill of their former boss. So I wasn’t really shocked to see this story by Jonathan Strong today at the Daily Caller:

In late July 2010, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s then-communications director, Dave Dziok, told his boss that he planned to take a new job with the public relations firm Edelman.
Dziok had worked for Bachmann for two and a half years, a relatively long period by the standards of her office, and was leaving on good terms.
Staff turnover can frustrate any employer, but Bachmann responded more dramatically. Dziok’s departure triggered a debilitating medical episode that landed the congresswoman in urgent care.
“Within 24 hours she was in the hospital,” a former aide says.
Bachmann was admitted to a Washington, D.C. hospital on Friday, July 30, and released that same day. . . .
It was, according to three people who have worked closely with Bachmann, not an isolated event.
The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.

You can read the whole thing. My own feelings are mixed. On the one hand, it seems a fulfillment of my source’s prediction, so I could say I knew this was coming — although I never wrote anything about it at the time. Because I’ve been such an out-front supporter of Herman Cain, readers would have suspected bad motives if I had claimed to have inside negative information about one of his Republican rivals. Also, I very much like Bachmann and was genuinely pleased by her success.

On the other hand: Why does it seem that the Daily Caller always scores its exclusives at the expense of conservatives?

Was this why major GOP donor Foster Friess gave Tucker Carlson $3 million? Aren’t there some Democrats they could be investigating?

Just sayin’ . . .

UPDATE: Linked by Don Surber, Doug Mataconis, Political Byline, Bob Belvedere, The Lonely Conservative and Uncoverage — thanks!

Things go from bad to worse for Bachmann as her campaign security rough up Doug Ross of ABC News.

UPDATE II: Welcome, Instapundit readers!


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Category: Election 2012, Michelle Bachmann

Comments

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  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/N6KW3FJR2ERX2QHDLTECY2MRE4 mark

    still, as good as a syphilitic camel.
    she wins the nomination, and i will vote for her without regret.

    fwiw…
    her issues, and, at times, behavior are completely consistent with heavy use of benzos.  please god, tell me she doesn’t drink.  

  • http://twitter.com/LadyLiberty1885 Lady Liberty

    I mentioned this in hit piece  my Morning Links yesterday with a vow not to link to, cite or use DC links again. I’ve had it with their Tea Party hit pieces. 

    Strong seemed to be channeling his inner Andrew Sullivan, minus the salty language.

  • http://twitter.com/LadyLiberty1885 Lady Liberty

    I don’t think he was played – I think Strong wrote the article with the direct intention of it being misleading.

  • Anonymous

    If there was a war, how many of you would want Carlson in your foxhole?

  • http://twitter.com/LadyLiberty1885 Lady Liberty

    Concur – This wasn’t vetting, this was a smear piece. At least twice they imply that she couldn’t do the job of President because of her migraines. 

    I’m done with the DC.

  • Sox

    Get back to us when there is a Dead Body in the Oldsmobile…

  • Pingback: The Morning Links (7/20) | From the Desk of Lady Liberty

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C
  • Tjones

    And JFK was medicated out the wazoo while president.

    But when you’re a Democrat, it becomes a courageous struggle against a condition that would debilitate lesser men and women, like, oh, say . . . Republicans.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    I might be wrong but I am getting the impression that a lot of people see the word “migraine” and see it as “really bad headache”. That doesn’t even begin to cover it. It depends on the level and severity, but I’ve known people who have had them. They literally are incapacitated for days, they go into severe bouts of vomiting, they literally lose all control of their bodily functions. They generally have to lie very quietly and still in a dark room, with no light, and with a bare minimum of noise. Sensitivity to light and noise can be so intense its like the slightest sound or noise is amplified many times over, to the point it makes the already horrible pain exponentially worse.

    Maybe she doesn’t have them that badly or that frequently. I hope that’s the case.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Carlson isn’t a Frum or David Brooks or Kathleen Parker, he’s just a weird center-right guy who used to have a weird crush on Rachel Maddow.

  • Anonymous

    Doesn’t this back stabbing from establishment republicans merely prove how similar they are to liberals?

  • Fondatori

    Stacy – this shouldn’t be a surprise at all.  Daily Caller is a RINO tool, so naturally they would have a go at conservatives instead of their allies in the Democratic Party

  • Pingback: Datechguy's Blog » Blog Archive » Answer: Because Michelle Bachmann is a headache for Mitt and the left

  • jeanne patterson

    Stacy, has it become all about your prediction? It sounds like you want her to implode  just to prove you were right in your prognostications since you’ve “been saying it all along”.

    Also you’re all “I like her but”" and I’d vote for her over Obama. You’re not kidding anybody about your feelings about Bachmann, so why bother? I am so tired of these bloggers who dislike Palin & Bachmann,  smiling through clenched teeth so they don’t completely alienate their readers. They’re just like the elitists, they think we are idiots & dolts and that we can’t discern their true feelings about candidate if they couch it in BS words and use a lot of “but”s.

    Please, cut it out, speak the truth, we can take it, we’re big boys & girls. What are you afraid of?

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