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!
