Self-Professed “Tea Party” Congresswoman Packs Up Her Bags and Heads Back to Minnesota

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THE DITZY CHICKS: Self-professed “Tea Party” Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) with Orly Taitz, the California-based lawyer who has filed numerous lawsuits in federal court claiming that Democratic President Barack Obama was originally born in Kenya.

I hate to admit it, but I was disappointed to learn that Michele Bachmann, the self-professed “Tea Party” Congresswoman from Minnesota, announced she was ending her bid to win the Republican presidential nomination. After finishing sixth in the Iowa Caucuses Tuesday night, Bachmann apparently decided the time had come for her to pack up her bags and head back home.

Out of the odd assortment of adulterers, sociopaths, cranks, and misfits seeking to earn the GOP’s nod to face off President Barack Obama, the only real Republican in the race, Bachmann was a trailblazer among women of her ilk. She had the unique ability to stick her foot into her mouth every time she opened it–a talent usually reserved for more seasoned politicians, like Newt Gingrich.

What is most impressive about Bachmann was how she was able to grasp the complexities of the post-industrial capitalist society we live in. No doubt her J.D. degree from Oral Roberts University–an institution founded by a now deceased Christian minister who claimed to have spoken with a 900-foot tall Jesus–gave her the critical thinking skills needed to become an informed public servant.

Perhaps one of the most memorable moments of Bachmann’s ill-fated run for the White House occurred on Monday, September 19, 2011. On that day, she dropped by OMJC Signal, Inc., a company in Northern Iowa that manufactures traffic-signaling equipment, to rail against government spending, arguing that the Obama administration’s “stimulus program” harmed businesses.

According to a detailed account of the visit that was published online by the Los Angeles Times:

On her visit to a traffic-signal plant Monday, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann called it an example of how President Obama’s policies are “continuing to dig us deeper into the hole toward another recession.”

Standing before a row of shiny orange trailers carrying portable solar-powered traffic lights, she said her plans for a smaller government with fewer rules and lower spending would help OMJC Signal Inc. “grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.”

“That’s my goal — to see you succeed wildly,” the Minnesota congresswoman told a gathering of OMJC workers on the plant floor here in the central Iowa town where she grew up.

But as the Times observed, Bachmann visited a business that thrives on government spending:

But OMJC thrives on the kind of road and bridge spending that Obama has promoted as a key remedy to the nation’s economic slowdown. As much as 80% of OMJC’s revenue comes from government, according to the company’s chief executive, Arlen Yost.

“It is government projects primarily that use our products,” Yost told Bachmann after showing her how a crane on one of the orange trailers rises to display temporary traffic signals at road construction sites.

Yost, a conservative Republican, took pains not to spoil Bachmann’s event, playing down his company’s reliance on government spending in a conversation with the candidate.

“So you don’t get a government grant to do what you do?” she asked him.

No grants, he assured her. “I wish I could say we had great success in government funds, because everybody likes a handout,” he said.

But in an interview later, Yost acknowledged that his company has profited from the infrastructure spending promoted by the president.

While thousands of other companies have scaled back during the economic downturn, Yost says OMJC’s business has been stable, apart from a costly contract dispute with the state of Texas over a road project in the Fort Worth area.

“There’s been a lot of money into infrastructure repair; I have no idea how that affects us,” he said. “It doesn’t do it directly. But it surely does help us.”

Although I will miss Bachmann, I’m sure the stress of waging a vigorous campaign has taken its toll upon her. Methinks she has earned a well-deserved rest. The residents of Minnesota, no doubt, are eager to embrace her return to that state with open arms. And there are many people across this country who, like myself, will be happy to know she’ll finally be going back to where she came from.

About Duane Roberts