Michele Bachmann for President? Seriously?

Image via WikipediaThe 112th Congress is off and running, with Democrat Nancy Pelosi passing an oversized gavel to Republican John Boehner (how symbolic) to commemorate his new role as Speaker of the House.  Soon, the GOP-controlled body he presides over will try to undo all of the legislation President Barack Obama and the Democrats passed in the previous Congress.  Which will promptly be voted down by the still-Democratic Senate and/or vetoed by the President.

But we have bigger fish to fry.  According to several news outlets, Minnesota's Sixth District Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is considering running for the White House in 2012.  She hasn't officially said yes or no to the possibility, but the mind boggles.

Bachmann is already a well-known figure to anyone who watches the cable news channels.  Unfortunately, it's usually for inserting her foot into her mouth, while sympathetic Fox News hosts look on without bothering to question whatever it was she just said.

Bachmann declared herself the Tea Partiers' biggest champion (Sarah Palin notwithstanding), even though one of the objectives of the movement in the last election was to displace the incumbents.  She's now in her third term.

We mentioned that Bachmann represents Minnesota's Sixth District, though there seems to be precious little evidence of that.  Sure, she's sponsored bills in Congress, but they seldom get anywhere.  Now that the GOP controls the House, the congresswoman has lined up a big, important job.  She's going to be on the Intelligence Committee.  (Insert your own joke here.)

With a resume like that, people who know more about politics than we do rate Bachmann as a long shot to win the GOP nomination.  That won't matter to her, because the more face time she gets on TV during the primaries, the better her profile will be.

There's one other thing.  Until recently, Tim Pawlenty was Governor of Minnesota.  When he was in office, particularly during his second term, almost everything he said and did was deduced by political experts and opponents to be a dress rehearsal for a White House run.  Now Bachmann is threatening to blow Pawlenty's not-yet candidacy out of the water, just like John McCain passed him over for Palin as his 2008 running mate.  Life's not fair, right?

Just more proof that, in today's Republican party, the inmates really are running the asylum.  And we all pay the price.