Five Days After Her ‘House Call,’ Bachmann Condemns Anti-Semitic Signs But Still Refuses To Apologize
Five Days After Her ‘House Call,’ Bachmann Condemns Anti-Semitic Signs But Still Refuses To Apologize
One of the lasting images from Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) “House Call” — the right-wing “press conference” (i.e. rally) against health care reform on Capitol Hill last week — was a photograph captured by ThinkProgress here that read: “National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany – 1945.” Another sign said that “Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds [sic],” a reference to the famous Jewish banking family often implicated in conspiracy theories.
Prominent organizations and individuals in the Jewish community immediately condemned the displays and called on the protest’s organizers to take responsibility and apologize for ignoring the vile materials at the event. Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) posted a YouTube video and singled out Bachmann. Watch it:
Israel also sent a personal note to Bachmann requesting an apology but as of yesterday, she had not replied. She did, however, release a statement calling the anti-Semitic imagery at her House Call “regrettable” and “inappropriate,” but she still didn’t explicitly apologize for refusing to condemn the them earlier:
Sadly, some individuals chose to marginalize tragic events in human history, such as the Holocaust, by invoking imagery and labels which have no purpose in a policy debate about health care. These regrettable actions negatively shift the focus of the current discussion on this issue. The American people deserve an open and honest debate to ensure the best possible solution to our health care problems, and I agree that these unfortunate instances are wholly inappropriate.
It took Bachmann almost a full five days to publicly comment on the anti-Semitic displays. According to her spokeswoman, the congresswoman also “sent a letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council expressing her concerns and ongoing support for the Jewish community.” When Politico asked House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-OH) spokesman for comment on these signs, he simply replied, “Leader Boehner did not see any such sign. Obviously, it would be grossly inappropriate.” Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) spokesman called the photograph “inappropriate.”
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Clearly, she’s a politician. Issuing only condemnation when confronted with a tremendous backlash.
Clearly, she’s also a Republican, because she won’t apologize for creating the havoc in the first place.
2010 won’t be a kind year for the Dems, but at the very least, they should be able to knock off the teabagging queen. (maybe Carrie Prejean can take over that title?)
November 11th, 2009 at 1:17 pmGee, Michelle, I thought they were waving your flag.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:20 pmRep. Steve Israel (D-NY) posted a YouTube video and singled out Bachmann
– - Bachmann: “Oh, who knew know Rep. Israel was Jewish?”
November 11th, 2009 at 1:21 pmIt should not take a letter for any person in Congress to condemn this sort of thing. The condemnation should have issued without anyone being prompted. Tasteless displays will continue because the Republicans got in bed with the teabaggers and Dixiecrats. These groups are out of control but the Republicans have shown no inclination to distance themselves. They should be embarrassed.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:24 pmI don’t expect an apology. At all.
In fact, I will be waiting for any point in time Bachmann invokes Nazism into the argument against Barack Obama if she does apologize, just so I can bring up how she’s a hypocrite for disowning one Nazi image, just to conjure up another.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:29 pmThese are the same people who thought it was historically relevant to compare Saddam Hussein to Hitler. What do you expect? They have absolutely no clue on history.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:31 pmThe teabaggers have a somewhat bizarre attitude toward Judaism:
1. They support Israel at all costs, because they see it as a trophy to be defended against the hated Mooslims. However, they hate Jews, unless they’re corporatist Jews like Lieberman, whom they find useful.
2. They don’t really have much outrage against Hitler and the Holocaust, but they recognize it as a horrifically emotional event that they can exploit for political purposes.
It’s surprising more of them don’t need to see chiropractors for all the bending and twisting this requires them to do.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:31 pmWhenever a person displays an “inappropriate affect” when confronted with a tragedy, it is usually a sign of mental illness. They do not have the ability to fully comprehend their surroundings, and therefore do not display the appropriate behavior.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:31 pmEnnuiDivine says
November 11th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
2010 won’t be a kind year for the Dems, but at the very least, they should be able to knock off the teabagging queen. (maybe Carrie Prejean can take over that title?)
____________________________________________________________
Don’t give them any ideas! Carrie Prejean is exactly the kind of person some GOP headhunters would choose to run for elected office. She’s empty-headed, spouts teabagger talking points on command, and has a surgically enhanced body designed to give old, white, conservative males a woody. She’s basically a junior Sarah.
Personally, I think this cupcake’s 15 minutes were up some time ago, but like the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps going.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:36 pmMichelle (Bat$hit Crazy) Bachmann followed her statement with
“If anyone was offended by those signs, which were not meant to be taken as offensive, then I am sorry.”
Muckin’ foron!
November 11th, 2009 at 1:38 pm9. Missmolly,
Come to think of it, part of San Diego county (where Prejean is from)is represented by Brian Billbray, a “moderate” Republican.
Primary challenge, anyone?
November 11th, 2009 at 1:42 pmWhat she is not saying is that in reality she endorses the signs. Yet, she realized that would not help her so she’s giving this a sort of apology while not really apologizing for anything.
This is the standard Republican actions. They are really bigots and racists. Look how many quickly jumped to claiming the shooter in Ft. Hood as a terrorists and that marine who beat a priest because he thought the priest was a terrorist. Also, that sign at the rally was not abnormal for the tea bag parties.
How can anyone really defend that poster, defend that marine, or defend those whoa re jumping to conclusions that the shooter was a terrorist because he was a Muslim. This all shows how much bigotry and racism still persists in the conservatives.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:44 pmAs everyone knows, there are no Jews in Minnesota, so why should Rep. Bachmann be concerned?
November 11th, 2009 at 1:47 pmmissmolly says:
…but like the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps going.
I guess so did her, ummm, solo video.
(ba dum bump, ching)
November 11th, 2009 at 1:49 pmSo let’s see — Bachmann, Boner and Cantor all use the word “inappropriate” days after the teabaggers demonstrate their wingnuttishness. And they all refuse to apologize. Does anyone else smell an RNC talking points memo from Hugh Deman Steele?
November 11th, 2009 at 1:51 pmBut of course invoking simular imagery by continuing to lie about death panels, is totally appropriate.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:52 pmFor obvious reasons, we like to speak of Michele Bachmann as being crazy. But she’s not too crazy to know the Repubs need all the friends they can get right now. She simply cannot afford to do the right thing. Taking a moral position is impossible for Republicans at this point.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:53 pmRepubs scream for Dems to apologize for the slightest offense, but refuse to apologize themselves for disgusting displays like this. They never change. Well, maybe they do– they get worse.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:59 pmSadly, some individuals chose to marginalize tragic events in human history, such as the Holocaust, by invoking imagery and labels which have no purpose in a policy debate about health care.
Says the woman who while talking about Obama invokes images and labels of slavery, socialism, Japanese internment camps, reeducation camps, armed resistance, un-Americanism, census-conspiracies, currency-conspiracies etc etc etc
November 11th, 2009 at 2:01 pmIf she was truly sorry she would have said it at her “house party.” She is a racist ditzy, bug-eyes, teabagger.
What’s the matter repugs, did your little race rally get demoted to a house call? Pathetic.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:02 pmedonline # 13
Actually, The reason Paul Wellstone was elected years ago was
because of the Jewish population.
Wellstone was well behind his opponent ( also a Jew ) when his opponent accused him of not being “Jewish” enough.
That remark turned the election to Wellstone’s favor.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:05 pmThis shows exactly what is wrong with Republicans and their support of these extremist groups. The voters of Minnesota need to take a long hard look at re electing Michelle Bachman because of her affiliation with these type of groups. She had made numerous statements that cause independant voters to question her intrigrity and sanity. She said last year on Chris Matthews show, that members of Congress should be investigated to see if they are loyal to the country. I can’t understand why she sees the need to go to the extreme to get attention or what ever reason she does this. Lastly she needs to apoligize for her association with the extemist groups that surround her.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:06 pmEnnuiDivine says
November 11th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Come to think of it, part of San Diego county (where Prejean is from)is represented by Brian Billbray, a “moderate” Republican.
Primary challenge, anyone?
_____________________________________________________________
I’m sure it will cross the minds of some of the GOP movers and shakers down there. Unfortunately, they can’t run her in 2010 and will have to wait until 2012 (Prejean turns 25 in 2012). Of course, her star may fade by then, so they’ll have to find a way to keep her in the news for about three years.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:07 pm“Five Days After Her ‘House Call,’ Bachmann Condemns Anti-Semitic Signs But Still Refuses To Apologize”
You will be waiting for the cows to come home if you think Crazy Shelly will ever apologize for making her party and herself the biggest buffoon by unleashing out the wingnuts in droves with hate signs to protest against the healthcare reform bill. Stay classy, Shelly.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:18 pmmissmolly says:
(Prejean turns 25 in 2012). Of course, her star may fade by then, so they’ll have to find a way to keep her in the news for about three years.
That won’t be a problem once her fingering video(s) go viral.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:18 pmgee,
one would think the time to say such displays are inappropriate is when you’re giving a speech facing one of the said images in front of the united states congress building.
call me a trditionalist
November 11th, 2009 at 2:28 pmmissmolly says:
Of course, her star may fade by then, so they’ll have to find a way to keep her in the news for about three years.
More plastic surgery?
November 11th, 2009 at 2:30 pmI don’t know if this has already been discussed, but Jon Stewart points out that FAUX NEWS DISTORTS AGAIN!!!
November 11th, 2009 at 2:35 pmWe really shouldn’t be so critical of Bachmann and her five day wait to condemn these signs. I mean, she needed the first day to get over the “they really like me” high. The second day was devoted to buying herself a new outfit (very cute!) so she can maintain that certain look that keeps her male constituents and colleagues interested in keeping her in office. The third day, she had to get her hair done (she day two for the reason). The fourth day was Sunday and she couldn’t lie and say she condemn the signs on THAT day, now could she?! That takes us to the fifth day, which of course happens to be the safest day to insure that her low information followers forgot that there was a sign and that their deficient attention would be on some other issue.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:35 pmI don’t believe that is correct. George Soros has filled that position very nicely.
And as for Bachmann apologizing for the wackjobs, that would be as pointless as Think Progress apologizing for all the troll comments posted here.
Move along. Nothing to see.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:38 pm.
So five days after the fact, Bachmann proves she is the worst kind of HYPOCRITE – no apology for her belligerent [health insurance reform] so-called news rally, which was in effect, a storm on congress to DEMAND that they drop any reform WHICH would ULTIMATELY HELP THEM. How stupid are her teabaggers?
November 11th, 2009 at 2:41 pm“And as for Bachmann apologizing for the wackjobs, that would be as pointless ”
You mean the whackjobs which she cultivated like a mother bird raising her young and personally invited to join her at “the superbowl of freedom”?
tell it to the anti-defamation league and all the nice jewish voters who are very vocal as a PAC.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:48 pmYou lost?
You think uninvited trolls are the same as bussed in like-minded pawns?
I’m often amused by the lack of cognitive thought that you put into something that you actually push the submit button on.
November 11th, 2009 at 2:56 pmBachmann is a slimebag, but what about her constituents?
Why do they keep putting that jerk back in Congress?
November 11th, 2009 at 3:03 pmHey locomotivebreath, I’m just Wond’ring Aloud here. Whenever I read your posts, I think “My God, is this guy just another Wind-Up Republican who is as Thick As A Brick with Nothing To Say or does he really think in his Sweet Dreams that he has anything important to add to the discussion?”.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:29 pmHow the Hell couldn’t these ‘Leaders’ see that horrible sign! I was as big as a friggin house! They are a bunch of liars who infuriated the entire Jewish Community. Eric Cantor showed a lack of balls when he didn’t demand that the ‘Protester’ to take it down. As the only Jewish Republican member of the House, he should have shown the courage to do so, but as usual, he pandered to the only ‘Base’ he has got left. Now that is disgusting.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:57 pmIf Jewish people give donate to the GOP then it will show Crazy Michelle they don’t have a problem with the signs. The GOP will attack all races and we see even the worse thing that has ever happen to Jewish people is make fun of by the GOP. Crazy Michelle, Boner, Cantor and the rest will take the Jewish donations and laugh all the way to the bank on how easy it is to make a fool of them.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:25 pm#34, Why do they keep putting that jerk back in congress? The same reason liberals keep putting their jerks back in congress.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:29 pmWe do, indeed, deserve lawmakers who openly and honestly debate the issues of our times. That’s why Crazy Shelly shouldn’t be allowed within miles of the House floor or a Capital Hill office.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:39 pmevangenital,
The local press/media, despite Crazy Shelly accusing them of nothing but “liberal attacks”, refuses to cover her batscat. They even gave her the whole Sunday morning show to babble about how Chris Mathews “ambushed her” when she went off on a ten minute McCarthy rant.
If her constituents don’t get their news from non-local sources they never even hear that she’s controversial, much less a raving freak. I’m afraid that those who vote for her have never heard anything about her other than she’s “a family values conservative” from their Pastors. And that’s all the poor suckers need to hear.
November 11th, 2009 at 5:45 pmTEA BAGGERS CAUSE THRIVING ANTI-SEMITISM????
Now we just got thru reading an article on [www.ThinkProgress.Org. Five Days After Her ‘House Call,’ Bachmann Condemns Anti-Semitic Signs But Still Refuses To Apologize, by Amanda Terkel] which in part seems to place the blame for Anti-Semitism upon Tea-Baggers of America. First let’s set the record straight, no you don’t have to be a Pro-Nazi to be Anti-Semitic, the idea of using the Nazis “Swastika” the emblem of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich, is nothing more than a cover for what is really happening it’s not Neo-Nazism in total but yes they are Anti-Semitic and one is not the same as the other.
[GLOBAL AND HISTORIC ANTI-SEMITISM]
[BRAZIL]: (Do Aryans come in pairs from Brazil, “The Boys from Brazil”).
[CZECHOSLOVAKIA]: The Czechs fear rise of Anti-Semitism.
[GAZA]
* (400) four-hundred children loss their lives, in a blood lust attack upon an almost defenseless civilian population, and their parents are due compensation for their loss, and the rest of the world should not have to pay for the damages done by Israel to (UN) United Nations Property, and personnel who were caught and killed or wounded in the on mindless bloodlust onslaught of (IDF) Israeli Defense Force.
* [IDF] anti-Palestinian t-shirts;
One such shirt showed a child in the cross-hairs of a rifle with the caption, “The smaller they are, the hard it is.”
While another with the words “1 Shot 2 Kills”, shows a pregnant woman in the rifle’s crosshairs
Others depicted a mosque being blown up by a soldier and Palestinian women weeping over a gravestone.
[GERMANY]:
* [GERMAN TEMPLARS]: Let’s take the story of Uri Avneri a leading Israeli journalist and look at it from another view. Until (1939), and the beginning of (WWII) World War Two, Palestine was the home of the “German Templars,” who lived in peace, with their “Islamic” neighbors, for almost a hundred years within the Sarona neighborhood, of Tel Aviv, a well respected and religious people, and when a new strong Germany was created by Hitler, they as Germans became proud of their heritage as Germans. Now, German was at war with the (UK) United Kingdom at the time, and Palestine was a Mandate of the British, and as the British Empire was at war with Germany, the British decided to kick them out, deport and sent them to former Penal Colony of Australia far away from the war, much as the Romans had done to the Jews by their relocation throughout the Roman Empire of the time.
* CAR/AUTOMOBIEL: Slates “Anti-Semitic” number plates.
* In “The Road to Serfdom,” Hayek wrote, “In Germany and Austria the Jew had come to be regarded as the representative of Capitalism.” Thus, the response in those countries, National Socialism, was an attack on both capitalism and the Jews.
[ISRAEL]:
* ["Shministim"]: Anti-Zionist sentenced in Israel.
* [SHAHAR PEER]: Even the world of Israeli sports suffered a recent snub over the Gaza conflict when Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer was denied a visa to participate in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship over “security concerns.”
[PERSIANS]: Iran wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
[ROMANS]: The Romans relocation of Jews throughout the Roman Empire of the time.
[RUSSIA]:
* (“Fiddler on The Roof”) were Anti-Semitic.
* The Israeli Ambassador to the Russian Federation that admitted that Israel used white phosphorous but maintain that it was in accordance with international law, as the use of “Willie Peter” is permitted under International Law as an “obscurant” to cover troop movements and prevent enemies from using certain guided weapon’s.
[SPAIN]: Anti-Semitism mars Spanish sport.
[SWEDEN]: Anti-Israel protesters have clashed with police outside a Davis cup match played in Malmo in southern Sweden.
[THE UNITED KINGDOM]: Israeli embassies were the site of large demonstrations. police officers in the (UK) announced the arrest of (6) six more individuals who had participated in violent protests at the Israeli embassy in London in December, [2008].
[THE UNITED STATES]:
* [AIPAC/AZC]: American Israel Public Affairs Committee/American Zionist Council, As every politically conscious individual of the Community of Nations on the face of the earth knows [All] The Empire [DC/544] are owned by the Israeli Government via its political pressure Lobbyist group The [AIPAC/AZC] American Israel Public Affairs Committee/American Zionist Council, the most powerful pro-Israeli lobbying organization, under the umbrella group and within the group of numerous and prominent pro-Israel organizations numbering (100K) One-hundred-Thousand, membership of neo-conservative Jewish lobbyists groups, connected to various influential caucus members of the Empire’s pro-Israel lawmakers.
* [Admiral Dennis Blair]: The national intelligence director who chose Freeman for the Middle East Policy Council think-tank called the (AIPAC/AZC) position “pre-cooked, pabulum judgments”, and he was off the mark on that statement. Not, only were they prepared by master chefs, they were a multiple course servings of final verdicts, for the sins and transgressions of having ties with China “The China Sea Dragon” and Saudi Arabia, coupled with “Chas Freeman” having been guilty of critical remarks amounting to the blasphemy of Israel, over the isolated open air concentration camp of Gaza, saying “The brutal oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli occupation shows no sign of ending”, in the face of the Empire’s pro-Israel lawmakers.
* [MAX BLUMENTHAL]: Now, Max Blumenthal, a blogger and journalist for the Daily Beast website, see’s the whole process as having been catastrophic, but a catastrophic event is a (Sudden Event), which of course this is not, it’s simply business as usual the for the (AIPAC/AZC), a traceable “hit job” with an email trail barrage of libelous distortions of the targets record, usual character assassination, selective misquotes, willful record distortion, fabrications, falsehood, with utter disregard for the truth, concerning the (AIPAC/AZC) attacks upon “Chas Freeman”.
* [RAHM EMANUEL]: (COS) Chief of Staff to Barrack “Barry” Hussein Obama who was as the story goes once before was fired from the White House in (1998) after being implicated by the (FBI) Federal Bureau Investigations of, together with Monica Lewinsky another dual citizen, Jewish American, in a Mossad plot to spy on then-President Clinton.
* [RON PAUL]: “Israel’s critics and enemies will see the United States as the side to be blamed for the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip, believes Congressman Ron Paul. He says the US should review its unconditional support of the Jewish state.” (Source: Ron Paul)
* [YURI SLESKINE]: As for the idea that Jewish professional, political, and economic success in America is a guarantee of security, that, too, has its risks. As Yuri Sleskine recounted in his book “The Jewish Century,” in [1900] Vienna more than half of the lawyers, doctors and professional journalists were Jewish, as were [70%] Seventy Percent of the members of the stock exchange. In Germany, after World War I but before the Nazis came to power, Jews served as finance minister and as foreign minister. Such achievements have a way of being fleeting.
SEE THE WALL STREET JOURNAL FOR MORE EXAMPLES WRITTEN BY A NON-ISRAEL JEW.
[TEA BAGGERS NOW THE BLAME??]
The Israeli Jew’s and the Non-Israeli Jew’s can continue the blame game of [5K] Five Thousand Years it’s the other guy, and no one ever asked the question of down thru the millenniums why it’s always the other guy that’s been the cause of Anti-Semitism. In the New York Jewish Week newspaper, a column by Rabbi Ronald Price of the Union for Traditional Judaism begins, “In the [1930s], as Germany’s economy collapsed, the finger was pointed at the Jews and the Nazis ascended to power. The famous Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jew was falsely accused of treason in France, followed on the heels of economic turmoil. It may yet be that the Jews escape the current economic crisis having only lost fortunes. But if not, there will have been [NO LACK OF WARING ABOUT THE THREAT]. This year, they will resonate all the more ominously. Now, being a Hardcore Tea Bagger, exception is taken to once again be part of yet another group that is being blamed and labeled as causing Anti-Semitism and being Anti-Semitic, and with the present Israeli Jew and Non-Israeli Jew attitudes this millennium and generation is likely at the very least to prove as hostile to the Jews as the past millenniums. In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. [Warnings in the Wall Street Journal, in the New York Jewish Week newspaper by Rabbi Ronald Price], maybe those Non-Israeli Jews should write the New York Jewish Week newspaper and Rabbi Ronald Price, and ask why, he might just say we create our own enemies, don’t label groups with names they don’t deserve or they just may earn that label, Non-Israeli and Israeli Jews of this generation seem to be making more enemies than allies how many more individuals and groups are left to label Anti-Semitic, your list seems pretty full at this time.
HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN
November 11th, 2009 at 6:26 pmYou forgot to source your copy/paste job, TRIATHLON.
And I think the big problem with the teabaggers is that they are xenophobic. Race, sex, creed, ethnicity, or political beliefs; the teabaggers piss themselves in terror whenever faced with someone outside their own little group and pitifully stunted understanding.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:35 pmPalin/ Bachmann 2012, the Bimbos for Change Party.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pmBubbleheads you can believe in!
On a related note: The lone female voice in the embarrassing “I object” fiasco is none other than Crazy Shelly. I thought the screech was familiar.
November 11th, 2009 at 7:56 pmThat was an apology? Like a certain gentleman once mentioned, there is a cave in Carlesbad that wants its batshit back.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:54 pmConservaTROLL
Why havent you killed yourself yet?
November 12th, 2009 at 7:47 amIs there any specific web site that is keeping track of all of the signs from the t-baggers rallies?
November 12th, 2009 at 8:25 am