By Scott Tibbs, August 2, 2011
A number of conservatives have been taking potshots at Michelle Bachmann for her lack of legislative accomplishments.
I don't see how it's productive for Republicans to simply attack Republicans, especially when those Republicans have consistently strong conservative voting records - which is the case with Bachmann. This is not someone who runs a booth at the county fair alongside a Democrat (as former Republican state representative Jerry Bales did in the 1990's) or campaigns for Democrats, or votes with Democrats the majority of the time. Bachman is not Alan Simpson, who took a completely unprovoked shot at the Republican base a few months ago.
Bachmann was first elected to Congress in 2006, so shaming her for a lack of legislative accomplishments simply ignores the structural realities of Congress. When Bachmann took office, Nancy Pelosi was the Speaker of the House. In Bachmann's second term, the Democrats had a supermajority in the House. Can anyone really expect any conservative Republican to have a chance of getting any legislation through the House in that environment?
Even in the last 6 months with Republicans in charge, you have a Democratic Senate and a Democratic President with a veto pen if you by some miracle you manage to get legislation through the Senate. That is still not a favorable atmosphere for putting together a string of legislative accomplishments.
What were Obama's accomplishments before becoming President? I can tell you what his accomplishments have been since then: The destruction of the US economy, a jobs-killing health care bill, attempting to pass cap & trade, and causing the budget deficit and national debt to skyrocket with his reckless and irresponsible spending. And that's just to start. I would vote for any Republican currently in the field over Obama in a heartbeat. (Except for Fred Karger and Gary Johnson.)
Can any Republican honestly tell me that any of the credible Republicans in the field would not be a dramatic improvement over Obama? At this point, Jimmy Carter would be an improvement.
