Tim Pawlenty’s flashes of machismo usually last about 24 hours before he retreats. It’s happened again, this time with the whole Michele Bachmann migraine business. Except this time it didn’t even take 24 hours.
Whatever the mix of business imperatives, political alliances, and corporate culture that led News Corp. into the News Of The World phone-hacking scandal, it’s been hard to believe that NOTW was the only British tab in that fiercely competitive space to engage in such subterfuge. The other shoe may soon drop.
Eric Kleefeld takes a close look at the looming recall effort against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).
The Dan Savage-Rick Santorum saga continues. Fair warning.
TPMMuckraker has obtained a copy of the FBI file of Rep. Donald “Buz” Lukens (R-OH), the disgraced Ohio congressman whose sexual and criminal misdeeds in the ’80s and ’90s opened the door, oddly enough, for the political career of Speaker John Boehner. Lukens died last year, and we’ve been sifting through the bureau’s 1,627-page file on him. It’s quite a blast from muckraking past.
TPM Reader CL:
I am a neurologist at an academic medical center quite familiar with migraines. I think in general, most people would accept that a propensity to migraine should not disqualify one from being President. Readers of your site will all appreciate Rep. Bachmann has far more legitimate reasons to disqualify her.
TPM Reader SG:
I despise Michelle Bachmann’s politics and have no doubt this early infatuation some GOP voters have with her will fade.
That being said, from the beginning of this migraine business, I’ve thought it was sexist, sexist, and sexist. Men get migraines, yes. But women are known to get them more. And because migraines often produce no external symptoms, you have to take the person’s word that one is happening. I get them, and from personal experience, people who have never had one think I’m faking it to try to get out of something, or that I’m a weenie who can’t handle a little headache.
TPM Reader SR:
I’m not a doctor, but I am a lawyer and I know contradictory statements when I see them. Bachmann’s doctor says “no biggie.” Bachmann’s former aides say “major biggie.” …
The record from the doctor appears to mostly be a doctor regurgitating what a patient told him, which is what a lot of medical records seem to be (and if you’re a litigator, you’ve probably read your share of them. I know I have).
What she told him appears to be inconsistent with what a (unsworn anonymous) witness said and that means someone got some ‘splainin’ to do.
But the whole episode has just highlighted for me how utterly surreal and, ultimately, frightening her candidacy is.
Brian Beutler has the latest on the debt talks after the Democratic leadership met with President Obama at the White House this afternoon.
TPM Reader AS checks in with a professionally informed opinion on whether Michele Bachmann’s migraines are a disqualifying condition to be President:
As much as it pains me to support Bachmann in this headache business, the letter from the House MD (apologies) would support garden variety migraines that should not interfere with Presidential duties much. I work as an internist in the hospital setting, a stroke hospital in particular, and care for many patients admitted with uncontrolled or severe migraines. If the letter from the house physician is the complete summary of her headache condition, then this is not really fair to consider as an impediment to being President (being a charlatan with a mix of xenophobic, supply-side evangelist, and end times world views certainly is).