I’ve been following media reaction to Michele Bachmann’s SOTU response here and here. I’ve heard many progressive pundits wonder aloud at why anything tea party related was given equal time on any network when our current political structure allows only two parties.
Without buying into the “tea party as a third party” meme, why wouldn’t the tea party movement respond? I’ve seen various responses all over the web from an assortment of the movement’s leaders; what if one of those voices – not Bachmann, but just a citizen – had given that response? Why is it only acceptable to hear two-party talk?
It was the media, not the GOP, who made it sound unacceptable to hear any discussion about any other entity aside from Democrats or Republicans.
Politico ran a piece this morning in an attempt to somehow pull their preconceived conservative divide further apart, but it seems a weak strategy. I love the descriptive adjectives. It’s like reading an old “Dynasty” script!
The GOP strategy, in fact, seems to be to treat her like any other member of the House Republican Conference.
[…]
Boehner played it off as no big deal. “The more, the merrier,” he said of competing responses.
[…]
“She is one member of Congress,” a top GOP aide said, bemoaning the decision to air the speech prime time.
[…]
Republican Rep. Steve King, a close Bachmann ally from Iowa, also didn’t watch the address but reviewed the excerpts after he gave interviews in the Capitol. He fiercely defended the speech
Bemoaning! Fiercely! They couldn’t have simply just said.
Leave it to Politico to turn the GOP’s casual attitude about Bachmann’s speech into some sort of controversy. I guess it’s a slow news day.
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