Politifact rated Pawlenty’s assertion that Michele Bachmann’s record of accomplishment was “largely nonexistent” as “mostly true.”
He said that while he was “elected twice in a very blue state, Congresswoman Bachmann was giving speeches and offering failed amendments,” among other things. Pawlenty also said in an interview on July 10, 2011, that Bachmann’s “record of accomplishment in Congress is nonexistent.”
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We found Pawlenty was largely correct: Bachmann does not have many legislative victories under her belt.
Instead, Bachmann seems to prefer offering legislation that makes a bold statement. This year, she proposed making the Bush tax cuts permanent, stripping President Barack Obama’s health care law of funding, overturning new energy efficiency standards for light bulbs and repealing the financial regulatory overhaul that passed just last year. None of those bills has received a vote from the full U.S. House of Representatives.
Bachmann has served in Congress since 2006, and hasn’t sponsored anything that’s become law. Her most successful proposals were a 2008 resolution expressing support for agencies that provide services to foster children and a 2009 resolution to designate September as “National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month”. (Hydrocephalus is a buildup of fluid inside the skull, leading to brain swelling, which can be fatal.) Both measures were approved by the House but not the Senate.
We went looking for other accounts to either confirm or refute Pawlenty’s charge. (We contacted Bachmann’s campaign for comment and didn’t hear back.) We knew from previous reporting that sometimes a legislator’s bill is incorporated into other larger legislation with a different sponsor. We wanted to make sure were weren’t missing giving Bachmann credit for a case like this.
Instead, we found more confirmation that her legislative record is thin.
More here.
There’s a new “Students for Thaddeus McCotter” FB page. A grand total of fifteen people “like” it so far.
Michele Bachmann won the Smart Girl Presidential straw poll. Cain came in second.
A good day for Cain, who won the Western Conservative Summit straw poll. Rick Perry came in second.
“How about spectacular,” Cain said to ABC News when asked how he felt about winning. “I would say that winning the straw poll is not bad for somebody who has a 48 percent name ID and with a lot of people who didn’t really give me a chance. I am doing as well as I’m doing for one simple reason. My message is resonating with the people. Secondly, my approach to problem solving, so I guess there’s two reasons, is resonating with the people, so that does make us feel really really excited.”
And some GOP chair guy is endorsing Cain. I’m sure this guy matters on some level, but never heard of him. He’s in Iowa:
Pottawattamie County Republican Jeff Jorgensen intends to endorse Herman Cain for president, he said today.
“As I study the current field of Republican presidential candidates, there is only one candidate who is not a politician and is not encumbered with political concerns,” Jorgensen said in an e-mail. “This candidate has offered true capitalist, free market, common sense solutions to our problems, not political solutions. His name is Herman Cain.”
Mitt Romney pulled in $12.2 million from a bunch of rich people.
A new Super PAC created to support Mitt Romney raised $12.2 million in the first half of the year entirely from high-dollar contributors and spent just over $22,000, according to a report to be filed with the FEC Sunday.
Restore Our Future, a group run by Romney officials from his 2008 bid, was funded exclusively by 90 wealthy donors, most of which have also given to the former Massachusetts governor’s presidential campaign account.
But with no limits on the contributions to such entities as Restore Our Future, the contributors were able to give huge chunks of money – not a single check was under four figures and most were in the five and six-figure range.
There are also no restrictions on how donors can give to the SuperPACs and three of the four $1 million contributions came from organizations instead of individuals.
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