Salon has a new feature: "Ask a Wingnut" (written by an actual wingnut)

[CatWoman]

This week's feature: The Wingnut explains Michele Bachmann

From his undisclosed location, our undercover conservative columnist answers one of your most pressing questions: What's up with that rather intense Republican congresswoman from Minnesota?

Editor's note: "Ask a Wingnut" is written by a real live conservative and former Bush official who chooses to remain anonymous. Each week "Glenallen Walken" will bridge the cultural divide and answer questions from liberals about why conservatives think and do what they think and do. If you would like to submit a question to "Ask a Wingnut," send it to mschone (at!) salon (dot) com.

By Glenallen Walken

April 13, 2009 | Dear Wingnut: How do you account for Michele Bachmann? I just don't understand.

First, let me say how gratified I was by the response to the initial column in this series. I hope, in the days to come, we will be able to engage in a dialogue that will explain to you the mysteries of conservative thought.

This week the editors have asked me to answer a question that more than one reader asked: explain Michele Bachmann. As in, can you explain the behavior of the Republican representative from Minnesota's 6th Congressional District? The easy answer would be to say no and then move on to something else. But that wouldn't make for much of a column, so let me try.
Bachmann is a conservative activist, someone whose interests include both social and economic policy. Now she and I, to the best of my recollection, have never met, but the extensive coverage some of her remarks have received makes me feel as though I know her.

I suppose your interest is generated by some of the things she has said that strike you as, well, extreme. Like when she recently referred to her desire that people in Minnesota be "armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax" before going on to cite Jefferson's observation that a little revolution, now and again, is probably a good thing.

In the end, Bachmann is a solid, principled conservative who stands up for what she believes. Some people may not like that, people like David Shuster of MSNBC, who never seems to miss a chance to poke a finger in her eye. And, to my mind, the motivation here is political. There are any number of liberal activists and Democratic operatives who believe her congressional district, while heavily Republican, is of a more moderate brand of conservatism than she sometimes espouses; therefore, enough ridicule will lead her constituents to vote her out. It's a strategy that certainly worked in Pennsylvania against Rick Santorum, who essentially hung himself with a series of ill-considered comments in just one interview.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/04/13/bachmann/

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Must be the real deal. He starts out to explain a republican and

...winds up complaining about left wing bias.

[ShareTheWoods]

2. Does David Shuster of MSNBC represent the entire media?

If not, then it looks like a focused thought in a sea of conservative reasoning.

[gratuitous]

3. Awfully articulate

I was thinking that Bob Boudelang had landed another soapbox, but this is clearly not our beloved angry American patriot. Still un peu amusant, n'est-ce pas?

[The_Commonist]

4. Like a true Wingnut...

... he didn't answer the f*cking question!