Thursday, October 05, 2006

When the Mark Foley scandal erupted in Washington D.C., Patty Wetterling took it especially hard, "It was heartbreaking. I know Mark Foley. He co-sponsored a lot of child safety legislation. He started the missing and exploited children's caucus."

The timing also affected her because it was so near the anniversary of the 1989 abduction of her 11-year-old son Jacob. "October 22nd will be 17 years that I've been screaming about this and holding people accountable and making a difference. And I believe a whole nation is watching and wondering HOW is this going to be handled in Washington?"

Wetterling's campaign launched an ad calling for the expulsion of house leaders who may have ignored or covered up reports of Foley's behavior. An ad her opponent found surprising, "It just struck me as ironic that Patty Wetterling would rush to have an ad on television calling for lopping off Republican heads before we even know what's happened on this issue," said Michele Bachmann.

"As mother of five children and foster mother of 23 children, I find the communications between the former Representative Mark Foley and the former House Congressional pages unacceptable and abhorrent," said Michele Bachmann. "It is an obscene breach of trust. He must be investigated and safeguards must be expanded."

"One of the pieces of legislation I supported in the Minnesota Senate was to create an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (SF1400) to provide a steady funding stream," stated Bachmann. "I have a six-year record of voting for Child Protection legislation. I have always been an outspoken advocate for traditional values."

September 29, 2003 Bachmann is quoted in the Stillwater Gazette after giving an interview on religious station KKMS-AM (980) in which she weighs in on creationism. "I give more credence in the Scripture as being kind of a timeless word of God to mankind, and I take it for what it is," she's quoted as saying. "And I don't think I give as much credence to my own mind, because I see myself as being very limited and very flawed, and lacking in knowledge and wisdom and understanding. So, I just take the Bible for what it is, I guess, and recognize that I am not a scientist, not trained to be a scientist. I'm not a deep thinker on all of this. I wish I was. I wish I was more knowledgeable, but I'm not a scientist."

January 26, 2005 In a Senate subcommittee hearing, Bachmann is a voice of dissent on a Senate bill that would raise the minimum wage. "Literally, if we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level," she offers at one point. "I had wondered, if most employers are doing this anyway, isn't minimum wage just superfluous? Why do we even have one?"

April 7, 2005 Bachmann is caught on film crouching behind the bushes during a pro-gay rights rally at the Capitol. The implication is that she's spying on people who march in favor of same-sex marriage. After much publicity on the internet, Bachmann tells the Strib: "I had high heels on and I just couldn't stand anymore. I was not in the bushes."