FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has been a rising star of sorts in a lackluster field of GOP candidates who hope to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012. Bachmann came out on top in three separate polls of likely Iowa Republican voters last week.
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But Bachmann is running into a lot of criticism for her rather extreme positions on some social issues. Let's begin with the gay community.
Michele Bachmann's husband, Marcus, runs a Christian counseling business. Former clients have said he encourages homosexual patients to try to change their sexual orientation or at least repress it. Critics call it "pray away the gay." In an interview last week with the Minnesota Star Tribune, Marcus Bachmann did not deny that he and other counselors at the clinic use that technique, but he said they only do so at the request of a patient.
Michele Bachmann has been skirting around her own views on homosexuality. But that party is about to come to an end. She recently signed something called "The Marriage Vow" written by a conservative group in Iowa. It's a vow to be faithful to your spouse. Fair enough. But the vow also condemns adultery, pornography and gay marriage. And it describes homosexuality as a choice. In a speech in 2004, Bachmann said that being "involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle" amounts to "personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement."
Comedians and bloggers are having a field day with all of this of course.
On a more serious note, a group called the Human Rights Campaign - a gay rights group - is vowing to go after Ms. Bachmann and her beliefs in the upcoming campaign. They call Michele Bachmann "the very definition of a target rich environment." If they're serious, she could have a problem.
Here’s my question to you: When it comes to the gay community, is Michele Bachmann living in the Twilight Zone?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Dennis in Tampa, Florida:
Obviously, yes. The problem Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and other extremists have is that they believe every issue in the world is black and white. They have no understanding of the concept of grey. You either agree with them on everything or you are obviously wrong. To them, freedom of choice means you accept their choice.
Annie in Atlanta:
Twilight Zone? Maybe. The new "Christian" reality? Definitely. Nothing like a good God-fearing loving "Christian’s" brand of hate to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, is there? What kind of monster is this woman, and what does that make us, for thinking she, or her twin Palin, are even remotely qualified for public service, let alone the presidency?
Victoria in Cedar Rapids, Iowa:
Yes, she's definitely out there. The vast majority of people I know here in Iowa (my mother in law notwithstanding) are for gay rights and support gay marriage. We're not as backwoods as some politicians might think. As far as those who are conservative enough to agree with Ms. Bachmann, I doubt that there's enough of them here to carry the vote.
Sean:
I saw that episode, Jack! It has been on re-run status for a while now. It ends with Michele Bachmann getting pushed aside by her own party because she lacks a brain.
Ed in California:
Michelle Bachman is in the Brain Dead zone. She's popular because she spreads, and keeps, hate alive. And what a hypocrite! Her family accepts farm subsidies. And she and dear hubby both take socialized monetary help from our pockets just to keep his psychotherapy "business" afloat! She is no good.
Dan:
Well, if the Twilight Zone is a hate-filled place of appalling ignorance then, yes, she and her husband have the nicest house there. How can someone who thinks they're qualified to lead our nation and purports to be so pro-Constitution so readily demonize and deny basic equality to any segment of the American public?