Crazy Michele Bachmann: Lowlights from a career of insane politics

It's official: Michele Bachmann has gone batshit insane.

During an appearance last Friday on Hardball, Rep. Bachmann (R-Nazareth) called on the media to launch a witchhunt to ferret out members of Congress who are un-American. The result has been an outpouring of support for her opponent, El Tinklenberg, from readers of Daily Kos and the Huffington Post, and now there is a very real possibility that she will lose her seat and never have to fraternize with un-American congresspeople ever again.

Ah, Michele, we knew ye well. Click through and take a stroll down memory lane with us, when Bachmann was just a local laughingstock and we had her all to ourselves ...

Almost two years ago to the day, G.R. Anderson profiled Bachmann in a feature called "The Chosen One," which detailed how Christian piety has influenced her decisions. Perhaps the most interesting part was about Bachmann's hatred of teh gays, a group which just so happens to include her stepsister:

When Bachmann held a hearing on the gay marriage ban at the Capitol last April, she got a rude surprise: Sitting just a few feet away was her stepsister, Helen LaFave, who chose the occasion to come out publicly for the first time, with her partner of 20 years in attendance. "This issue has been very hurtful to me personally, and divisive for our family," LaFave told the Star Tribune at the time. Bachmann said at the time that she had taken a family vote on the gay marriage ban, and that family members favored it by a 6-3 margin. But both Michael and Helen LaFave insist she never spoke to them about it. Helen LaFave added that Bachmann ignored letters LaFave had sent her about the matter.

More recently, Bradley Campbell tried to unravel the mystery of Bachmann's unstoppable smile, which he noticed while watching her appearance on Larry King:

On Larry King Live, the Bachmann smile is in full effect. It is the first thing King notices during her introduction. And sometimes, it stops his train of thought. You see… the Bachmann Smile is a long lasting, almost permanent fixture that stretches across her face. She smiles from the start of the show all the way to the end, pausing only to provide her opinions on the state of the economy and the environment and to highlight the impeccable record of the Grand Ol' Party. And even when King does this thing where he splits his screen into four separate screens, making it look like multi-player mode on MarioKart, Bachmann is the only one who smiles though it all. At some points, it is as though the sides of her lips might reach her ears.

And in our recent Comix Issue, Ken Avidor took a peak into Michele Bachmann's RNC Diary:

Keep up with all the latest news on Minnesota's craziest member of Congress on Blotter.