Rachel Maddow Demands Dismissal of $50 Million Defamation Lawsuit

(HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has hit back hard against a $50 million defamation lawsuit brought by heavy metal rocker-turned-radio host and conservative preacher Bradlee Dean. Maddow and NBC Universal are looking to punish Dean for bringing an allegedly meritless suit by filing an anti-SLAPP motion to end the case and force him to hand over legal fees.

According to court papers filed this week in D.C. federal court, the defendants say, "With this lawsuit -- his second -- Dean seeks to move one step closer in his self-described mission to stop the 'radical gay agenda.' The law does not permit him to use the judicial process in this fashion."

Dean brought a defamation lawsuit in July, arguing that Maddow twisted Dean's words in an effort to undermine Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.
READ MORE AT HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM

Sarah Palin reacts to Santorum's surge, Bachmann's exit and Perry's push forward

Iowa Caucuses Shake Up GOP Field.

Video Speech - Michele Bachmann Ends Her Presidential Campaign: ‘I Have Decided To Stand Aside’

Sarah Palin's Payback Against Michele Bachmann ???

COMMENTARY | Sarah Palin, in an interview on Fox News, may have taken the wounded body of the Michele Bachmann campaign and shot it in the head. Considering Bachmann's standing in the polls going into Iowa, it can be seen as a mercy killing.

According to RealClearPolitics, Palin said, "As for Michelle Bachmann. She has a lot to offer, also, but I don't think it is her time this go around." This was a clear signal to Palin's supporters in Iowa that they should not bother supporting Bachmann's campaign. It is a lost cause and best it be ended so that conservatives can rally around someone who can win.

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection suggests that Palin was delivering some political payback. Last summer, then Buchmann campaign manager Ed Rollins trashed Palin while at the same time Palin supporters attempted to suggest that Palin was on the point of endorsing Bachmann. The idea was that Palin would be kept out of the race and Bachmann would be anointed her heir.

Palin declined to enter the race likely for other reasons than Bachmann's machinations. Bachmann did not inherit Palin's support base, which has scattered as one conservative candidate after another has risen and fallen in the polls as the political season begins apace.

Palin has and will have political influence far beyond what could be expected of a private citizen whose own career has been declared dead so many times that the phenomenon has become something of a joke. In 2010, most of the candidates she endorsed, with some notable exceptions, went on to win their elections.

But the hand that uplifts can also be the hand that smacks down. It is not as if Bachmann has had a prayer of winning, absent divine intervention. But Palin has taught a lesson that other politicians will need to pay heed to. One messes with the Mama Grizzly at one's peril. Payback may be long in coming, but it will come.

A better way to deal with Palin is by paying her respect. Newt Gingrich mused that she would make a great vice presidential running mate or even secretary of energy. Palin has not contradicted that assessment, showing that Gingrich in this case had better judgment.

Sources: Palin On Michele Bachmann: It's Not Her Time, RealkClearPolitics, Jan 2, 2012

Palin delivers political coup de grâce to Bachmann, William Jacobson, Legal Insurrection, Jan 3, 2012

First, Bachmann was Reagan, then Palin, then Thatcher. Now ? Tim Tebow !!!

A political action committee supporting Michele Bachmann debuted an ad this week that compares the Minnesota congressman to Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.


The ad notes that “the establishment sports guys love to hate Tim Tebow: he’s not smart enough, his mechanics are no good, he’s not accurate enough – still, he just keeps winning.” The ad goes on to argue that Tebow makes sports fans “feel guilty” because he doesn’t “drink, cuss, smoke, or kick opponents when they’re down” and because he is a born-again Christian. …


“The same could be said of Michele Bachmann: no baggage, Christian, and like Tebow, she keeps fighting and she just keeps winning votes,” the announcer says. Read More

Four candidates join Perry in suing Virginia !!!

(CNN) - Four candidates left off the Virginia Republican primary ballot joined Rick Perry Saturday in suing the state's board of elections over laws they say are "unconstitutional."


Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum joined the lawsuit, originally filed Tuesday, challenging provisions that determine who can appear on the primary ballot.


On Wednesday, Gingrich cited fraud as the reason he didn’t make it onto the ballot, laying the blame on one of his campaign's paid volunteers.


"We hired somebody who turned in false signatures. We turned in 11,100 – we needed 10,000 – 1,500 of them were by one guy who frankly committed fraud,” Gingrich said.


On Saturday, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said they were looking into the petition fraud case, but that their top priority was getting on the ballot.


All five candidates filing the lawsuit failed to qualify for the ballot.


Huntsman, Bachmann and Santorum did not file petitions with the Virginia State Board of Elections that would have allowed them a place in the state's primary. Gingrich and Perry filed petitions that were later rejected by the Republican Party of Virginia for not meeting requirements.


Virginia requires candidates to obtain 10,000 signatures from registered voters in the state, with at least 400 signatures coming from each of the commonwealth's 11 congressional districts.


In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Perry said the statutes of Virginia law that regulate access to the ballot were "among the most onerous in the nation and severely restrict who may obtain petition signatures."


In their release Saturday, Bachmann, Gingrich, Huntsman and Santorum request the board of elections add their names to the ballot, saying it will avoid "unnecessary costs and expenses to the state and the parties" that would be incurred by moving the lawsuit forward.


Immediately after his petition was rejected by the Virginia GOP, Gingrich said he would launch a write-in campaign. It was later determined that Virginia specifically prohibits write-in candidates in primary elections.


Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul both successfully filed petitions to appear on the Virginia ballot.


The state holds its Republican primary on Super Tuesday, March 6.

Kent Sorenson: Says Michele Bachmann Is Lying, Claims Ron Paul Did Not Pay Him !!! Video

When Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson appeared on America Live with Megyn Kelly on Thursday afternoon, things got heated when Kelly questioned the former Bachmann campaign chair on leaving her camp and moving, allegedly within hours, to that of Ron Paul.

Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann came out in a recent radio interview saying that Sorenson revealed to her in private conversations that the Ron Paul camp offered him “lots of money” to come aboard. Sorenson, however, denies that allegation and instead says that congresswoman is making it all up

You’re No Thatcher !!! Bachmann: 'I Want to Be America's Margaret Thatcher'

She confidently predicts her performance in Iowa caucuses will “shock” the current polls there.

Most Republican presidential candidates are quick to compare themselves to Ronald Reagan. But Rep. Michele Bachmann has another conservative from the 1980s she seeks to emulate -– former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

“I want to be America's Margaret Thatcher,” Bachmann told National Journal/CBS News in an interview. “I want to be America's Iron Lady.”

Bachmann, who is seeking to regain the momentum she enjoyed in Iowa during the summer, also had harsh words for fellow candidates Newt Gingrich, Rep. Ron Paul and Mitt Romney.

She dubbed Gingrich “the grandfather of the individual mandate” for the former House speaker’s alleged onetime support of Massachusetts’ health care reform policy. She blasted Romney “for signing over 100 same-sex marriage licenses” when he was the Bay State’s governor –- an accusation that is not technically true, since Romney’s administration issued one-day declarations to both gay and straight couples allowing “non-clergy individuals to solemnize a marriage.”

And she predicted that voters will turn away from Paul as they learn more about racist statements included in old newsletters bearing his name.

Polls currently show the Minnesota congresswoman running a distant fifth in Iowa behind those three and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. But she asserted: “I think the polls will be shocked on the evening of January 3rd and January 4th.”

In pursuit, GOP contenders rumble through Iowa

Three Republican presidential candidates, each claiming to be the truly conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, are launching bus tours Tuesday through this early nominating state.
Just a week before Iowa's leadoff caucuses, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich prepared to rumble through small towns aboard their campaign buses. They're looking for supporters one at a time and hoping to become a roadblock for Romney, who is looking stronger than expected. Romney returns to Iowa on Tuesday after a quick stop in his long-established stronghold of New Hampshire.
Ahead of the Jan. 3 caucuses that officially begin the GOP's nominating calendar, the candidates were returning for a final rush of speeches, meet-and-greet stops and town hall-style meetings. And they are bracing for one last round of advertising, which most observers are expecting to be nasty.
Each campaign has also tried to gauge the level of enthusiasm for Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. The libertarian favorite has built a strong organization here and recent polls suggest he is peaking, a rise that has him tied with or even ahead of Romney _ and drawing more scrutiny for his views.
"There's really three primaries going on here," former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania told reporters in Adel, where he went hunting for pheasant and quail. "There's the libertarian primary, which Ron Paul is going to win. Then you've got the moderate primary, which Gingrich and Romney are scrumming for. And you've got three folks who are running as strong conservatives."
He included himself, Bachmann and Perry in that conservative camp. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman signaled early on he would not compete in Iowa and instead plans to start his campaign in New Hampshire.
But with time ticking down in Iowa, several hopefuls are packing their days with rambling road trips to sparsely populated corners of the state. If history is a predictor, some of these candidates will be former candidates after the first contest.
Bachmann last week began her effort to visit each of the state's 99 counties, an ambitious pace that left her darting into diners and gas stations for quick visits. She was set to return to that pace early Tuesday in Council Bluffs, on the state's western edge. By nightfall, she was slated to have visited another 10 counties.
Perry was set to begin his tour in Council Bluffs several hours later. He planned just four stops during his day.
Gingrich was ready to return to the opposite side of the state, with three stops in Dubuque.
Paul was set to return Wednesday for a late push ahead of the New Year's holiday.
Many of those expected to participate in the caucuses remain undecided, and most of the contenders have seen their fortunes rise quickly and then deflate. Romney and Santorum have remained relatively steady: Romney solidly near the top and Santorum consistently struggling to build support.
Yet Santorum alone has achieved the accomplishment of visiting all 99 counties. With more than 350 campaign events behind him this year, he is hoping the early groundwork _ and a possible late surge _ help him beat expectations.
He was slated to start his day in Fort Dodge, in the deeply conservative far northwest corner of the state.




Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/science/in-pursuit-gop-contenders-rumble-through-iowa/article_4053f030-2aee-5632-be42-cf8242d61394.html#ixzz1hjaUNizW

Fiasco: Bachmann, Huntsman, Santorum fail to make Virginia ballot

HOT AIR
That’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that Perry and Gingrich, either one of whom could still become the Great Grassroots Hope against Romney, might not have qualified either. You need 10,000 signatures to make the ballot but 15,000 are recommended since a bunch are bound to be thrown out as false or duplicative as the petitions are scrutinized. You also need at least 600 signatures from each of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts. Romney submitted 16,026 and Ron Paul submitted 14,361. Perry’s total: 11,911. Gingrich’s: 11,050. If they end up getting bounced, the Republican primary ballot for one of America’s key swing states will consist exclusively of … Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

You know who that benefits?

Romney was the first Republican presidential candidate to file his petitions. His Virginia campaign chairman, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, delivered them on Tuesday. President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign filed earlier this month.

The State Board of Elections will turn over the petitions to the respective political parties for validating. Republican will begin the process Friday morning and have sought volunteers to help with the process…

The parties have until Tuesday at 5 p.m. to tell the State Board of Elections which candidates qualify for the March 6 primary ballot. The order of names will be decided by lottery on Wednesday.

Larry Sabato expects the state GOP will turn a “blind eye” to any signature problems on Perry’s or Gingrich’s petitions. I’ll bet. Question for political junkies, then: How could Bachmann, Huntsman, and Santorum have failed this epically? Is it a simple matter of lacking the resources to put people in the field collecting signatures or is it a sign of deep organizational dysfunction that should rightly disqualify them from the race? Every day, it seems, the bar for the nomination gets pushed a bit lower by the incompetence of someone running, and every day that makes me ever so slightly and grudgingly more open to the idea of nominating Romney. He gets his ballot homework in early; he doesn’t say catastrophically stupid things at the debates; he doesn’t have any racist newsletters to his record. He is, in other words, a minimally capable candidate, which apparently means he’s more capable than anyone else in the field. The one consolation if he wins is that we don’t have to worry about him, say, spacing on the date to file general-election petitions in Florida. Thank heaven for small favors.

Two clips for you, one from Romney’s PAC tearing into Perry and Gingrich and the other, from 1994, of Romney denouncing … attack ads. Have you noticed, by the way, that you never see an ad from Team Mitt laying out Ron Paul for any of the million shady things he’s said in the past even though he’s the frontrunner in Iowa right now? There’s a reason for that, of course, and Perry and Gingrich really, really,really need to start pointing it out soon. It won’t change any minds among the hardcore Paul fans, but not all of Paul’s supporters in Iowa are hardcore. Some are with him because they’re looking for a Not Romney, they like what he has to say on spending and abortion, and they haven’t heard much yet about those newsletters or the fact that, oh, for example, he wouldn’t have given the order to get Bin Laden. Those people need to understand the implications of their vote and Perry/Gingrich can drive it home to them in nine words: A vote for Paul is a vote for Romney. If they’re aware of that and want to vote Paul anyway, that’s fine, but let’s make sure they realize that they actually can choose the nominee this cycle — namely, Romney — with their vote on January 3rd. And they don’t have to vote for Romney to do it.

Palin vs Bachmann: "More Stupider"

Uploaded by stateofdaniel on Dec 4, 2011

This video investigates Megan McCain's anti-Palin bias as well as Conservative4Palin's "Reconsider" ad that was launched in Iowa.

Stories from this week's State of Daniel include:

Megan McCain: "More Smarter:"

http://bit.ly/uJLrdY

Palin/Reconsider Television ad confirmed for Iowa:

http://bit.ly/sOjbVx

New ad in Iowa "Run Sarah Run":

http://bit.ly/vIWt

Non-candidate Palin beats Romney and Gingrich in Polls:

http://bit.ly/uNhcW8

Draft Palin ad running in Iowa:

http://bit.ly/vbS6RI

2008 Video: Bachman "Gushes" Over Newt, Newt: "No Fannie/Freddie Bailout"

Newt Gingrich at a September 3, 2008 event with Michele Bachmann entitled Governing and Political Change, explains his position on Fannie and Freddie. He also details that he did consulting work for them.

Bachmann clearing the brush for Romney

LI

Michele Bachmann pretty much ended Tim Pawlenty’s campaign.

Bachman attacked Pawlenty relentlessly and took the Iowa straw poll, causing Pawlenty (foolishly, in hindsight) to withdraw.  In so doing, Bachmann eliminated the person who was the most viable not-Romney establishment candidate, a former Governor with a good, conservative record who appealed not only to Romney-supporting Republicans but also the Tea Party movement.

Leaving Romney as the only establishment-acceptable candidate has paid huge dividends for Romney, as the hyperventilated National Review promotion of Romney demonstrates.

Now Bachmann is trying to take out Newt, currently the only viable challenger to Romney if current polling is the measure.  Don’t take my word for it, because you know I’m not a Bachmann fan and have been harshly critical of her.

There are two good analyses today.  While I may not agree with all their conclusions, Byron York and John Podhoretz correctly see the role Bachmann is playing for the Romney campaign.

York, discussing Romney’s strategy of having others go after Newt, writes:

The good news for Romney, of course, was that there were other candidates willing to take up the task of attacking Gingrich.  Foremost among them was Rep. Michele Bachmann, who first attacked Gingrich’s work for Freddie Mac, and then slammed his record on the issue of partial birth abortion….
Team Romney did like it.  And afterward, Romney aides were happy to put in a good word for the congresswoman from Minnesota. “Michele Bachmann is good,” Stevens volunteered.  “She is good.  She’s cogent, she’s smart, unflappable — she must have been a heck of a lawyer.  Very, very good.  Very strong.” The message to Bachmann: Keep at it.

Podhoretz writes:

The Gingrich rocket may have reached its apogee and begun its rapid  descent.
In which case, the beneficiaries will be  Mitt Romney — because he will have outlasted another challenger — and Rick  Perry, who had his best outing since the day he declared for the presidency in  August….
She may not have helped herself, though. In serving as an attack dog, she may  have put voters off; but her attacks may help drive the soft Gingrich voter into  the Perry camp — or even into the arms of Rick Santorum, the only right-wing  candidate in the field not to get his moment in the top tier.

Michele Bachmann never will be President, and contrary to some conspiratorial conjecture, Vice President either. I just don’t think she realizes it yet.

Read More:

 Michele Bachmann: Traitor In Our Midst-You're Exiled !!! http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2011/06/michele-bachmann-traitor-in-our-midst.html