[Artwork by KEN AVIDOR]
INQUIRER: Criticized for scolding Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) on a Philadelphia talk show to “act like a lady,” Sen. Arlen Specter had little to say yesterday about the incident, commenting only that he looked forward to “more frank, but less testy,” discussions on issues. Pundits and challengers, however, are taking swings. New York Times columnist Gail Collins wrote Friday that Specter had “lost it completely.” A top Republican demanded an apology. Specter’s remarks came during a special broadcast from Washington of the Giordano show to mark the first year of President Obama’s term. Specter, the 79-year-old Republican-turned-Democrat, who is facing a tough primary, and Bachmann, 53, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, were Giordano’s first guests. At one point during an exchange over the health-care bill, Specter noted that Bachmann had said she voted for prosperity.
“Well, prosperity wasn’t a bill,” the Pennsylvania senator began to explain.
“Well, why don’t we make it a bill?” said Bachmann, talking over him.
“Now wait a minute,” Specter said. “Don’t interrupt me. I didn’t interrupt you. Act like a lady.”
“Well, I think I am a lady,” Bachmann said. MORE
MICHELLE BACHMANN: “What was really stunning, again, about that whole interchange is it’s emblematic of the message the voters sent on Tuesday evening. The voters repudiated the arrogance that’s come out of the Democrat Party,” she said. “And what I heard yesterday on the radio with Sen. Specter was more of that arrogance. They haven’t sobered up yet as to the reality that the people are in charge, not this very liberal majority.” MORE
UPDATE: Sen. Arlen Specter called Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) yesterday to apologize for his comments during a radio interview last week, the senator’s office said, and she called back and “accepted the apology.” MORE
BIASED LIBERAL MEDIA: This is the cover of False Witness issue number one [PICTURED ABOVE] It was done by award-winning Minneapolis artist and political activist Ken Avidor. Let me decode it for you. Okay. The central figure is of course Michele. Michele is wearing the black and white 
checked “ensemble” that made her famous, perfect for the political campaigning season. She accesorizes with an M-16 assault rifle in her right hand, an homage to her call for Americans to “rise up” in an “orderly revolution” against the “tyranny” of Barack Obama. (She has also–on the floor of Congress–noted the foresight of Americans who are stocking up on weapons and ammunition in the wake of the Obama election, claiming that these arms purchasers see “the handwriting on the wall.” And she’s a big gun fan.) In Michele’s left hand is a cross, a reference to her exploitation of conservative evangelical rhetoric in furtherance of her political career, and her theocratic backers. Michele tops off the ensemble with a crown (provided by a rather Aryan-looking Jesus.) This alludes to the story that Michele wore a prom tiara on the night that she was first elected to Congress. Jesus is crowning her because she has claimed that He told her to run for Congress. And for the Minnesota State Senate. And He told her to go to law school, and several other things. Michele has claimed publicly that she has been in personal contact with God throughout her life and career. Let’s move clockwise. Below Jesus is an ape, threatening Michele with a copy of Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Michele is not a fan of Darwin, the scientific community, or the notion that we are biologically related to apes. Michele spoke vehemently and publicly against the credibility of evolution as a theory of the origin of species, and tried to included creationist theories into the public school science curriculum. Below that is the Statue of Liberty, clearly upset at being “hemmed in” by the gay “Rainbow flag” and two middle 
aged “butch homosexuals.” Michele first made her name in Minnesota politics by “fighting the gay agenda,” claiming that “our children were the prize for this community” and that “special rights” for American gays would lead to a loss of freedom for the rest of us. Michele once claimed that she was held against her will by lesbians in a ladies’ room after a local town hall meeting here in Minnesota. The police dismissed her claim after investigation, and Michele doesn’t like to talk about it anymore. MORE
COLIN POWELL: We Have Got To Stop This Kind Of Nonsense
PREVIOUSLY: GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK: Bachmann’s McCarthyism Overdrive May Cost Her Re-Election