Outing Bachmann

Could Michele Bachmann be forced out of Congress on election day? Salon speaks of...

a new poll showing her lead diminished to just two points. Independent voters have swung against her by nearly 20 points in just two months, from a 4 percent advantage to a 15 point disadvantage. The internal poll, conducted by Democratic pollsters Greenberg Quinlan Rosner at the behest of Democrat Jim Graves’ campaign and shared with Salon, shows that Bachmann’s favorability rating has tumbled since their last survey in mid-June, and finds Graves gaining ground with independents as his name recognition grows.

Overall, the poll shows Bachmann leading Graves 48 – 46 percent, within the margin of error.

The problem here should be obvious. This is a Democratic poll; one must expect a certain degree of partisan weighting. Only 505 respondents were polled in a Minnesota district generally considered very conservative. On the other hand, polls conducted in July indicated that, even then, the race was tightening.

I think the attack on Huma Abedin left a terrible residue of ickiness all over Bachmann-land. Few people bought into the congresswoman's paranoid malarky; even conservatives didn't want to demonize a woman they (well, some of them) had defended during Weiner affair.

I strongly advise readers to support Jim Graves for the same reason I ask readers to support Rob Zerban in his battle against Paul Ryan. The important battle this year is not against the Republican party but against a form of political rabies that has infected far too much of that party. This nation's main enemy is reactionary radicalism -- a sick, sickening philosophy whose siblings are conspiracy theory, theocracy, intolerance and fear.

In short: The GOP leadership must be made to understand that the Tea Party has become toxic.

I still don't think that Romney will lose in November. But if he does, there will be a tremendous internal GOP battle between those who think the party became too extreme and those who think that it hasn't gone wacky enough. And yes, Democrats, independents and third party adherents do have a dog in that fight: When the Republicans lurch ever further to the right, they drag the political 50 yard line with them.