Pirate's Cove

Somehow, this NBC News investigation….we’re still waiting for them to investigate anything regarding 2008 Democrat presidential contender Barack Obama….is supposed to create a big kerfuffle. It’s spread out through many news sources, along with liberal blogs, who are a bit unhinged over it (it would also be nice if the legacy media could spell her first name correctly, and, yeah, I’ve put in two L’s myself)

While Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., has forcefully denounced the Medicaid program for swelling the “welfare rolls,” the mental health clinic run by her husband has been collecting annual Medicaid payments totaling over $137,000 for the treatment of patients since 2005, according to new figures obtained by NBC News.

The previously unreported payments are on top of the $24,000 in federal and state funds that Bachmann & Associates, the clinic founded by Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist, received in recent years under a state grant to train its employees, state records show. The figures were provided to NBC News in response to a Freedom of Information request.

The clinic, based in Lake Elmo, Minn., describes itself on its website as offering “quality Christian counseling” for a large number of mental health problems ranging from “anger management” to addictions and eating disorders.

So, was he simply supposed to turn those patients away? Of course, this is supposed to show some sort of massive hypocrisy…essentially, the Palinization continues.

“She’s giving hypocrisy a bad name,” said Ron Pollock, executive director of Families USA, a consumer health care advocacy group, when asked about the Medicaid payments to Bachmann & Associates. “It’s clear when it feathers her nest she’s happy for Medicaid expenditures. But people that really need it — folks with disabilities and seniors — she’s turning their backs on them.”

Um, no. What Bachmann wants to do is reform the Medicaid and Medicare systems so that they can operate efficiently and without worrying about sucking down huge and ever increasing portions of the Federal budget. She also has stated that she wants to “wean people (not already in the system) off of Medicare and Medicaid.” But, she wants to take care of the people already in the system. She understands that the government has already made promises to those people.

Anyhow, I’m still waiting for the MSM to investigate candidate Obama’s wife’s position and big pay raise at the University of Chicago.

On a separate note, I’ve been loathe to put the attacks on Bachmann as linked to any sort of sexism. I’m still rather reluctant, but, consider: Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Sharon Angle, Meg Whitman, Christine O’Donnell, Linda McMahon. These are all strong women running for positions of power, yet, all attacked beyond anything a male would be attacked on. Highly personal attacks, and not just coming from the Left. These attacks, or just plain dismissals, come from the Republican establishment and squishy Republicans. They tell us they don’t agree with them politically, yet, cannot say why, and rarely focus on actual policies, just personal attacks. They are called crazy, flakes, nuts, extremists, yet, their positions tend to be just as conservative, if not more, than many male candidates.

Personally, I’d rather have an elected lawmaker who says “I’m not a witch” or makes some harmless gaffes, may be a bit wacky, but is a competent public official who can Get Things Done, versus a lawmaker who compares our troops to Nazis or, say, someone who tries to fundamentally transform this country into Greece.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.