from the WaPo:
Bachmann and Angle agree: State aid is "laundered" money for DemsOn Fox News, Sharron Angle appeared to agree with Michele Bachmann when the latter claimed the $26 billion in state aid passed by Democrats constitutes money being "laundered through the public employee unions" for use by Dem candidates this fall.
This latest from Angle has prompted Harry Reid to directly attack Angle for the first time (he usually leaves this to surrogates) by posting video of the moment and criticizing her in a press release for opposing "just about any effort to protect jobs in Nevada."
Angle also appeared to say that the jobs emergency Reid keeps alluding to exists "only in Harry Reid's mind."
I wanted to highlight these quotes for a reason that goes beyond the back and forth between Angle and Reid. Here you're seeing the direct consequences of the rising influence of Bachmann and the Tea Party: Criticism of everything Dems do has to be tinged with allegations of vaguely criminal intent. Watch:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/08/bachmann_and_angle_agree_state.html"Taxpayer money will essentially be laundered through the public employee unons, and spent to reelect those same Democrats this fall," Bachmann said, speaking about the $26 billion in state aid. "And it will be used to go after the Republicans who refused to vote for the program."
A bit later, Angle said Bachmann had it right: "The emergency is only in Harry Reid's mind. As Michele put it so succinctly, this is an emergency for the Democrats, a way to solifidy the base, if you will, with our taxpayer dollars."
Keep in mind that Angle dismissed the BP escrow money secured by the White House as a "slush fund," an assertion she later retracted. Call it the Bachmann-ization of GOP candidates: The constant elevation of the rhetorical stakes to the point where good faith disagreement is no longer possible or even desirable.
The Tea Party hallucinations have grown so overheated that politics can no longer merely be clash of visions or ideologies. It's about rescuing the republic from evildoers. Everything Democrats do must of necessity be nefarious, even vaguely criminal.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/08/bachmann_and_angle_agree_state.html