Michele Bachmann, GOP squeaky wheel, ready to retire

By Dana Milbank, WashPost, Published: May 29

Bob Dole must be some kind of prophet.

Not 72 hours after Fox News Channel aired the former Republican leader’s suggestion that the GOP put out a “closed for repairs” sign, Michele Bachmann announced that she’s going out of business. Just like that, the Republican conglomerate got an unexpected chance to shutter one of the balkiest shops in its supply chain.

Bachmann, the congresswoman from Minnesota who ran a tea party-backed presidential campaign in 2012, made her announcement in a video released in the wee hours of Wednesday morning containing her trademark mixture of bombast, paranoia and error.

The error came fairly late in her eight-minute, 40-second spot. “I fully anticipate the mainstream liberal media to put a detrimental spin on my decision,” she declared over vague synthesizer music.

Detrimental? Um, no. It’s hard to see the mothballing of Bachmann as anything but unalloyed good news, for the party and the country.

(More here.)