Bachmann

Not all opinions by Supreme Court justices are delivered from the bench. Justices who have distinctive views of the Constitution also expound them in public settings and in print. For example, Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Antonin Scalia have outlined their approaches to the Constitution in books aimed at the general reader. Given that reality, it seems priggish to object to the idea of a justice sharing his views with members of Congress rather than law students or members of a bar association.

Rep. Michele Bachmann's new line of attack against GOP frontrunner Gov. Rick Perry -- launched Monday night at the CNN/Tea Party Express debate and continued on Tuesday's morning talk shows -- pins the Texas governor's ties to a pharmaceutical giant as the reason for his controversial decision to require the HPV vaccine for Texas schoolgirls. “The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor, and this is just flat-out wrong,” Bachmann asserted in Monday night's debate.

Newt Gingrich emerged the winner in a Sunday night straw poll of tea party voters after he and three other Republican presidential candidates courted more than 23,000 activists during a tele-forum sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots coalition. Gingrich won with 31% of the vote. Second place went to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won 28%. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won 20%, and former Sen. Rick Santorum won 16%. All four participated in a pre-poll call with activists, in which they each spent 10 minutes responding to questions from participants and gave a 90-second closing pitch for support.

The candidates all agreed, for the most part, that everything should be on the table when it comes to budget cuts, but there was disagreement about just how to tame the military budget. Newt Gingrich, suggested that “historically illiterate politicians” (referring presumably to their illiteracy about history, not their continuing illiteracy, if you see the difference) should not be charged with making “a numerical decision about the defense budget.” “I'm a hawk,” said Gingrich, “but I'm a cheap hawk.

Conservatives such as Rep. Michele Bachmann who contend that the United States will be able meet its primary obligations if Aug. 2 passes without a deal on raising the debt ceiling are, in a sense, advocating for a partial shutdown of the federal government, according to an analysis by a Washington think tank. A study by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington estimates that with the Treasury expecting about $172 billion in returns in August and owing some $306 billion in obligations, 44% of the U.S. government's bills would go unpaid.

Quietly, and very much under the radar, Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who no pundit believes has a serious chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination, is staging a bit of comeback, returning to his position as a solid No. 3 candidate in the GOP race. According to the USA Today/Gallup poll released on Tuesday, Paul was at 13%, displacing Rep. Michele Bachmann, who fell to 5% and into a three-way dead heat with former House speaker Newt Gingrich and businessman Herman Cain.

Two finalists for the T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry have withdrawn, saying they objected to investment company Aurum Funds sponsoring the United Kingdom award. The Poetry Book Society, which runs the annual award for a collection of poetry, lost funding from Arts Council England as part of government spending cuts. "I fully understand why the Poetry Book Society has looked elsewhere for funding," said Australian John Kinsella, who was shortlisted for his work "Armour. " But as "an anticapitalist in full-on form," he said, he had to withdraw on ethical grounds.

Sarah Palin cut Barack Obama some slack last week. "I know Obama loves America," she said during a brief give-and-take with reporters on her campaign plane Friday. She continued, "I'm sure that is why he's running for president. It's because he wants to do what he believes is in the best interest of this great nation. . . . I don't question at all Barack Obama's love for this great country. " But another Republican wasn't willing to concede that point. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was parrying questions Friday from Chris Matthews on his MSNBC "Hardball" show, which is not for the faint of heart.

Acting on their best behavior, the two Republican front-runners essentially called a cease-fire Thursday night in their fratricidal primary fight, using the last full-scale presidential debate of the year mainly to assail President Obama. A few heated exchanges marked the two-hour debate, but they were largely spurred by those struggling to catch up to Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in opinion polls. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, whose hopes may live or die in Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses, continued to assail Gingrich for his work for Freddie Mac, the federal mortgage guarantor he has criticized for contributing to the housing crisis.

Until a few weeks ago, the race for the Republican presidential nomination seemed wide open. There was a presumptive front-runner, Mitt Romney, but he held first place mostly because he was a familiar face; his support among Republican voters appeared broad but not deep. Many conservatives at the party's core weren't happy with Romney, and a line of would-be champions has auditioned for their support, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.