A simple enough mistake, to confuse an American idol with his infamous namesake, John Wayne Gacy, born in Waterloo on March 17, 1942. While the Duke killed thousands on the silver screen, Mr. Gacy killed a mere 30 or so, whose bodies he buried beneath his home or in his yard, or dumped in a river. Of course, the people Mr. Gacy killed really died. Mr. Gacy did have a sordid connection with Waterloo, recounted in great detail by Wikipedia.
It's not the fact that Rep. Bachmann (or her staff, perhaps) confused the two in an effort to reinforce her Iowa roots. Rather, it's the fact that this is as substantive as Michele Bachmann gets when she's not promoting herself as a "constitutional conservative", trying to explain why the government funds her family's operations have received have not benefitted her, or launching personal attacks on President Obama.
Ms. Bachmann, explaining her John Wayne gaffe, said that she is introducing herself to America and wanted voters to know that she has a "strong scholarly academic background." Really, she said that. She provided no detail, so I've gone looking for it and for her qualifications for the office of president of the United States. Here's what I found.
Born in 1956, she lived in Iowa until her parents moved to Anoka, Minnesota, taking her with them. They divorced a bit later and her mother remarried. Bachmann graduated high school in 1974, then attended Winona State College through 1978. She enrolled at the O.W. Coburn School of Law in 1979, as a member of its first class, and graduated 7 years later, as a member of its final graduating class. (Of the three law schools operating in Minnesota at the time, two expected their often part-time students to graduate within 4 years; one expected students to graduate in 3 years.)
Two years after graduating from law school, Bachmann earned an LL.M. degree from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA. While I have no information on the William and Mary LL.M. program of the time, today's LL.M. program is "designed for foreign educated attorneys who want a comprehensive overview of the American legal system." Today's LL.M. program at William and Mary is a one year program, as are and were typical LL.M. degree programs around the country. Why it took two years for Bachmann to complete the program, I don't know.For the next 5 years, Bachmann worked as an attorney for the IRS, during which time she says she "worked on hundreds of civil and criminal cases as a federal tax litigation attorney." We're not told what level of responsibility she had in these cases or what level of supervision she received. We're also told that she worked as an attorney in private practice at some point, although I've found nothing indicating when or where. According to the Minnesota Supreme Court attorney database, her license was voluntarily suspended at some point.
In 1993, at the age of 37, Bachmann quit the practice of law to, in her words, become a full-time mother to her then 4 children.
Her husband, Marcus Bachmann, claims to have received his Ph.D. 23 years ago, about the time Michelle began work with the IRS. (Some have questioned Mr. Bachmann's report of having earned a Ph.D. at Union Graduate School in Ohio. Presumably, this refers to the Union Institute and University, then known as the Union Institute. Although the organization does currently offer a Psy.D. in clinical psychology, it does not currently offer a Ph.D. in psychology. The Union is not a traditional educational institution and has had it's share of criticism regarding its programs, including a 2002 Reauthorization Report from an accrediting body stating that expectations for doctoral candidates "were not as rigorous as is common for doctoral work[.]" )
It was in 1993 that Michele Bachmann became involved in the creation and operation of K-12 North Heights Charter School in Stillwater, MN. She later ceased her involvement when she and others were accused of attempting to fund religious instruction with public money.
It was about the same time that Michele and Marcus Bachmann became licensed foster care providers. Michele Bachmann is fond of saying that she and her husband raised 23 foster children. The facts are, however, that she and her husband were licensed for a period of 7.5 years and were permitted to foster no more than 3 children at a time. Over 90 months, that equates to fewer than 4 months per foster child if each were to have been fostered individually or less than one year assuming three foster children at a time. The New York Times reports, many of the children referred to the Bachmann's were short-term foster care arrangements, for which the Bachmanns received as much as $47 per day. Given the fact that Marcus Bachmann presumably was busy trying to build his practice and Michele Bachmann had no source of income, I trust I can be excused for suspecting that foster care was an important source of income to the Bachmanns.
By 1999, Michelle Bachmann was ready for politics. She ran for and lost a seat on the school board. The next year, she ran a covert campaign against long-time Republican State Senator Gary Laidig. He never saw her coming and he lost the Republican nomination. She went on to win election to the State Senate in November, 2000, and re-election in 2002. By 2004, she'd made it to Assistant Minority Leader in charge of Policy for the Republican Senate Caucus. By the summer of 2005, she was out of that position. She saw herself as a martyr on the cross of her constituents' concerns. I've found no record of significant legislation authored by State Senator Bachmann.
Bachmann was elected to Congress four and one-half years ago, in November, 2006. Since then , she has attacked a good many things and people, but done little legislatively. She is a co-author of legislation which would repeal laws banning the sale of incandescent light bulbs in the future and was listed as a co-author on the Credit and Debit Card Receipt Clarification Act, signed into law in 2008. More recently, she introduced legislation which would repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law last July by President Obama.
At the beginning of the current session, as Republicans took control of the House, she asked for and received appointment to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, despite never having served on any committee addressing foreign policy issues.
Viewed in their best light, Michele Bachmann's credentials for the presidency come down to 9 years of the study of law, 5 years in the practice of law, 7 years as a mother-foster mother, a brief stint as a charter school organizer, undistinguished service as a state legislator, and 4.5 years as a member of Congress, with no signifcant legislative accomplishments and a history of opposition to multiple causes, unmatched by any affirmative leadership on her part.
Her former chief of staff, Ron Carey, spoke out against her candidacy yesterday. Although his words were delivered in service to his current master, Tim Pawlenty, they bear repeating here: Michele Bachmann is "a faithful conservative with great oratory skills, but without any leadership experience or real results from her years in office. She is not prepared to assume the White House in 2013."
