Bachmann announced a threefold strategy: “Number one, we have to defeat [the Democratic] leadership. … We’ll have that opportunity next year to do exactly that.” Second, “defund the left. … The American people believe that Congress wastes 50 percent — 50 cents or 50 percent of every dollar it spends. God love the American people. They get it.” Finally, she wants to pass “repealer bill[s]” to dismantle the work of the Democratic Congress.

Video after the jump:

It’s possible that Graham was already off for the day (though that isn’t indicated at WTKK’s site), but the slot could have been filled by a like-minded host and wasn’t.

True, the site doesn’t say anything. But I called WTKK today to talk to Graham, who’s a good authority on Massachusetts politics, and found out that he’s … out of the country all week. Some scandal.

Cook volunteered for duty in Afghanistan, then asked for a stay until the president proved that he was an American citizen, then acted surprised when his deployment was canceled. While Lt. Com. William Speaks, a spokesman for CentCom, has debunked Taitz’s conspiracy theories about the court defeat—she has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the military cancelled the deployment because it couldn’t authenticate the president’s citizenship—Hayworth showed no signs of skepticism whatsoever.

Isn’t this difficult for you to say, I’ll continue to bring cases that could concievably undermine national security? Or is the shoe on the other foot with Sec. Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, with their unwillingness to go into court, to be involved in discovery, to really deal with the eligibility of the commander-in-chief?

Hayworth sounded stunned that Cook’s deployment had been cancelled, “rather than the Department of Defense taking up and saying, well, here is the eligibility of the commander.” Like Sean Hannity, he opted for Taitz’s version of the story over CentCom’s, telling listeners that the result “certainly could be characterized as a victory for Maj. Cook and Dr. Orly Taitz.” And he closed the interview by sympathetically asking Taitz if she feared “an atmosphere of intimidation” coming at her from the White House.

But what also shouldn’t come as a surprise is Republicans pretending like the resolution represents a massive departure from the administration’s rhetoric, either. Nowhere in the resolution does it actively support any side or party in Iran, as the administration has refused to do, and every word about human rights is commensurate with what President Obama has said himself. It’s ludicrous for, say, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to say that Obama should “follow the lead of this House” in supporting a resolution that passed because of White House intervention. But this is a stunt for House Republicans to demonstrate their relevance and use the demonstrations as a cudgel against Obama. It should be fairly clear from all the bloviations about Ronald Reagan defeating the Soviet Union by sheer force of will that the GOP doesn’t care about the prospect of U.S. intervention being counterproductive for the Iranian opposition. Indeed, if the regime cracks down on the protesters over the next several days, watch to see Republicans and conservatives lining up to say it’s because Obama didn’t take a stronger stand, whatever that means.

Still, the Obama administration made its bed by working with the resolution. Adam Blickstein at Democracy Arsenal says to expect several days’ worth of self-congratulatory GOP rhetoric pretending that Obama hasn’t said what he’s said or intervened to pass the resolution.

The Wall Street Journal reports today:

New York criminal-defense lawyers say she is surprisingly tough on crime for a Democratic-backed appointee — a byproduct, they believe, of her tenure as a prosecutor.

Makes sense. She may also have been influenced by growing up in a poor and crime-ridden neighborhood in the Bronx. Whatever the reason, she could push the Supreme Court rightward in its rulings on rights of criminal defendants.

As the Journal’s Jess Bravin and Nathan Koppell write:

The Supreme Court’s five conservatives in January held that it was acceptable for prosecutors to use evidence seized by police who mistakenly thought they had a warrant to arrest a suspect.

Justice David Souter dissented, as did the other liberals on the court. But Judge Sotomayor, nominated to succeed Justice Souter, ruled in favor of the police in a similar case 10 years ago. In that case, the judge upheld an arrest and search that never would have happened if police and court officials had kept accurate records.

While it’s impossible to know how she would rule if a case like that came before her today, it does suggest a conservatism on an important issue that until now has been largely overlooked.

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Steve Deace, who hosts a drive-time show on WHO-AM, said society helped create Scott Roeder, the man in custody for the killing of Tiller Sunday morning, by refusing to stop abortion by legal methods.

“Maybe the fact that we have a lawless society that has not protected these babies from infanticide created the Scott Roeders of the world, who in very John Brown-like fashion, illegally took matters into his own hands,” Deace said. “Saying that if the system will not deal with an evil, then to Hell with the system.”

A radical abolitionist, Brown led a gang that brutally killed several pro-slavery figures in Kansas and later led a violent attack upon the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va. He was eventually arrested, charged with treason, and executed. [...]

Deace danced the line throughout his program between celebrating the fact that Tiller is dead and condemning murder. At one point he discussed vengeance, and how the Bible says vengeance “doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to [God.]”  But he admitted being conflicted, saying he is happy that “babies in Kansas are safer today than they were yesterday while George Tiller was still taking in oxygen.”

We have another voice in Washington, DC – a man who understands what Alaskans believe: less centralized government control, restrained budgets, more opportunity for development, and fewer taxes. Today, we have a friend in RNC Chairman Michael Steele and his bold and courageous speech defines his leadership goals that will guide us all through this most difficult time for our nation.

The rest of the statement is rather more specific than Steele’s speech, naming the closure of car dealerships and threats to local health care as the current dangers of the Obama administration.

Crist leads former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) by 35 points, 53-18. No Democrat comes close to Crist in a general election. But according to the poll, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) is viewed much more favorably than Crist among Republicans, with 81 percent liking Bush to only 50 percent with a favorable opinion of Crist. That’s the only sign so far of some Crist softness among Republicans — and Rubio’s only chance at victory.–

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Nearly half of all Americans — 48 percent — disapprove of how [Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] is handling her job as Speaker of the House in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday, while 39 percent approve of her performance … That puts her approval rating at roughly the levels Newt Gingrich had in his first year as Speaker of the House.

Item two:

Newt Gingrich has joined Eric Cantor’s new effort to remake the GOP for the future, a Cantor spokesperson confirms.

Now, obviously the relevance of a Speaker of the House is different than the relevance of a point man for the GOP’s rebranding effort. And Gingrich’s current favorable ratings, while low, are hard to compare to his approval ratings circa 1995. But he’s never been very well liked by the electorate, as CNN implies in making this comparison. It’s strange that the GOP would consider Pelosi “radioactive” (as the Republican National Committee does in a new press release) with a 39 percent approval rating while turning the even-less-popular Gingrich into a national spokesman.