little-friskies.thumbnail.jpgDang it, I hate it when somebody from outside of the state breaks a local story first:

We received this exact tip from three (3) different people we don't know, so it could be true, or not! As always, in America, we let you be the judge:

At the 3rd CD convention, the person I was sitting next to told me she'd heard from a Tink staffer (wouldn't say who), that Bachmann has been observed playing footsie with another unnamed person (probably another rep) at her committee meetings (Financial Services Committee).

The person who observed this asked others about this — and the story is that Bachmann is having an affair with this person.

Would-be sleuths reading this should note that "something about cigarettes" is also a part of this rumor. Hmmmmm. Which Capitol Hill legislators are smokers? Assuming that Michele's into power tropism, there's always John Boehner, who is apparently such a prodigious puffer that he's been described as smelling like an ashtray spritzed with Old Spice.

As for why the pint-sized former beauty pageant contestant would allegedly feel the need to seek an outlet besides Bush's State of the Union speeches for her passions: Danged if I know. Maybe it gets lonely in DC, with friends and family so far away. Maybe she sees the late Helen Chenoweth as her role model. Maybe her hubby Marcus is just that deeply involved in his counseling practice, where he allegedly uses the power of Jesus to try to turn gay Christian youth straight. (Speaking of which: Not only is reparation/reparative therapy frowned upon by ethical psychotherapists, it really doesn't do anything other than shove its gay victims back into the closet. Worse, since many of the therapists are themselves closeted, self-hating gays, the effect of the closeting can cause a moral degeneration that lets the therapist think it's okay to take sexual advantage of his clients. Fortunately, the list of ex-ex-gays willing to reject internalized homophobia grows with each passing day.)

Will this affect Bachmann's re-election bid? Probably not. If the majority of the local press keeps as schtum about this as they did about the revelations in the October 2006 City Pages article (not to mention the Dump Bachmann website, or the discussions on Capitol Hill and elsewhere concerning Norm Coleman's marriage), she likely could sodomize Rick Renzi in broad daylight on the Capitol steps without fear that the news would ever reach Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District. Plus, she has a ton of money in her warchest -- about as much as Democratic First District freshman Tim Walz.

She's probably going to do just fine. Probably.