The New York Times is rolling out the big guns against Michelle Bachmann as her campaign starts to gain traction. Recently columnist Timothy Egan took the lead in what is fast becoming the default argument: “Michelle Bachmann and her family take government money!” Furrowing his brow, Egan writes:

But what is more troubling [than Bachmann’s insistence that lowering the minimum wage would increase employment] is the issue raised by taxpayer payments for various Bachmann family enterprises. This is where rigid ideology meets mushy reality. The Bachmann family farm in Wisconsin got $251,000 in federal handouts from 1995 to 2009, according to the invaluable table of subsidies put out annually by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based research organization… . Her husband, Marcus Bachmann, while farming the government one way through the business of his parents, tills another field of federal money with his mental health clinic in Lake Elmo, Minn., which offers “quality Christian counseling” for the troubled. The clinic has collected Medicaid payments of roughly $137,000 since 2005, NBC News reported this week, on top of $24,000 in state funds to train the clinic’s staff.

Although Eagan does not mention it, there is also a widespread rumor that the Bachmann’s family uses the U.S. Post Office to deliver their mail. Read more at spectator.org

A gathering of tea party activists near Capitol Hill this morning suggested members of that demographic are still very much up for grabs.  Representatives of about 60 conservative activist groups were in town this weekend to talk organizing strategies for the 2012 elections with FreedomWorks, the conservative advocacy group that helped kick start the tea party back in 2009.

Ms. Bachmann received loud applause when a reporter asked those in attendance to take an informal straw poll on the 2012 field. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is still debating whether to run, also got robust applause, while Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) appeared to come in third. Pizza magnate Herman Cain was applauded but one audience member shouted out, “He can’t win.”  Still, that was better than Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who were booed. (Too liberal, those in attendance said.) Few in the crowd of about 100 wanted to give it up for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Read more at www.wallstreetjournal.com

Rep. Michelle Bachmann has invited Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal firm, to teach one of her Tea Party classes in Congress.

Staver has declared that separation of church and state is not mandated in the Constitution and said that Americans United for Separation of Church and State, led by the Rev. Barry Lynn,  is “out to literally destroy America; they’re out to erase our religious heritage and religious symbols from every area of life.” Read more at www.goddiscussion.com

Every 40 to 50 years we see a major shift in our party system which is called realignment. These realignments can take many forms, but the most popular are those which give birth to a new party or change the traditional base of the two parties  to reflect a new political landscape.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s speech following President Obama’s State of the Union address was a strong signal to the Republican leadership that what they think really does not matter to the new Tea Party arm of the Republican Party. It was a decisive statement about the unity within the party.

The Tea Party is going in the other direction by emphasizing liberty and limited government, but they are doing so with some ambiguous references to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers, without direct reference to which part or to whom. Read more at www.mpnnow.com