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[From the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire]
Bachmann to Intelligence Committee
By Patrick O'Connor
December 17, 2010, 5:45 PM ET
Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who helped create a tea party caucus of House members is getting a seat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Speaker-designate John Boehner (R, Ohio) named Ms. Bachmann, a favorite with tea party activists, to the panel a few weeks after she bowed out of a potentially combative race for the job of Republican Conference chairman, the no. 4 slot in the party’s leadership hierarchy.
Ms. Bachmann has become a prolific fundraiser and influential voice for the party’s conservative base. She raised more than $13 million in the last two.
She also has a record of making sparks fly with her comments on a wide array of issues.
In 2008, she caused an uproar after she suggested President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were “anti-American” and called on the media to investigate whether members of Congress are “pro-American or anti-America.” Last month, she said the White House was spending $200 million-a-day for the president’s trip to Asia – a figure the White House dismissed as “a long trip from reality.”
Ms. Bachmann, in a statement, said it “was a leading desire of mine to serve on this panel because of the key role it plays in keeping our nation safe.”
Members of the Intelligence Committee receive regular classified briefings from various intelligence agencies in a secure site in the Capitol complex. Lawmakers are sworn to secrecy.
Other new Republicans on the panel next year include incoming Nevada Rep. Joe Heck and Reps. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey, Devin Nunes of California, Tom Rooney of Florida and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia.
[Thanks to Bill for the heads up on this story.]
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