Rep. Michele Bachmann and Gov. Tim Pawlenty Sunday made it into the Sunday New York Times but not, likely, in a way they would have wanted.
Times' columnist Frank Rich includes the two in what he sees as a trend toward violent imagery among conservatives, Tea Partiers and Republicans.
Here's the Pawlenty passage:
"...Just one day after Stack crashed his plane into the Austin I.R.S. office — the heretofore milquetoast former Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty, told the audience to emulate Tiger Woods's wife and "take a 9-iron and smash the window out of big government in this country."
(Note: the piece refers to him as the "former Minnesota governor," a mistake that appeared both in print and online Sunday morning.)
And here's the Bachmann passage, which immediately follows:
Such violent imagery and invective, once largely confined to blogs and talk radio, is now spreading among Republicans in public office or aspiring to it. Last year Michele Bachmann, the redoubtable Tea Party hero and Minnesota congresswoman, set the pace by announcing that she wanted "people in Minnesota armed and dangerous" to oppose Obama administration climate change initiatives.
