If you don’t have time to read Ryan Lizza’s long profile of Rep. Michele Bachmann, Christian Heinz has posted some of the best excerpts (including how Team Bachmann thinks Drudge is pro-Mitt Romney).
Heinz omitted one excerpt that I found very interesting: The notion that the Bachmann versus Tim Pawlenty rivalry was foreshadowed more than a decade ago:
In 1999, Bachmann ran for a seat on the Stillwater school board, but, dogged by the charter-school debacle, she lost. The following year, however, she made good on her threat to [then-state senator Gary] Laidig. She and her fellow-activists crowded into the Republican endorsement convention, at a middle school in St. Paul. The activists first attacked a moderate Republican, Mark Holsten, but Tim Pawlenty, who was then the Minnesota House majority leader, rounded up votes to save him. Laidig was not so fortunate. Bachmann beat him easily, and went on to win the general election.
More than a decade ago, Tim Pawlenty was a Republican leader helping support establishment candidates — and Michele Bachmann was an insurgent — trying to upset the apple cart.
The more things change…