Hell to Pay: Jim Graves vs. (hot damn!) Michele Bachmann

Daily Kos really wants to boot Rep. Michele Bachman out of office. That much is clear by your vote yesterday, when out of a field of five candidates, you gave her opponent Jim Graves 41 percent of the Hell to Pay vote.

What was so motivating to so many Daily Kos readers? This ad against Graves.

And what brought that ad on? Jim Graves took exception when Bachmann said that that Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated the federal government, infiltrated the State Department through an aide to Hillary Clinton. She's said that her colleague in her state's delegation, Rep. Keith Ellison, has ties to the organization. Remember that these allegations sent Sen. John McCain to the Senate floor to roundly denounce Bachmann's allegations:

"When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation, and we all grow poorer because of it."

So when  Jim Graves called Bachmann's attacks a McCarthy-style witch-hunt, he wasn't that far off from Bachmann's GOP colleague, McCain. For that, he was attacked by this crazy, fringe organization that is supporting the crazy fringe Bachmann, saying "Jim Graves defends Muslim Brotherhood."

Bachmann is sometimes an entertaining sideshow in American politics. But what Minnesota, and the nation for that matter, needs right now is not a sideshow. We don't need a person like Bachmann, speaking from a position as a government official and a member of the Intelligence Committee, to be making such dangerous and crazy allegations. We've seen what a poorly produced, obscure YouTube video can do to incite anger and violence in the mid-east. The last thing we need is a representative of the U.S. government saying this kind of shit.

That deserves an answer. Hell, being as crazy as Bachmann and spending money on the airwaves to prove it deserves an answer.

Bonus points for Graves, by the way, for just being a solid, progressive stand-up kind of guy. He's a hotel executive who has the endorsement of of the hospitality union Unite Here. That's because he has a commitment to making his hotels a good place to work.

Our hotel workers are organized. The way we treat all our hotel workers and guests and investors is all about ethics and integrity and we all work hard together for a common goal. [...]

When it comes to our [labor] contracts, we sit across the table and talk. Our interests aren't mutually exclusive but mutually beneficial. The company has to make money and our employees and staff have to have a good life and good livable wages. The people who work for me and my company treat people with respect.

Beating Bachmann would be big. Beating Bachmann with someone like Graves would be humongous. Let's do it.

Jump in. See if we can get 75 donations to Graves in half an hour.

Click here to donate to Jim Graves, and give Michele Bachmann Hell to Pay!

4:25 PM PT: We seem to have a stuck thermometer, but I'm reliably informed that there are 31 donations for $789.01. I love that $0.01, whoever you are who did that!

Keep it up, and we'll try to fix the thermometer.

4:33 PM PT: Ok, sort of fix on the thermometer. This one shows all the Hell to Pay donations we've received in the two weeks we've been running the campaign.

4:40 PM PT: Whooohoooo! We're up to 66 donations and $1,705.53. Go, go, go!!!

4:46 PM PT: All right!!! You've made 79 donations for $1,996.03. That works for me, but let's see if we can get it to 100 by the top of the hour.

4:52 PM PT: Whoa! Big movement in the last 5 minutes! Now we're at 89 donations and $2,202.03. You guys rock!

4:54 PM PT: And now it's 94 donations! Five donations in one minute. I think we can hit 125 by the top of the hour. Let's do it!

4:56 PM PT: Five minutes to go and we've got 96 donations in. Keep it up!

4:58 PM PT: We topped 100!  There's 101 now, for $2,377.05. So we've got five of you old schoolers adding the penny. I just love that.

4:59 PM PT: Ok, we got our thermometer fixed, but it's a little behind the page I've been tracking under the hood.

5:28 PM PT: Yay!!! We broke 125 donation!!! Let's keep it going!