Gotta love the left

Never one to pass up a chance at self-promotion, Eva Young drops me a email saying she suggested on her site that a Wisconsin group opposing the “anti-gay marriage ballot measure” work with me, I assume on a conservative approach to opposing the measure.

I apparently took a good shot in the comments.

Working with Westover? Are you kidding? He'll be on the Bachmann Bandwagon along with the rest of the whackjobs in the GOP. Like all good Republicans, he'll sell out whatever grain of common sense he may have about the Bachmann amendment in order to get in lockstep with the party and its Christian Crusader leaders.

You got to love the incisive logic of the left -- if someone meets you halfway you don’t have to go quite as far to kick them in the groin.

Yes, baring some hell-freezing event, I’ll be a loyal Bachmann supporter. Loyalty, for those who bother to give the concept any thought, includes reminding a person when you think they’re straying from the principles for which you admire them. Along with his fiscal conservatism, that's why I supported Phil Krinkie for the nomination -- he’s not afraid to stand up to the party on principle, and that’s why I’m continuing to chide Mark Kennedy for his ridiculous gas tax holiday proposal -- Republicans should do better.

Party loyalty means trying to make one’s party better; not the kind of blind allegiance the commenter obviously has to all things non-Bachmann. As I said in my column endorsing Krinkie, Michele holds solid conservative ideas on issues that count. Sure she has some “dumb” positions, but if she had all the "correct" answers, she’d be hobby columnist instead of a politician.

Picking a political candidate is not based on 40 key points of compatibility. To borrow a thought from Virginia Postrel, former editor of Reason Magazine, I’m voting for a candidate, not a mother. I’m not required to stand for everything Michele Bachmann stands for; when I disagree with her, I’ll say so. But given the options being suggested by the DFL, at this point in time, Bachmann’s the best choice.

At least her supporters are smart enough to engage people that disagree with her, rather than giving them a swift kick to their respective groins.