Looks like I missed something interesting during Michele Bachmann’s visit to SC today:
Bachmann Staff Reportedly Rough Up Journalist Asking Migraine Question
“I have never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event.”
UPDATE #2: It appears as though Bachmann’s camp is now literally pushing back.Time magazine reports that Bachmann’s staff appeared to rough up an ABC News reporter Tuesday who was following Bachmann in an attempt to get the White House hopeful to answer a question about whether she ever missed a House vote as a result of her migraines.The alleged incident happened at a campaign rally in Aiken, S.C., after Bachmann ignored ABC’s Brian Ross’ original question.Time’s Michael Crowley explains:Ross pursued her into a parking area behind the stage. Her aides grew alarmed. When Ross made a beeline for the white SUV waiting to carry Bachmann away, two Bachmann men pounced on him, grabbing and pushing him multiple times with what looked to me like unusual force. In fact, I have never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event, especially not a presidential one. Ross was finally able to break away and lob his question at Bachmann one more time, but she ignored him again.Afterward, I asked Ross — a hard-nosed pro who nevertheless seemed slightly shaken — whether he had ever been treated so roughly. “A few times,” he told me. “Mostly by mafia people.”We should note that Ross has his own story up now on ABCNews.com about Bachmann and her migraines, but the report stops well short of describing the alleged manhandling, instead saying only that Bachmann’s staff “blocked reporters.”…
Maybe I should have gone to that thing she was having at the Christian Chamber of Commerce today. I couldn’t go, though, because I was busy at a Jewish Chamber of Commerce event. OK, not really. I think it was when I was meeting with Cameron. I don’t know; there was some sort of conflict when I saw the calendar item yesterday.
I should have juggled my calendar.
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My hometown, Aiken–wonder where it happened…..
I suffer from migraines, and basically for prevention, you can take pills that make you fat (not Bachmann’s issue) or pills that make you stupid (Topamax, a/k/a/ Dopamax–when I took them I’d have trouble remembering where I was going–wondered if I should be driving, etc.–common side effect is difficulty finding words.) There are meds to take when you get them,the most effective ones are nonnarcotic triptans–which do not mess with your mind, but you really have to take it easy anyway–it softens the pain, but you’re still wiped out–wouldn’t want to deal with a nuclear crisis, say…
Here’s the source story:
http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/18/stress-related-condition-incapacitates-bachmann-heavy-pill-use-alleged/
“–wouldn’t want to deal with a nuclear crisis, say…”
Like JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis, perhaps. According to TIME Magazine:
“… whose life was a hidden ordeal of pills and injections, the one whose severe chronic back pain led him eventually to find relief in amphetamine shots from Max Jacobson, the celebrity physician later known as Dr. Feelgood.”
Lets bash ALL lawyers in the political realm fairly, shall we?
And by all means let’s include #2 Joe Biden who, in April 1968, was reclassified by the Selective Service System as not available for service due to his history of asthma — hmm!
So Ms. Bachmann has brought her anti-tax, anti-governmental message to Aiken – the town that owes its middle class prosperity to federal spending over the last six decades. How soon we forget.
Watched the NBC news last night and no mention was made of the roughing up incident. NBC is pretty classy not to make their reporting the news story.
As for the central issue in this story, the migraines, Bachmann needs to come clean about how severe these things get. Not sure I want a president who is paralyzed by a health issue at the moment of a crises.
I am just glad her medications are covered by her health plan. I bet they are not cheap. Can’t just pray the migraine away.
A migraine arrives very suddenly and feels like ice picks stabbing your face while a hammer hits a vise gripping your skull. It truly becomes difficult to think….I also have had severe back pain, which can be certainly be truly painful, but not as sudden or intense as a migraine. Back pain lasts, it seems, forever, which is horrible, but it is not as acute.
I doubt asthma would incapacitate a desk worker, but perhaps Brad could speak to that.
–and bud–it was an ABC reporter who got roughed up…
I don’t have a problem with reporters getting roughed up, they’ve all become like the paparazzi… but without the cameras and ladders.
bud – We didn’t seem to have a problem back in the 1960’s with a president who had back pain so bad he was doped up out of his mind most of the time. If a Democrat can do it, I don’t see why a Republican can’t.
This woman is as crazy as a bag of wasps. I never thought I’d see anyone crazier or more nonsensical, until her husband emerged into the public eye. All that is missing from him, is a sash and a tiara on the campaign trail. Jeesh.
it was an ABC reporter who got roughed up…
-KF
Maybe that’s why they didn’t say anything about it on the NBC news. I guess I need to pay more attention to details.
@ Tim– I take Maxalt when I get a migraine–up to two a day, at $5 per pill, with my insurance. I can only wonder how much they cost w/o it–I suspect folks go to the ER….
Her congressional health plan is probably pretty good. I am just glad she is able to treat it with the proper meds. My wife used to have migraines, so I am familiar with them. I would have to keep the house completely quiet. Once I had to tell my parents they couldn’t stay at the house and they had to get a hotel room. The sound of just people in the house was excruciating. I can only imagine how bad it would be for her to have to go to the ER, wait for hours on end in flourescent lighting, waiting for a doc to prescribe a pill.
Hate to say it, but migraines really fall far down on the list of debilitations facing Bachmann.
Juan, about the asthma thing… the military won’t let you in if you have that. It kept them from ever considering me. I thought about seeking a commission once, but my Dad, the career naval officer, told me not to bother trying. When recruiters would call our house looking for my older son, my wife would just say “He has asthma,” and they would say goodbye.
I know of one case of a guy being in the Army when they knew he had asthma. You ever see “Blackhawk Down?” I thought there was a gross inaccuracy in the film, because one soldier (a Ranger, not some ordinary dogface) is shown repeatedly using an inhaler. I thought they put that in for dramatic effect (and also to suggest some weakness of character on the part of the soldier — filmmakers often do that with asthmatics, because of the popular conception that we are slackers and that it’s “all in our heads;” I could write a whole treatise about that). But then I read the book and discovered it was true. Specialist Steve Anderson lied about having asthma. They were going to kick him out when they discovered his problem, but he was so committed to being a soldier that he managed to talk the brass into making a special exception. And he became a Ranger. And went to fight in the extreme climate of Somalia in spite of his respiratory problem, which of course argues for particular courage, rather than the bout of near-cowardice suggested in the film.
I’ve always thought it wrong to keep people out for asthma. There’s lots I could have done in the military, including (most of the time) the most strenous stuff. But then, I also intellectually understand that if the military can get guys without asthma, they’d rather.
I asked the commanding general at Fort Jackson about it when I toured there recently. He said you can get in with a history of asthma, but only if you’ve gone a long period of time (two years, I think) without medication. Which would disqualify me even if I weren’t too old. My asthma is under the best control of my life right now. But that’s because I take TWO amazing, expensive drugs every night to keep it that way.
Funny thing, when Kathryn was talking about it being “hard to think,” I was thinking, “You mean, like with asthma?” Pain is one thing. Not having oxygen get to your brain is another. It’s like a cloud. All you can think about is getting oxygen. Your posture, everything you’ve got goes into trying to maximize the amount of that coming in, when you’re having an attack.
but how long does an attack last–could you still deal with, say, a nuclear missile crisis? I honestly don’t know. How easy is asthma to control? The best migraine preventives only half the frequency. If your migraine triggers aren’t easy to avoid (mine include hot weather, changes in weather and stress), like say, red wine and aged cheese, then you are kind of stuck.
I know that once a migraine hits, it 4-72 hours, according to the experts. I truly cannot function if I didn’t take the Maxalt in time.Fortunately, mine only last 4-6 hours–it sounds like she may have longer lasting ones….I have a friend who gets 72 hour ones and nothing seems to help.
My husband has had to remove clock batteries because the ticking was killing me. I have had to take a shower to remove any lingering fragrances.
Another issue is that if she’s taking Topamax to prevent them, it really can knock out your intellectual powers, and may account for some of the, uh, less aware things she’s said.
Hours, days, weeks, months — the rest of your life, if you don’t get effective treatment.
I used to run and play and have a great time as a kid, a lot of the time. But it wasn’t until I got really good drugs in recent years that I realized that I was always sort of held back by it when I was young. I participated in intense sports, and thought I did OK (while wondering why it was so much easier for some other kids) but I discovered after I was an adult that it didn’t have to hurt that much to run a long distance or whatever. Getting the bronchii REALLY open for a change makes a difference.
As for lengths of time. One summer, I was doing great until I spent one night in a house where a cat lived, and was sick the rest of the summer — asthmatic bronchitis.
I was in really top condition the first year I was on the wrestling team in high school (almost no sport, short of triathlon, demands so much conditioning), when, the very day after the first meet I got a cold, which turned into an asthmatic thing. After several days of it, I was taken to the emergency room and received an injection of adrenalin for the first time. I missed two whole weeks of school, and the whole season of wrestling.
That’s why they don’t want us in the Army.
Brad, please know my intent was not to slight you or KF for any health malady.
Odd how Joe Biden, a star football player, but got a Nam deferment. Some of us did our duty.
but with modern meds, can’t you keep it pretty much under control?
There is still very poor prevention/control for migraine…
It’s strange, that with all those hired experts people still get worked up if one person gets headaches. I’m sure if the SHTF, things would get done if the President was in a coma… well maybe except launch nuclear weapons. And if it comes to that, we’re all @^#&ed anyway. Kennedy seemed to do just fine while hooked on narcotics 24-hours a day. Now if the President takes an aspirin people react as if he had a terminal disease.
Juan,
Could you help us recall how many deferments Dick Cheney took because he had “other priorities than serving in the military?” I know this is an important topic for you, and is critical in your decisions about who is worthy to serve as president, perhaps your top criterion. The number is hard to remember because its more than I can count on with one hand. I am just not gifted that way.
Migraines are not “headaches’–they truly incapacitate you suddenly and completely–there was a commercial for a migraine med where a giant anvil dropped out of the sky onto the migraine sufferer–that’s truly what it’s like. You cannot function.
The occasional coma is extremely rare and unexpected. She gets migraines regularly, according to reports. A lot of us were not happy with the apparent delegating to Cheney and Rumsfeld by W. Here we go again?
Tim, the topic was fitness for high office based upon MEDICAL condition.
Cheney’s deferments, however, were based upon college attendance. Were all serving politicians who claimed college exemptions considered, practically every Senate lawyer (mostly liberal Dems) must also be listed.
Juan,
You were clearly implying that the issue was not medical with Biden, it was about finding an excuse. Don’t hide behind that fig leaf. And I really don’t think you want to get into comparing the deferment records during Viet Nam by party affiliation.
Wait–two out of the last three Presidential races featured Democrats who served in Vietnam–volunteered!– running against someone who managed to never leave the country, and President Obama wasn’t the right age to serve in any war…
Then why did you bring up deferments? Seriously. What does something from 40 years ago have to do with his current ability to serve as President? How was that on-point? You know you were referring to it as an excuse not to go into the military, not about his medical condition or his ‘physical inability to serve in the military’. Just own up.
I think Biden would have received a medical discharge. If he opened his mouth at night those 32 over-whitened buck-teeth would have given his position away to the enemy. That and him screaming, “I think they’re over there!!!”. I believe he would have been a casualty of friendly fire.
Yeah, but he could have talked them to death.
I say that in all fondness. I like Joe. On the occasions I’ve met him, I enjoyed hearing him talk — just, perhaps, not quite as much as HE enjoyed hearing him talk…