Katha Pollitt: Still Lots of Right-Wing Mayhem to Go Around

The right seems to have decided that the culture war, like just about everything else, sells better if promoted by attractive youthful spokesmoms. Goodbye Pat Buchanan, hello Sarah Palin -- and an especially big shout-out to that bright-eyed smiling newcomer to the national hate sweeps, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann. Bachmann, as you may know, has become a YouTube star, thanks to her interview on "Hardball," in which, talking to an incredulous Chris Matthews, she called for the news media to ferret out "anti-American" members of Congress.

The stronger Obama gets, the more unhinged the Republicans become -- at least, those Republicans who haven't already detached (Chris Buckley! Colin Powell! Charles Krauthammer! Peggy Noonan! Kenneth Adelman!) -- although to be fair, Bachmann has been sending bulletins from Outer Wingnuttia for quite a while. In August she mocked Nancy Pelosi for "global warming fanaticism ... She has said that she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago." Bachmann also claimed that Democrats want high gas prices in order to force Americans to move to "the inner city." Watch out, Real America, Democrats want to turn you into blacks.