Michele Bachmann Just Can't Help Herself

For the second time today, we can't believe we're writing this.

Not content with simply calling for armed revolt against the Obama administration, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has gotten even more insane. She has now signed on to a ludicrous right-wing conspiracy theory that the White House plans to scrap the U.S. dollar in exchange for a new-world-order global currency.

From a press release on Bachmann's website ...

In response to suggestions by China, Russia, and other countries around the world calling on the International Monetary Fund to explore a multi-national currency, U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (MN-6) has introduced a resolution that would bar the dollar from being replaced by any foreign currency.

"Yesterday, during a Financial Services Committee hearing, I asked Secretary Geithner if he would denounce efforts to move towards a global currency and he answered unequivocally that he would," said Bachmann. "And President Obama gave the nation the same assurances. But just a day later, Secretary Geithner has left the option on the table. I want to know which it is. The American people deserve to know."

Asked today about a currency proposal from China at a Council on Foreign Relations event, Secretary Geithner stated he was open to supporting it. Despite attempts to clarify his remarks later in the day, the unguarded initial response calls into question his true intentions.

The problem is, no one is suggesting that a global currency be introduced. The confusion (exacerbated by the Drudge Report, which Bachmann presumably has as her homepage), lies in China's suggestion that a global reserve currency be established to back financial transactions between nations, as is done in IMF transactions. The reserve currency would alleviate the instability caused by relying on the dollar, with its fluctuating value. This propsal is fairly radical, but it has nothing to do with eliminating national currencies.

But those details are lost on Bachmann, who would apparently rather rabble-rouse about yuan and euros replacing dollars on American streets than actually take the time to learn the facts.