Senate Democrats go after Bachmann on jobs

Senate Democrats went on the attack against GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) on Firday, accusing her of rooting for a bad economy. 

The Democratic Policy and Communications Center (DPCC), the messaging clearinghouse run by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), accused Bachmann of rooting for high unemployment, and saying she had "adopt[ed] Senate GOP political strategy."

The attack seemed to be the first of its kind by congressional Democrats to so directly take aim at a Republican presidential candidate, at such an early stage of the campaign.

At issue was the reaction Bachmann gave Friday morning on CNBC to the poor June jobs report.

The Tea Party congresswoman was asked whether she thought the the high unemployment rate would improve her chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination, and eventually beating President Obama in 2012. 

"Well, that could be," she said. "Again, I hope so — my candidacy is one that I'm presenting to be a job creator, and turn the economy around."

That comment was first picked up and promoted by the liberal blog ThinkProgress, which promoted Bachmann's comments as being in favor of poor economic performance for her own political advantage.

The DPCC said that Bachmann's comment "gives fresh evidence of cynical party-wide strategy," and linked it to Senate Republicans' efforts to block spending measures that Democrats contend would create jobs. 

"It's stunningly bad news. It's bad news for the president politically, but it's even worse news for Americans on Main Street," Bachmann said at the top of the interview of the jobs report.

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