In Sarasota, Fla. yesterday, Michele Bachmann suggested that the recent spate of natural disasters showed that God was sending Washington a message.
“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’” Bachmann said, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
“Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending,” Bachmann continued.
According to Rochester, N.Y. TV station WHEC, Bachmann made the comments “humorously.” Afterwards, she said, “My comments were not ones that were meant to be taken lightly. What I was saying in a humorous vein is that there are things that politicians need to pay attention to. It’s not every day that we have an earthquake in the United States. What I think that we are seeing is that in this country we have to have margin, financially. When we are so out over the cliff financially we don’t have the margin that we need anymore.”
UPDATE: Bachmann press secretary Alice Stewart tells Talking Points Memo about Bachmann’s remarks, “”Obviously she was saying it in jest.”