Why Democrats are sad about Michele Bachmann's retirement - The Week
Indeed, says Reid Wilson at National Journal, liberals have delighted in using Bachmann as something of a bogeyman on issues ranging from abortion to taxes. She created headline-grabbing problems for her party, while failing to get much of anything done in Congress that furthered the conservative cause.
Bachmann may have been the loudest member of the class of 2006, the one who inspired the most heated arguments. But she will hardly be the most consequential; her enduring legacy may be the lessons she taught in how to lose friends and become completely uninfluential.
With her exit, Democrats lose a potent fundraising tool. Republicans lose a headache they would just as soon do without. [National Journal]
And here's Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly:
Like any left-of-center political writer, I've appreciated Bachmann's hijinks over the years, not just because of her ability to bring The Crazy like no one else, but because she really did complicate the lives of those who wanted to neatly divide today's radicalized conservative movement into secular and religious "wings," or treat the Tea Party as something new and different from yesterday's extremists. [Washington Monthly]