…..by being willing to simply stop running for re-election, she is making it likely that another Republican will inherit her seat in Congress rather than her being defeated by a Democrat, as she deserves.

Bachmann Won’t Seek Re-election Next Year

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Published: May 29, 2013

WASHINGTON — Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican whose status as a leading voice of the Tea Party movement in Congress has faded in the wake of a failed presidential bid and a widening investigation into her campaign spending, said Wednesday that she would not seek re-election.

Mrs. Bachmann, defiant as ever as she insisted that she would have won re-election had she tried, also said the legal inquiries had nothing to do with her decision. She vowed to continue to fight for the principles she said she holds dear: religious liberty, traditional marriage, family values and opposition to abortion.

“I fully anticipate the mainstream liberal media to put a detrimental spin on my decision not to seek a fifth term,” she said in a gauzy network-television-quality video posted on her campaign Web site. “They always seemed to attempt to find a dishonest way to disparage me. But I take being the focus of their attention and disparagement as a true compliment of my public service effectiveness.”

Mrs. Bachmann spent heavily in her last Congressional campaign and eked out a victory by less than two percentage points. She would have been one of the Democrats’ top targets in the 2014 elections, but her decision not to run by no means guarantees them a victory in the conservative-leaning district.

Like Jesse Helms before her, Rep. Bachmann is a right-wing extremist nutcase who never belonged in Congress. But she was useful as a tool for the deranged and bigoted Tea Party movement, just as Sarah Palin was before her. But Palin failed and so has Bachmann at last.