Thank goodness Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann was re-elected to Congress last November. There was a tense moment when I feared her loony support for un-American activities investigations had hurt her chances, but the forces of liberal darkness were held at bay. For that we can all be grateful, because I hate to think of what we would have missed had her special brand of paranoia been uprooted. Under the appropriate hothouse conditions -- Barack Obama's presidency and a Democratically controlled Congress -- Bachmann's nuttiness has truly blossomed.

A few weeks ago, Bachmann fretted on KTLK radio in Minnesota that Obama would create "re-education camps for young people," saying " I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service."

Her most recent gem? The super-subtle link between Democratic presidents and the Swine Flu. And to think the rest of us missed it. Democrat in the oval office? Swine Flu! Swine Flu? Democrat in the oval office!

Here are her musings:

"I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."

This would be barmy under any circumstances, but Republican Gerald Ford was actually president during the last outbreak.

Photo: Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, speaks to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Credit: Associated Press/Paul Sancya