Michele Bachmann and George Bush: It's Complicated

If there are two things we know about Michele Bachmann, it's that she loves George W. Bush and she loves dressing up. In her latest memoir, Core of Conviction, Bachmann tells a story about the day those two loves coincided.

It began in 2006, when Bush came to lend his support to her faltering congressional campaign. Not knowing what to wear, Bachmann consulted her mother.  The two decided that she should wear pink. All pink. Molly Ringwald in a cotton candy factory disaster pink. Pink shoes, dress, purse, and gloves. Bachmann's "straight" guy with a "queer" eye must have been gnashing his teeth in the other room.

That day, Bush surprised Bachmann with an invitation to ride in his limousine…

But as she rode in the car with then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty, then Sen. Norm Coleman and Bush’s top aide Karl Rove, she could see the president that she described as "a good listener" who responded "thoughtfully" disagreed with her mother’s advice.

"Speaking of thoughtful, he looked down at my pink-gloved hand and asked with a crinkly smile: 'Why are you wearing those gloves?'" she wrote. "I explained and he said gently, 'Lose the gloves.' I could see Rove agreed."

Bachmann lost the gloves, agreeing that they were over-the-top, and won the election. So from that day on, her mother had to sit at the "socialist's table" during all holiday meals, OR SO WE CAN IMAGINE.

Also, one day while waiting for the former president to speak, Bachmann was reading Team of Rivals when Karl Rove came over and told her to avoid being photographed while reading. And so, from that day on, she stopped reading altogether, OR SO WE CAN DEDUCE FROM THE EVIDENCE BEFORE US.

Photo by Charles Ommanney/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Books, George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Michele Bachmann, Primaries, Republicans