Summary of the day

And a MN-06 update:

Dems Preparing For Major Offensive Against Bachmann
The DCCC now plans to spend $1 million against Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in the wake of her McCarthyite rant on Hardball, sensing that voters back home might end up turning against her extremism. A TV ad should be coming in the next few days. Meanwhile, the Cook Political Report has changed its rating on Bachmann, downgrading her by two whole positions from "Likely Republican" to "Tossup."

Bachmann Challenger's Fundraising Skyrockets
The campaign of Elwyn Tinklenberg, the Democratic challenger against Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), tells Election Central that they've raised $650,000 online since her now-infamous McCarthyite appearance on Hardball. This is an astonishing number for a House race by any measure, and even more special in light of the fact that this is nearly twice his cash-on-hand at the end of September.

Minneapolis Star Tribune:

An Immelmann is a precise aerobatic maneuver in which an airplane performs a half-roll to reverse its direction. A Bachmann is sloppier but more spectacular: To perform a Bachmann, a candidate for Congress puts her foot in her mouth, talks stupidly for seven minutes and watches her reelection campaign burst into flames.

Michele Bachmann, Minnesota's Sixth District member of Congress and former bush-hiding peeker on gay rights rallies, exploded on the cable TV show "Hardball" Friday, questioning Barack Obama's patriotism and suggesting that all 535 members of Congress be investigated to determine which ones are "anti-American." Immediately, money began flowing to the campaign of her main opponent on Nov. 4, Elwyn Tinklenberg, who has both DFL and Independence Party endorsement, as well as at least $800,000 in campaign contributions he didn't have before Bachmann pulled her early Halloween "Fright Night" on MSNBC. But she did more than get Tinklenberg revved.

She put herself in the sights of an Immelman again.

Aubrey Immelman, 52, is a psychology professor at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., who ran against Bachmann in the Republican primary. He finished second, with just 14 percent of the vote, but he got his campaign off the ground again Saturday by announcing he will run as a write-in candidate on Nov. 4 in the hope of knocking Bachmann out.

A South African immigrant to the United States who chose Minnesota for the great walleye fishing and the great colleges, Immelman has taught at St. John's since 1991. He calls himself a moderate Republican and says he supported Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000, but opposes the disastrous turn in U.S. foreign policy that followed the Iraq war.

"I gave up everything to come here, which is why I feel so strongly about the direction my country has been taking," he said Monday. "I'm a proud, patriotic American. And I cannot tolerate this festering brand of neo-McCarthyism Michele Bachmann is pushing."

Good to see some hope for the Republican party; hopefully someone like him can give Tinklenberg reasonable opposition in '10.