Plato, Bachmann, and a petty letter

Plato wrote, "Give me the songs of a nation and it matters not who writes its laws." Rock star Tom Petty hit the news yesterday when his handlers sent a cease-and-desist letter to GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann: The letter demanded that she never ever use at a campaign event Petty's song "American Girl."

The demand may not be more evidence of liberalism's Bachman Derangement Syndrome. Jim Newell of Gawker wrote, "These requests are not uncommon for Republican candidates. . . . They can never use the easygoing, overplayed songs that they enjoy on FM radio, and they learn that their favorite artists despise them. Democrats' problem, on the other hand, is that they have to feign gratitude to all the musicians who write bad songs for them."

Regardless of how conservatives do in polls and even in Congress, we still have a liberal-dominated country as long as Republicans have trouble even using popular songs. I still remember Election Night in Austin, Texas, in 2000, when the Bush celebration started hanging by a Florida chad and all the GOP could offer for evening entertainment was Wayne Newton, best known for his 30,000 appearances in Las Vegas and his 1963 song "Danke Schoen."

But Gawker's Newell may be the first on the media block to show some sympathy for the candidate many pundits love to hate. He wrote, "Are the sharks out for Michele Bachmann, or what? Little miscues that offer a quick, innocent laugh at first become over-reported multiday scandals about how she's the stupidest person alive."