where is lexington, new hampshire?

ever do a google search for lexington, nh?

yep, she said it. michele bachmann, at no fewer than two recent and different nh campaign stops, i mean speaking engagements, since she hasn't yet (nor may she after this one) declared any presidential candidacy, credited the great state of new hampshire with having "fired the shot heard round the world". obvious from her remarks is her ignorance of the coincidental naming of the new hampshire state capitol with the more belligerent massachusetts town to the south, as well as fundamental grade-school american history. her retort after having been called out? "so i misplaced the battles concord and lexington by saying they were in new hampshire. it was my mistake, massachusetts is where they happened. new hampshire is where they are still proud of it!"

gop consultant mike murphy went deeper than my ken for the best line i've yet seen on the gaffe, observing that bachmann "makes sarah palin look like count metternich". (did you know that henry kissinger wrote his harvard doctoral dissertation on said count? i do now!)

as for any potential point of pride, i've never heard anyone from new hampshire taking any from even an inch south of their southern border, nor need they. as for the implication that we here in the greatest state in the union might be lacking, let me just say that i am, as are all patriotic sons and daughters of massachusetts, constantly and profoundly offended by certain political opportunists' misappropriation of the revolutionary spirit and heritage of our commonwealth, from the original tea party, straight through our forcing of the evacuation of boston on march 17th of 1776 (otherwise known in less-patriotic locales these days as st patrick's day) and including the battles at lexington and concord, bunker and breeds hill, and many others as well. doubt us? look up daniel shays and his eponymous rebellion, and consider that nowhere else in this continent has a common population ever as many times stood up to power and demanded fair rights and treatment in the same way or with the same profound results.

yes, without her committees of correspondence and her steadfast and intrepid militia companies rising at the proverbial minute's notice to repel the british military invasion of the massachusetts countryside, (most remarkable in its similarity to colonel moammar's present libyan misadventures), the union formed by the commonwealth of massachusetts and a dozen other copycats quite literally would not exist. any suggestion otherwise by the bandwagon jumpers everywhere else in this country, railing "tea party" against a representative government they neither understand nor respect, is galling to the extreme. yes, we need to stand up these days to our own federal government to recover our forebears' promise of a government of, for and by the people. but, no, the real representatives of welfare states and welfare loafers aren't here in massachusetts. (i've written before of this analysis of federal tax dollars collected vs spent on a state-by-state basis, and did you know that michele bachmann herself is personally the unapologetic recipient of a quarter of a million dollars in federal farm subsidies?).

liberal and conservative, there are toadies and there are free americans expressing honest opinions, but telling them apart is as difficult as it is critically important. trying to insert oneself in front of a idea one neither understands nor respects is the lowest form of political low.