De mortuis nil nisi bonum, except this one time

It's no secret that liberal columnist Richard Cohen doesn't care for the politics of Michele Bachmann. But I'm not sure I'd mount a frontal attack against her this way: "My grandmother was illiterate. She was cossetted in an impregnable ignorance that made her confident in her judgment and unassailable in her opinions. She died many years ago, but I fear she has come back ... as Michele Bachmann." Um, yikes. I guess Cohen didn't get the memo about never speaking ill of the dead, especially from his prominent Washington Post perch -- you know, in front of God and everybody. That said, Cohen's disgust with Bachmann is understandable. The congresswoman recently declared that the elites have it all wrong on the debt ceiling. If it is not raised, absolutely nothing bad will happen, she said with Grandma Cohen certitude. This observation is totally nuts, of course. Cohen writes: "What is scary about Bachmann is that she has done away with reason itself. She believes what she believes because she believes it. I have seen this before. Grandma, welcome back." Actually, I think Grandma Cohen is probably spinning in her grave. (By the way, the Latin phrase De mortuis nil nisi bonum means "Of the dead, speak no evil.")