House Intelligence Committee Chair states there is nothing to Bachmann's conspiracy theory

House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) condemned Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy and her personal attack on Huma Abedin. He's kind of forced to do this as her attack was so scurrilous and was against a well-connected and well-liked person.

That kind of assertion certainly doesn't comport with the Intelligence Committee, and I can say that on the record. I have no information in my committee that would indicate that Huma is anything other than an American patriot.

This was not an activity that was sanctioned as any intelligence committee matter.

There are expectations about how someone ought to behave when they have access to the kind of information that someone on the Intelligence Committee has access to. Do Republicans really want someone as unstable as Bachmann on this Committee?

They certainly don't want her in leadership despite her seniority and power. They know how she operates and have shown their disapproval.

But Rogers also distances himself and his Committee from her Degrees-from-Kevin-Bacon-style guilt by association smear campaign. Why?

First, because he doesn't want his name tarnished by her McCarthyism. And, secondly, because he doesn't want to face any possible calls to remove him from his leadership post for aiding and abetting Bachmann's McCarthyism.