Newt Gingrich said at a conservative fundraiser that Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) will become a committee chair if the GOP takes back the House in 2010.
The often-controversial Republican representative and Tea Party spokeswoman has repeatedly taken the media spotlight for her outrageous anti-Obama claims and conspiracy theories too extreme even for Glenn Beck.
If Bachmann gets reelected in 2010, which it looks like she will, it would be the congresswoman's third term, making a potential chair position a huge step up from her current lone appointment as a sitting member on the Financial Services Committee. The most junior chairs are currently seventh term representatives Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), Chair of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Bob Brady (D-Pa.), Chair of the Committee on House Administration.
Think Progress notes that though appointing junior congressional members to powerful committee seats is not standard House practice, it would be nothing new for Gingrich:
"When Gingrich steered Republicans to victory in the 1994 midterms, he similarly bypassed seniority and appointed his most trusted lieutenants to powerful committee chairs."
The former House leader gave no word on which committee he thinks Bachmann will be qualified to chair.