Politics digest

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told supporters God was sending a message to Washington politicians through the earthquake and hurricane that pummeled the East Coast over the weekend, according to a report in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. The hurricane killed at least 40 people, including at least two children.

While giving a speech about the merits of small government and tea-party activism, Bachmann said:

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending."

Bachmann's press secretary told reporters that she was "saying it in jest" to prove a point.

The three-term congresswoman's comments, joking or not, moved into "risky territory," Politico writes. This may be especially true for a candidate who, in the two months since she announced her candidacy, has faced many questions about her religious worldview.

Bachmann was asked during an August debate about whether she would "submit" to her husband's authority in her potential role as president. (She answered that, in her marriage, submission "means respect.") Her husband's Christian counseling center also has been criticized for advancing controversial "reparative therapies" for homosexuality.

Bachmann's hurricane-earthquake comment is "not exactly a mainstream meteorological view," Politico wrote. But a Public Religion Research Institute/Religion News Service poll from earlier this year found that nearly 40 percent of Americans "believe that earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters are a sign from God."

Bachmann signs deal for memoir

Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Group (USA), announced Monday that it has made a deal with Michelle Bachmann for a memoir that will arrive in November.

The book, reports of which first circulated in June, is now untitled. Sentinel declined to comment on reports that Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund co-wrote the memoir.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Bachmann is not permitted to receive an advance against royalties.

According to Sentinel, Bachmann will "share previously untold stories" about her private life, "including her roles as a tax attorney, a wife, a mother of five and a foster mother of 23." Virtually all of the Republicans candidates have published books, a standard for modern presidential campaigns.

Perry pushes jobs without stimulus

TULSA, Okla. — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry said Monday that no new economic-stimulus package is needed to "get America working again," but he declined to give specifics about how his still-unannounced plan to jump-start the nation's economy would create jobs.

During an appearance at the Tulsa Press Club, Perry said the nation's "entrepreneurial spirit" would create jobs and that his tax policies would allow Americans to keep more of what they earn. He said his tax system would be "light on job creators" and called for a more predictable legal system "that doesn't allow for over-suing."

His campaign often cites the 1 million jobs Texas added in a decade that ended with a national recession. Some critics, however, point out that many of those new jobs are low-paying and the product of a low cost of living, so they question how much credit Perry's business-friendly policies actually should get.

Perry called for additional development of the U.S. nuclear-energy industry so the country can become as energy independent as possible.

Earlier Monday, Perry's focus was foreign policy. He said American military commanders should always control U.S. military forces abroad.

"It's not our interest to go it alone," he said. "We respect our allies, and we must always seek to engage them in military missions. But at the same time, we must be willing to act when it is time to act. We cannot concede the moral authority of our nation to multilateral debating societies, and when our interests are threatened American soldiers should be led by American commanders."

Perry did not elaborate on what kinds of world bodies he was referring to.

The Obama administration has backed NATO-led airstrikes in Libya. The Libya operation is being run by a Canadian general from a NATO headquarters in Italy, but a U.S. officer is the top NATO commander — and always has been.

Also

Former GOP congressman Mark Neumann said Monday he will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl.

The Associated Press