The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol puts his general support for Michele Bachmann aside for a minute as he criticizes the Minnesota Representative’s promotion of a "silly position." Kristol is referring to an advertisement featuring Bachmann's face next to the message: "Tell Congress, Don't Raise the Debt Ceiling."

Bachmann's goal is to obtain enough signatures for a petition to push Congress to cap government borrowing or, as her ad reads, "stop spending cold turkey."

"This is irresponsible," Kristol argues, pointing out that, as far as he is concerned, no realistic plan to bring the deficit down to zero in just a few months (what the government would need to do if unable to increase spending) exists.

Kristol makes a final plea to Bachmann:

If Michelle Bachmann has such a plan [to solve the deficit this quickly], she should share it with us. If not, she should withdraw her endorsement of the "cold turkey" petition, and help figure out what legislation could be attached tot he debt ceiling or passed separately that would further the cause of real spending restraint and reduction. But there's no turkey cold enough to enable us to avoid raising the debt ceiling.

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Caitlin Dickson