Is Tim Robbins, the famous Hollywood Lefty, a Bachmann booster? The Daily Beast reports:
Loyal Dems would undoubtedly be gobsmacked to learn that, if Federal Election Commission records are to be believed, Robbins has not only donated regularly to Democratic candidates over the past 18 years, he also has written checks to conservative Republicans. In the 2006 election cycle, according to public records, the actor gave $5,000 to 10 Republican candidates for the House and Senate — including, most shocking of all, Minnesota’s resident wingnut, Rep. Michele Bachmann. Why such largesse to the enemy? Former GOP congressman J. D. Hayworth of Arizona, who lost in 2006 despite Robbins’ $500 donation, was baffled and surprised when I reached him over the weekend. “Maybe because I covered the Durham Bulls as a sports broadcaster in the late 1970s and early ’80s? Maybe because I used to frequently rent Bob Roberts back in the ’90s?” Hayworth wondered, mentioning two of Robbins’ starring vehicles. “All I can say is, ‘Thank you!’ I hope he enjoyed the Christmas card.” My efforts to reach Robbins to hear his explanation were unavailing, alas.
Hard to believe, I know. (I won’t believe it until I see some kind of statement from Robbins.) Still, maybe Bob Roberts (which is quite funny in places) was a cry for help. Just think back to John Simon’s review of the film for National Review in November 1992:
Tim Robbins, the writer, director, co-songwriter, and star of the film, who grew up as the son of a Greenwich Village folk-club manager, says his parents weren’t radicals or hippies, though his mother aroused him one night when he was 11 with the news that he should be very proud of his sister: “She was arrested for protesting the Vietnam War.” The mentality that informs Bob Roberts is the spirit of 1968, which, for all its gallant attitudinizing, was not quite the equal of that of 1776.
Perhaps Hollywood thought that Robbins was making a sly satire of the Right when he was really producing his own Witness. And if Robbins really is Right, and looking for a project, I’d be happy to send along some Blackford Oakes books that would make for great movies.