Michele Bachmann
GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann recently won the Ames straw poll. The 55-year-old Tea Party darling has joined the front-runners of the Republican presidential candidate race. As the first Republican woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota, Bachmann has always strongly abided by her conservative beliefs and her religious faith. She earned additional terms in Congress in 2008 and 2010 and is the current chair of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus. Bachmann strongly advocates spending cuts and feels the necessity of massive cuts to reduce the nation’s deficit. She supports the “full repeal of ObamaCare, an end to taxpayer funding of abortion and for a government that will live within its Constitutional boundaries". On The Today Show, Bachmann spoke about various issues concerning the budget deficit including her stance on taxation, which echoes the Laffer Curve, i.e. taxation dampens growth. Bachmann is unconvinced about the efficacy of Obama’s agenda to tackle the debt crisis and feels that Americans are looking to the Republicans to redress the nation’s ongoing economic crisis. She believes that taxes, resulting from an “out of control” debt, are not conducive for an economy to create jobs. “Under President Obama’s policies and Speaker Pelosi’s policies…their policies are not inducing entrepreneurs to grow and create jobs. Without private job creation, there can be no healthy public sector either. And so, they are making some very foolish decisions that have long term consequences and they bode ill for the debt paying generation,” Bachmann said in an interview to The Lobbyist. “I think people are reacting negatively to what they have observed from the Pelosi/Reid/Obama agenda. People intuitively understand that they can’t live with excessive spending that creates unsustainable levels of debt ... So people are rejecting the Obama agenda. People want to know, ‘Republicans, if we give you the gavel, can we trust you? Will you be responsible? Do you have a plan to get us out of this hole?’ ”she added. Bachmann is also critical of President Obama’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. She believes that the decision came too soon and that the war on terror needs to be won without fail. She is also opposed to embryonic stem cell research. Reuters

The Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People list was released this week, with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., making the list. The list is heating up the debate over who's sexier: Republicans or Democrats?

The Hill, a newspaper focused on all the goings-on in Washington, brought its impartial reporting style to its Most Beautiful People list as 21 Republicans and 21 Democrats were selected by the paper's staff (four honorees described themselves as "nonpartisan," two identified as independents, one is a Libertarian, and another is a self-described moderate.)

While Bachmann, a former U.S. presidential candidate who recently came under fire for accusing Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin of infiltrating the government on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood, as noted by the Atlantic Wire, is the most recognizable Beltway insider on the list, she wasn't dubbed the most beautiful person in the nation's capital.

That honor went to 25-year-old Max Engling, a staff assistant for the House Administration Committee. You can check him out here. But sorry ladies, he's married.

Engling, a Republican, wasn't an unlikely choice to top the Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People List -- he modeled before coming to Capitol Hill.

"You felt like you weren't creating anything," Engling told the Hill of modeling. "Your time wasn't necessarily going to a good cause."

Engling was followed by three fellow Republicans before a Democrat appeared on the Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People list.

That Democrat, Julian Malasi, a native of Albania who moved to Charleston, S.C., in his early years, is a 28-year-old policy issues manager for the American Chemistry Council lobbying group.

Bachmann, 56, ranked No. 10 on the Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People list. The Minnesota congresswoman, who was among the front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination last summer when she won the Iowa straw poll, did not agree to be interviewed for the Hill's piece.

But the publication played up Bachmann's evolving style as she campaigned across the country.

"I'm a bottom-feeder when it comes to clothes shopping," Bachmann told the Hill in a 2008 article. The blurb on Bachmann for the 50 Most Beautiful People list goes on to detail the congresswoman's style transformation.

"Not only did she hire Fox News Channel makeup artist Tamara Robertson for her 2012 bid, she also debuted a sleeker, trendier hairdo that inspired attention from the likes of the New York 'Daily News,' which ran an article last year on women asking their hairdressers to replicate Bachmann's look," the Hill's Kris Kritto wrote. "She also made noise -- literally -- wearing a French manicure that clicked and clacked on the podiums of the GOP primary's many debates. Bachmann was a chic version of her Capitol Hill self while on the national stage this past year."

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