Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann, who suggested that Barack Obama harbored “anti-American” views as a presidential candidate, said in a Wednesday television appearance that Democrats in Congress are trying to “enact socialism.”

Bachmann, who drew a strong backlash after previous comments that appeared to question the patriotism of her Democratic opponents, attempted to deflect some of the criticism in a TV appearance earlier this week, saying that her “anti-American” remarks had become an “urban legend.”

But she resumed her tough talk during Wednesday’s appearance on Fox News with Neil Cavuto, who interviewed her about the national stakes in the recount battle in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.

Bachmann, making a point about how the Republican minority can recover from its Election Day reverses, said “what we have to do is give our positive alternatives to socialism.”

“Now that we will have a Democrat in the White House and, of course, running both branches of government, our job will be to make the very positive, distinct difference,” she continued. “Not necessarily to help the Democrats enact socialism, in fact to fight it.”

The term socialism, often associated with a 20th century repudiation of capitalism in favor of a government-controlled economy, is an echo of the waning weeks of the Republican presidential campaign of Ariz. Sen. John McCain, who also used it to refer to Obama’s policies.

Explaining Obama’s victory, Bachmann said that “a lot of Americans didn’t realize it was Democrats that controlled the House and Senate for the last two years.”
“I think the American people at the end of the day will say, whoa, wait a minute. I didn’t vote for socialism, did I?”

Cavuto, pushing back slightly, noted that “Republicans kind of got the socialism thing going” with the $700 billion financial bailout, which emanated from the Bush administration and won significant Republican support in Congress, including McCain’s.

“It did emanate from the White House,” said Bachmann, who voted against the bailout bill. “However, it was the Democratic majorities in the Senate and the House that passed it.”

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