As of Sunday evening, the White House and leaders of Congress have agreed upon a new deal that would raise the debt ceiling and avoid a government credit default.

But, and that’s a big “but,” the plan still has to pass the House and the Senate. As we know, Tea Party members have been hostile to any plan that increases the debt ceiling, while Democrats have said they would vote against any plan that does not raise the debt ceiling through 2012.

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Because signing your name to a document automatically makes you a better candidate and person:

(Michele) Bachmann’s latest attention-getting move came Thursday when she became the first – and thus far only – candidate to sign a pledge drawn up by a Christian conservative group in Iowa. The pledge, called “The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family,” requires signers to promise, among other things, to keep marital fidelity, support the Defense of Marriage Act and “robust childbearing and reproduction,” and oppose gay marriage, abortion, “Sharia Islam,” “intrusively intimate commingling among attracteds” in the military, and the abuse of women and children through human trafficking, pornography and prostitution. The group, called the Family Leader, run by Bob Vander Plaats, a former Iowa gubernatorial candidate and influential conservative, promises to withhold political support from any candidate who does not sign.

Sadly, she will get votes because of this ridiculous action on an even more ridiculous document. Forcing a candidate to sign something or else withholding political support — sounds like blackmail to me. Full document here.

So, it’s common knowledge by now that Tea Party proponents kind of take offense to the words “tea bagger” because of the sexual connotations of the term.

Rep. Michele Bachmann seems to be as out of touch with those sentiments as she is about American history. She stood before a group of Republican in New Hampshire literally holding a tea bag while on a stop in Manchester. Prior to speaking at a GOP fund-raiser, Bachmann made this gaffe, as reported by the Associated Press:

… the possible presidential hopeful told a group of students and conservative activists in Manchester, “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord,” according to video posted online by WMUR-TV.

But those first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire. Though Bachmann probably wasn’t the first to confuse Concord, N.H., with Concord, Mass., her mistake was striking given her roots in the tea party movement, which takes its name from the dumping of tea into Boston Harbor by angry American colonists in December 1773, 16 months before the Battle of Lexington Green.

Some 30 miles to the north and with tea bag in hand, Bachmann was greeted with applause when she asked the crowd, “How about a United States president that gets what the American people want in 2012?” and later proclaimed, “Are you in for 2012? I’m in!”

How about elected officials who could pass a high school history exam? Guess my standards are just too high.