Tom Petty Demands That Michelle Bachmann Stop Campaigning With ‘American Girl’

It’s not been the most flattering month for Republican presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann—after insisting that John Quincy Adams was a founding father (he was around 9 years old at the time), and that serial killer John Wayne Gacy was John Wayne (really), she’s now, to quote Rolling Stone, “gone and pissed off Tom Petty.”

According to RS:

“The Minnesota congresswoman played “American Girl” yesterday when she walked onstage at a rally, and Rolling Stone has confirmed reports that Petty’s management team immediately sent the Bachmann campaign a cease and desist letter.”

And, as RS reports, this isn’t the first time that Petty has given a conservative politician the business for campaigning with one of his tunes:

“In 2000 he had to tell George W. Bush to stop using “I Won’t Back Down” at rallies. ‘It has recently come to our attention that your presidential campaign has been using the above-referenced song in connection with your presidential bid,’ Wixen Music Publishing president Randall Wizen wrote to the Bush campaign. “’Please be advised that this use has not been approved . . . Any use made by you or your campaign creates, either intentionally or unintentionally, the impression that you and your campaign have been endorsed by Tom Petty, which is not true.’”

So, as we watch Bachmann’s ill-conceived campaign make its kamikaze run into its eventual flameout, let’s take a moment to appreciate Tom Petty’s participation in the effort to keep someone who is totally batty away from the White House.  Go Tom!

What do you think of Petty’s actions?