Matthews Calls Bachmann the 'Mata Hari of Minnesota'; Rolling Stone's Taibbi Says 'Guy Huffing Glue' More Sensible

There seems to be a new "derangement syndrome" that has infected the crew at MSNBC - Michele Bachmann Derangement Syndrome.

On the MSNBC March 27 "Hardball with Chris Matthews," host Chris Matthews questioned Rep. Michele Bachman's effort to protect the United States dollar.

"It's not clear why she did it since nobody on the planet, least of here in America is talking about switching to some new multinational currency here," Matthews said.

Matthews also got worked up about an interview Bachmann did on conservative talk show host Sean Hannity's radio show earlier this week when she referred to her job as being a "foreign correspondent behind enemy lines" and called Obama's policies "economic Marxism."

"In other words, the people who disagree with her are the enemy," Matthews said, referring to her as an exotic dancer accused of spying for the Germans in France during World War I. "She is the Mata Hari of Minnesota."

Matt Taibbi, editor of Rolling Stone magazine, took it a step further and suggested she had less mental capacity than someone under the influence household chemicals.

"It's funny, this morning outside of Penn Station, I saw a guy huffing glue out of a paper bag and he was making more sense than Michele Bachmann was making," Taibbi said, drawing laughter from Matthews and Michelle Bernard, MSNBC contributor and president of the Independent Women's Voice. "I can't believe - you need to pass a written test to drive a car in this country, but I bet this woman can't even write her name in the ground with a stick. It's unbelievable to me that this person is in the Congress."

Matthews attempted to psychoanalyze Bachmann, suggesting she was paranoid someone was going to "come sweeping into to our local candy stores and our whatever, our supermarkets and replace all the dollars with some strange looking new currency."

Although Matthews dismisses Bachmann as a lunatic for her concern, there has been talk of a North American currency, the Amero. And, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said he was open to changing the dollar's role in the global economy. Nonetheless, Matthews and company continued their critique of the Minnesota congresswoman's "better-safe-than-sorry" proposition.

"She seems to have been completely confused by China's request on monetary policy and what the reserve dollar was going to be - the basis of the reserve would be," Bernard said, following up on Matthews comments. "I don't understand where she is going with this, where the confusion would be, but there's a lot of confusion."