Michele Bachmann faces more migraine questions




By KASIE HUNT & MOLLY BALL | 7/20/11 4:35 AM EDT

On the campaign trail in South Carolina, Michele Bachmann should have been basking in the glow of new polls showing her surging among national Republican primary voters.

Instead, the day was overshadowed by her acknowledgment Tuesday that she suffers from chronic migraine attacks — an issue that threatened to spiral out of control as the media sought more details about a potentially debilitating condition.

While Bachmann sought to put the matter to rest with a prepared statement denying that migraines interfered with her ability to work or with her ability to serve as president, more evidence surfaced raising questions about her condition.

In confirming several migraine incidents first reported Tuesday by the Daily Caller, a conservative online publication, POLITICO found new details of their effect on Bachmann’s performance and their pervasive influence on her congressional office.

In March 2006, migraines Bachmann suffered in the aftermath of an appendectomy prolonged her recovery from surgery, causing her to suspend her campaign and miss a week of work in the Minnesota state Senate, where she served at the time.

A migraine attack in May 2010 forced Bachmann to retreat to her congressional office and lie down in the dark. She managed to attend early afternoon congressional votes before flying to California and attended two political events, but she was in pain much of the time and sought emergency treatment. When Congress reconvened the following Tuesday, Bachmann missed a day of votes.

In July 2010, Bachmann missed eight House votes while being treated and released for a migraine by a Washington hospital. Her staff at the time blamed an unspecified illness for the missed votes. The attack caused her to cancel a planned campaign trip and, according to her own account at the time, took her four days to recover from.

The Daily Caller also reported an October 2010 incident that forced Bachmann to lie down at the home of a Connecticut donor who was hosting a fundraiser, and then to seek urgent care treatment in New York. Sources with firsthand knowledge confirmed the report to POLITICO.

One former top Bachmann staffer, who denied being a source of the Daily Caller report, told POLITICO the congresswoman’s migraines were so prevalent that the entire office and campaign staff knew about the problem — even the interns.

“Within the Bachmann team, this was not a secret about her headaches and the problems and doors going closed. It could be anyone from an intern to a chief of staff that could be aware of this,â€