"She's pretty, but you're pretty and smart" is a line more typically used by boyfriends to calm jealous girlfriends or women's magazines editors. But here is Ed Rollins, the top adviser to Michele Bachmann's nascent 2012 campaign, comparing his boss's qualifications to be president to Sarah Palin's to Politico.

Bachmann will "be so much more substantive," Rollins said. "People are going to say, 'I gotta make a choice and go with the intelligent woman who's every bit as attractive.'"

Why the Palin-Bachmann catfight narrative would be enticing to reporters is obvious. But why would Bachmann's own campaign would push it so aggressively? Maybe Rollins is betting on the power of punching upward. Or maybe he's noticed how much publicity a girl-on-girl brawl can generate. Or maybe the answer is more simple: Rollins just has a big fat mouth. Mother Jones' Andy Kroll notes that just six months before Rollins criticized Palin as unserious, he said the same thing about his new boss. When Bachmann delivered the Tea Party response to President Obama's State of the Union address, Rollins said on CNN:

"Michele Bachmann obviously is a member of Congress and a representative of the tea party. But at the end of the day, we have to get our serious players out front and talking about the things that matter to be the alternative to the president and Democrats."

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.