Conservative lawmaker calls fellow GOP rep. 'captain crazy'

Michelle Marston, an aide to Republican lawmaker Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), wanted to leave quietly.

But her decision to "jump ship" while her boss engaged in perhaps her boldest media moment yet has some on Capitol Hill scratching their heads.

Including a conservative lawmaker in Bachmann's own party.

“When your captain’s crazy, it’s time to find a new ship,” an anonymous conservative Republican House member told Politico Wednesday.

Marston had tried to warn the reporter off, to no avail.

“I’m just not talking about it, and frankly I don’t think there’s a story here,” Marston wrote in an email. “Now, the thousands of people calling our office to tell us [they’re] coming to Capitol Hill tomorrow — that’s a story.”

Today, conservative activists are planning to storm the Capitol to tell members of Congress that they don't want "government" to take away their healthcare, part of a scare tactic engineered by Bachmann's aides. Activists were told to bring videocameras and point them in congressmembers faces as part of an effort to derail House Democrats' healthcare overhaul.

The Minnesota Republican has garnered national attention for her sometimes outrageous quips -- including one in which she said conservatives should slit their wrists to defeat Democrats' healthcare plans.

Marston appears to have soured on Bachmann over time.

In a statement last year, she said of her boss: “She looks like the type of person who you would invite in to have a cup of coffee at your table. There are a lot of people who are good, smart, well-meaning, well-intentioned members of Congress, but they speak to the people like they are members of Congress. Rep. Bachmann talks to people like they are people.”

But this fall, when she said President Barack Obama held "anti-American views," her tune changed.

“You either love Michele Bachmann or you don’t love Michele Bachmann at all,” Marston told a reporter.

When your captain's crazy, it's time to find a new ship.