The strategy seems to be to treat her like any other member of the House GOP Conference. Bachmann poses challenge for GOP

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has had an epic week.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was her guest at a closed-door session on the Constitution, and her tea party rebuttal to the State of the Union exploded on the cable networks, allowing her to grab the spotlight as a standard-bearer for the conservative movement. Cable chatterers and newspapers talked just as much about Bachmann as they did about the official Republican responder, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.


And therein lies the challenge for Republicans.

For all of Speaker John Boehner’s efforts to stage-manage the opening days of the Republican House, handpick his inner circle and keep his party on message, Bachmann keeps jumping into the fray. The tea party loves her, the media promotes her, and she is a huge draw on the fundraising circuit. (see: Boehner to Obama: 'We're broke')

Aides close to GOP leadership ensured Bachmann wasn’t elected conference chair, the leadership position she wanted, and she remains a marginal legislative player. But Bachmann continues to be an oversize presence — she’s a headline grabber, and there’s nothing Republicans can do about it.

The GOP strategy, in fact, seems to be to treat her like any other member of the House Republican Conference.

Ask anyone in the newly minted House Republican leadership about the telegenic Minnesotan, and all you’ll get is a dismissive shrug. (see: Bachmann's turn)

Boehner didn’t even tune in for her performance on CNN.

“No, I did not; I had other obligations,” Boehner said Wednesday when asked whether he watched Bachmann’s address.

Boehner played it off as no big deal. “The more, the merrier,” he said of competing responses.

But the hush from Republican lawmakers doesn’t extend to the rank and file. Some were far more pointed in their criticism. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who is a favorite of top conservatives nationwide, said the speech should’ve been delivered at a different time.

“To try to upend Paul Ryan was just wrong,” he said. (see: Ryan's rebuttal: Cut and shrink)

Bachmann, though, says she didn’t mean to challenge the chairman of the Budget Committee.

“She made the case last night, and has in interviews since, that [she] was in no way in competition with any other Republicans,” said Bachmann spokesman Doug Sachtleben. “She had conversations with Paul Ryan a couple days ago ... and I was with her when she watched his speech before giving hers — she was very pleased with it.”

But Bachmann is more than just a limelight-hungry tea partier — she represents an anti-establishment tension simmering just below the surface of a unified Republican front. If Boehner and his allies don’t keep a close eye on Bachmann and her base, those divisions could flare up — especially if she loudly dissents from leadership on shaky legislation, like the impending vote on the debt ceiling. (see: GOP rebuttal by Paul Ryan)

On the House side, GOP leaders are respectful but not overly deferential. House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling, who won the spot after Bachmann dropped out, said she was “spot on” in her address and “effective” in delivering the GOP message. But still, she was one of many.

“As [Republican Conference] chairman, I wondered about 250 responses to the State of the Union,” he said. “So the more coverage you give our people delivering our message, that is a good thing.” (see: GOP skeptical of common ground)

The message from House GOP top brass is that Bachmann is merely a third-term lawmaker from suburban St. Paul who was given her choice spot on the intelligence committee. Most in leadership see Bachmann as a media phenom, not a legislative threat.

But she’s also quite a political freelancer.

To illustrate just how independently Bachmann operates, she did not provide the speech in advance to GOP leadership, two aides said. Rather, they got it when it was sent to reporters — they also had no idea CNN would carry it live. And illustrative of how much air she consumes, Bachmann’s name appeared in The New York Times on Wednesday as many times as Boehner’s.

“There is a very brief amount of time that collectively, as Republicans, we had a statement to make,” Chaffetz said. “And Paul Ryan [was] our designee. I’m hopeful that Michele Bachmann actually agrees with Paul Ryan on his positions. I happen to agree with both of them. But I thought it was bad form to try to upend Paul Ryan during a time we are trying to focus on one cohesive message.” (see: Ryan to lay out conservative vision)

Conservatives, though, see Tuesday’s developments differently. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, one of Bachmann’s conservative counterparts, said Bachmann’s effort was a “good complement to what Paul Ryan said.”

“They should encourage any member who wants to speak out on the issues to do it,” DeMint said of congressional leadership. “That’s what Americans expect of us. They don’t expect us to filter everything through our leadership.”

The hands-off approach to Bachmann reveals a lot about how House Republicans plan to operate under Boehner. The speaker is cognizant of the large cast of Republican characters, and that they need to stay in line. But Boehner doesn’t allow distractions to jam up his agenda. Those close to him say he simply doesn’t care about the sideshow aspect of politics that becomes the obsession of the D.C. chattering class. (see: Palin on Obama speech: 'WTF')

And the reality is that Bachmann’s actual message isn’t substantively different. In her speech, she echoed many of the same themes that GOP leaders push on a daily basis. And a collective sigh of relief was heard around Capitol Hill when Bachmann didn’t advocate a vote against the debt limit or slap around other leadership priorities.

Some simmering tensions remain between Bachmann’s allies and House leadership and their crew. Shortly after Republicans captured the majority in the House, the Minnesotan launched a campaign for Republican Conference chairwoman — only to drop out after Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other top conservatives threw their weight behind Hensarling. (see: Cantor echoes Obama on jobs)

Boehner then appointed Bachmann to the intelligence committee to serve under his close ally, Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan. When she got the spot, Boehner had a face-to-face chat with her about the serious work the committee does, and the secrets she would learn, GOP sources said. (see: Bachmann sets another Iowa trip)

Republican leadership has also begun to use the Bachmann speech to turn its ire toward the media. The GOP is particularly peeved at CNN, which turned the Bachmann speech from a Web-based video to a national spectacle.

“She is one member of Congress,” a top GOP aide said, bemoaning the decision to air the speech prime time.

Republican Rep. Steve King, a close Bachmann ally from Iowa, also didn’t watch the address but reviewed the excerpts after he gave interviews in the Capitol. He fiercely defended the speech, saying the only way to “move a conservative agenda” is to have voices outside the leadership. (see: High-level Iowa meets for Bachmann)

And he thinks Republicans could have avoided all of this.

“They had their chance to listen before the leadership elections, and they chose to put their support where they did, and so now they have an opportunity to listen to this message last night, and they can always take a look at it and decide how much they want to consider what she has to say,” King said. “She’s going to have more affect in leadership talking to the press [than] in talking to leadership. In fact, I guarantee it.”

Zach Abrahamson and John Bresnahan contributed to this report.