[There was a video here]

Michele Bachmann addressed the anonymous sniping from former aides about her "incapacitating" weekly migraines at a campaign event in South Carolina yesterday, trying to put it to rest. And then some of her goons roughed up ABC News' Brian Ross. Hooray! And to think, it's not even August.

"I'd like to be abundantly clear," Bachmann said. "My ability to function effectively will not effective... will not affect my ability to serve as commander-in-chief." And her ability to effectively serve as commander-in-chief will not affect her ability to effectively affect, which will not affect the effect of functioning... what? Fortunately her campaign sent out something coherent later on. The point is, she's good to go!

Not to ABC News' wrong investigative reporter Brian Ross, however. He pulled the ol' "run and shout strange questions and get yourself hit" routine. This is how accolades are made, j-schoolers! Time's Michael Crowley was on the scene:

That's when things got interesting. Ross dashed after Bachmann, repeatedly asking whether she had ever missed a House vote due to a migraine. She ignored him. Ross pursued her into a parking area behind the stage. Her aides grew alarmed. When Ross made a beeline for the white SUV waiting to carry Bachmann away, two Bachmann men pounced on him, grabbing and pushing him multiple times with what looked to me like unusual force. In fact, I have never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event, especially not a presidential one. Ross was finally able to break away and lob his question at Bachmann one more time, but she continued to ignore him.

Afterward, I asked Ross - a hard-nosed pro who nevertheless seemed slightly shaken - whether he had ever been treated so roughly. "A few times," he told me. "Mostly by Mafia people."

Now we'll never know the answer to the all-important question of whether Michele Bachmann has ever taken a sick day.