Redstate

By RightMichigan.com Posted in Barack Obama | Breaking News | Hillary Clinton | John McCain | Michigan | www.RightMichigan.com — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Did you hear the news over the weekend?  It turns out the race for the Democrat nomination is over.  Game, set and match.  Hillary Clinton hasn't gotten word just yet and neither, by all indications, has her BFF Jennifer Granholm but if you put any stock in what the mainstream media has to say than you know it's over.  All of it.  Mostly.  There's still one pesky issue the Dems haven't resolved and it's finally starting to garner a bit of the spotlight on the national stage.

Still no solution for seating Michigan and Florida.  

Two major battleground states that have approximately zero voice right now in the Democrats' nominating contest.  No say on who very well may become the next President of the United States of America.

But we might get a say.  Maybe.  Eventually.  Partially.  The regressisphere is abuzz with proposals and possible solutions, most of which focus on Florida getting a full delegation and Michigan being relegated to secondary-citizen status, being stripped of as many as half our delegates.  Others think we should just toss out the votes of hundreds of thousands of residents and split the delegates down the middle between Hillary and Barack... oh, but don't touch those super delegates.  They can do whatever they'd like.

The MSM, they're reporting dutifully on the left's heroic (/sarcasm) efforts to seat our delegates, conveniently ignoring the fact that it's the left that pulled the chair out from under us when we went to sit down.  (Even if Michigan gets to send a few delegates to Denver they'll be staying somewhere else in Colorado... the DNC months ago even released the State's hotel block.)

But while the national press bumbles their way to the most flattering possible coverage they can generate for the Barackstar, Detroit News columnist Daniel Howes provides a bit of a Michigan perspective.  And when you're realistically discussing Michigan AND Barack Obama it's bound to be an uncomfortable conversation.  The man hasn't exactly endeared himself to the State, what with his 300+ day absence and his constant verbal assaults on the troubled auto industry.  Which leads Howes, the columnist perhaps best respected on all things Big 3 and equipped to discuss the auto industry to deliver a bit of advice while doing something Obama, I'm sure, wishes he hadn't.

He compares the Senator to George W. Bush.

...To suggest that Japanese rivals aren't being pinched by sky-high gas prices is mistaken because, as Toyota Motor Corp. confirmed last week, they are. Also mistaken -- and unfair -- is suggesting that Detroit doesn't build fuel-efficient cars, just like when President Bush exhorted Detroit to build "relevant" cars and refused to meet with the CEOs of Detroit's Big Three.

You're right: America needs "truth telling" from its president -- especially one who grasps the facts and understands that truth can cut two ways.

It's actually a pretty scathing piece that takes the candidate to task for his ill-informed comments about the Big 3 and his penchant for piling on with non-constructive criticism.  It'd be easy to quote the whole thing but fair use and all that.  Suggested read.  

That is, of course, if you aren't entirely soured on all things Detroit after the latest revelation from the Hip Hop Mayor's office.  We knew he had a problem firing folks he shouldn't have been firing but hiring family members he shouldn't have been hiring?  

The Associated Press reports:

City records examined by the Detroit Free Press showed that at least 29 people with close ties to Kilpatrick have been appointed since he took office in 2002. Kilpatrick has cut more than 4,000 city jobs since then, including firefighters and nearly 1,000 police officers, mayoral spokeswoman Denise Tolliver said.

Tolliver defended the appointees, saying they not only are well-qualified but also are part of a tradition in Detroit...

Also a part of a tradition in Detroit...

Some Kilpatrick appointees have faced legal and ethical problems, including at least two relatives who remain on the city payroll despite falsifying their college credentials on their resumes, the Free Press said.

Political patronage.  Gotta love it.  At least it's a tradition.  Tradition makes everything OK.  Besides, Detroit's got one heck of a role model in Lansing.

The Ivory Tower follows up on that report with a quick look at term limited State House members and their next careers of choice along with those who might be replacing them.  There'll be a lot of familiar names on ballots this year, though they might not be where you're used to finding them.  

With legislators getting termed out many of them are looking for a taxpayer funded paycheck elsewhere in the State.  The bureaucratic mentality is, I think, best summed up as follows:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the consequences of a three-term career," said state Rep. Fred Miller, D-Mt. Clemens, who is caucus chairman for House Democrats and will face term limits in 2010.

"You spend your first term locking down your district, the second term trying to do some policy initiatives and your third term looking over your shoulder to see where you're going next."

One of the consequences of term limits is more intra-party primaries as legislators who are forced out take on local officials in August primaries.

I think, Fred, that when the voters approved term limits they did it to bring some fresh blood into the system and to get rid of the career politicians.  Didn't you get the memo?  Isn't the idea that you should spend all three terms taking care of your constituents?  Not "locking down your district" and looking for your next job in the bureaucracy?  

Not that any of that would change if we eliminated term limits.  There'd just be a little less office hopping.  But on the upside, voters would get to elect who they wanted to elect every year at the polls... novel concept, I know.

For the latest Michigan political news and commentary from the RIGHT perspective make Right Michigan your first click of the morning at www.RightMichigan.com.