Great Lakes Politics

Bo Schembechler, the legendary football coach at the University of Michigan, passed away this morning at the age of 77.  He was the winningest coach in the history of football at the University of Michigan with a lifetime record of 194-48-5 over a span of 19 seasons with the Michigan Wolverines; a career that included 13 Big Ten Conference Championships.

He is best known for his legendary rivalry with Woody Hayes of Ohio State University, which was referred to as the Ten Years War.  The fact that Schembechler played for Hayes at the University of Miami (Ohio) and was an a graduate assistant coach under him at Ohio State did nothing to ease the intensity of that rivalry.

He co-authored his memoirs in 2004 with Dan Ewald, Tradition:  Bo Schembechler's Michigan Memories.  In that book, he not only shared the invaluable memories that come with his almost two decades of head coach but he paid tribute to the coaches that came before him.

He will be missed by everyone in the Great Lakes State. 

Posted by fnemecek at 01:49 PM | Permalink

Earlier this week, a suspect who was fleeing from the Michigan State Police crashed his Jeep into another car, killing three innocent men in that vehicle.  This prompted Detroit City Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talibi to introduce a resolution calling for tighter controls on police chases.  Of course, she neglected to mention during her press conference that, according to an article in the Detroit Free Press, the Troopers in question were only going 45 m.p.h. and that they were a quarter mile away from the the Jeep at the time of the collision.

The only thing Ms. Tinsley-Talibi's resolution is going to accomplish is to a) get her name in the newspapers and b) make the next police officer wonder whether or not it's worth it to persue a suspect.  I could excuse the first part, because politicians are always looking for a chance to see their name in the newspapers.  However, the second part is dangerous.

Ms. Tinsley-Talibi should have looked for another option to put her name in the newspapers, but she didn't.  As a result, everyone in the Great Lakes State is that much worse off.

Not to be outdone in their first act of sillyness for the week, the Detroit City Council followed this up by voting to deny the transfer of a liquor license so that Larry Flynt could open a Hustler Club in a currently empty building in downtown Detroit.  They voted against the transfer after hearing an objection that was raised by Richard Mack, attorney for the Perfecting Church.

Mr. Mack argued that by opening a Hustler Club, downtown Detroit could see a decline in property values and an increase in crime.  Of couse, he failed to mention that Detroit already has two strip clubs in its downtown.  In spite of that, property values have been increasing steadily and Detroit is rated as one of the safest downtown in the nation.

I readily admit that a threat by the Hustler Club to file a lawsuit probably caused a couple of Council members to vote against the transfer, just to show that they weren't going to be intimidated.

I sincerely hope that the Detroit City Council gets its act together soon.

But I'm not going to hold my breath. 

Posted by fnemecek at 03:44 PM | Permalink

My counterpart at the Bull Moose argued in a post this morning that Congressman John Murtha (D, PA) would be a terrible candidate for the position of House Majority Leader and that Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) made a dramatic error in supporting him was a huge error.  His view was based on Mr. Murtha's opposition to changes in lobbying and campaign finance laws; a view that was also expressed by the editorial page of the Washington Post.

Let's simply be clear about one thing: when Ms. Pelosi made her first move into the leadership of the Democratic Party, the man who was guiding her campaign was none other than Mr. Murtha.  Anyone who is suprised by her support of him now is, in my opinion, simply naive.

Let's also remember that Mr. Murtha who first started to question President George W. Bush's prosecution of the War in Iraq; something that he did when every other Democrat in Washington was huddled in a small circle, trying to figure out which way the winds were going to blow next.  This is important because it was opposition to the War in Iraq that, in large part, moved the Democrats into power.

Congressman Steny Hoyer (D, MD) will, in all probabilty prevail against Mr. Murtha for the position of Majority Leader.  There is simply no cause for anyone to be alarmed about who Ms. Pelosi supports in that race.

Posted by fnemecek at 05:04 PM | Permalink

Douglas Campbell, the Green Party’s candidate for Governor of Michigan, published an editorial in the Detroit News today.  He argues that Democrats need to stop complaining about how the Greens spoiled an election, which they have been doing ever since it became apparent that Andy Levin would have beaten John Pappageorge for the 13th District seat in the Michigan Senate if the Green candidate’s votes had gone to Levin instead.

Mr. Campbell is right, of course.  The Green Party isn’t going to stop running candidates any time soon.  Democrats need to position themselves to win even with a spoiler on the ballot.  It’s just a fact of life and the sooner Democrats accept it, the sooner they will regain control of the Michigan Senate.

Of course, the one fact that Mr. Campbell forgot to mention is the presence of a Green candidate on the ballot will almost certainly cause the Democratic candidate to move farther to the right in all of his positions in order to win.  The Greens, therefore, who do well to be more careful in selecting which campaigns they are going to field a candidate for.

That or quit complaining when there’s no one in Lansing who is even close to their ideology.

Posted by fnemecek at 04:10 PM | Permalink

Welcome back to recently remodelled version of Great Lakes Politics.  Like so many things on the internet, this site is a work in progress; one that gets better has my technical skills improve.

The new site should appear cleaner and be easier to navigate.  There are new search and subscribe functions, including the ability to get my posts delivered to your email in-box, a function that is powered by FeedBlitz.

In addition, Yahoo users can click the appropriate link in the "Seach & Subscribe" area to the right and add this as content on your My Yahoo home page.

More political content will resume soon.  In the meantime, please let me know what you think of the new layout. 

Posted by fnemecek at 10:33 PM | Permalink