Great Lakes Politics

First, the editors of Time put Vice President Dick Cheney (R) on their cover, showing to be quite literally under a dark cloud.  This, of course, was followed by almost all of the Sunday morning talk shows commenting on to what extent, if any, Mr. Cheney was a political liablity to President George W. Bush (R).

One pundit after another has argued that Mr. Cheney should either resign or else be fired or impeached for his role in the Iraq War and the Valerie Plame affair.

Even the editors of GQ, which usually devote its pages to matters of fashion and style, have called for Mr. Cheney's impeachment in their March 2007 issue.  They even went so far as to include a draft of articles of impeachment, which the U.S. Congress could use if they decided to do so.

With all of this afoot, can their be any reason why Haliburton - the largest benefactor of Mr. Cheney's presence in the Bush Administration - has decided to the leave the United States?

Posted by fnemecek at 12:35 PM | Permalink

Saulius "Saul" Anuzis, Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, announced last Friday that he was filing a Hatch Act complaint against Governor Jennifer M. Granholm (D, MI); claiming that state employees were campaigning for her re-election and doing so on state time.  When Granholm's press secretary Liz Boyd was asked about Anuzis' complaint by Dawson Bell of the Detroit Free Press, she responded by referring to it as "a public relations stunt intended to divert attention from the abysmal record of Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos."

Anuzis responded to by amending his original complaint to include an additional section
to deal with Boyd's comment to the reporter.  He claims that her remarks constitute yet another breach of the Hatch Act.

I know that it's Anuzis' job to get Republican elected and generally cause problems for Democrats, but - quite frankly -  the man seriously needs to get a grip on reality.

Boyd was responding to a question from a reporter.

The simple act of a press secretary responding to a question from a reporter about the operation of state government does not even come close to violating the terms of the Hatch Act.  Answering questions like that one is Boyd's job.

I know that polls for this year's gubernatorial race are looking very, very close.  However, it makes him look down right desperate when he files nonsense complaints like this.

More importantly, it makes me worry about what kind of additional nonsense we're in for over the next 36 days. 

Posted by fnemecek at 10:54 AM | Permalink

Over the weekend, the Detroit Free Press published an article that took a critical look at GOP gubernatorial nominee Dick DeVos and his leadership of Amway.  The article even went so far as to say that the fact that so few of Amway's independent distributors actually make money could make his promises to improve Michigan's economy less believable.

I have to admit that I was tempted to send the Free Press a bill when I read that.  I've been arguing the same thing for months and have made several posts about it on this blog.

Of course, I shouldn't harp on the Free Press too much.

They did do a significant amount of independent research for their article.  For example, I had frequently pointed out, in spite of DeVos' promises in Amway sales literature to the contrary, the overwhelming number of Amway representatives are left with nothing but a few cases of soap.  The Freep managed to track down the exact number of Amway sales represenatives who are able to make a living from selling Amway - 2 out of every 1,000.

0.2%

This, of course, means that the other 99.8% of those who bought into DeVos' promises were left with nothing but disappointment and a few cases of soap.

If DeVos wants to be taken seriously as a gubernatorial candidate, he is going to have to start addressing that issue.  He needs to somehow prove to Michigan voters that he really can be trusted to do the job.

Quite frankly, I doubt that television ads will ever be able to do that.  If he wants voters to feel that they can trust them, he is going to have to meet them face-to-face; answer their questions and criticisms honestly and directly.

More importantly, he is rapidly running out of time in which to do that.

In the meantime, anyone who is interested can read the Freep's take on this matter here. 

Posted by fnemecek at 03:30 PM | Permalink

For weeks now, I've argued that Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos needs to move the debate away from the factory that he opened in China as president of Amway.  I even went so far as to say that he needs to move the debate away from Amway itself - because anything that reminds voters of his connection to Amway only helps Governor Jennifer M. Granholm (D, MI).

Well, it looks like DeVos has finally found a way to do that - by advocating the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in science classes throughout Michigan.

I have to admit that I was suprised by this.

It wasn't that I was shocked that DeVos advocates putting things in science classes that have nothing to do with science.  I just couldn't believe that DeVos was willing steer the debate away from economic issues, towards a conservative social issue.  He was only responding to a question that he got from the reporter.  However, his campaign to date has been trying desperately to steer clear of the conservative social policies that he has advocated over the years.

And now, after more than a year of successfully dodging these issues - he jumped into the middle of them all with only 47 days left until the election.  I have to ask: purely from a political sense, what was he thinking?

Conversations for the next couple of days will no doubt be dominated for DeVos' new call for Intelligent Design to be taught in Michigan science classes.  That's time that won't be spent talking about anything else.

To make matters worse for Michigan Republicans, I suspect that what eventually bumps the Intelligent Design story out of the news cycle will only be more coverage of DeVos opening a factory in China for Amway.

Granholm is declining any public comment on this.  Still, knowing the impact that this will have, she has to be pleased. 

Posted by fnemecek at 01:43 PM | Permalink

Former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca is currently starring in a new television ad for Republican gubernatorial nominee Dick DeVos.  When I first heard about Iacocca's appearance in a DeVos ad, I was actually excited.  I thought this would be the beginning of end for the debate on whether or not DeVos sent Michigan jobs to China and a signal that DeVos as starting to put some political distance between himself and Amway.

But then I saw the actual ad itself.

Quite frankly, the Iacocca ad may as well have been put out by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm's re-election campaign.  In the ad, Iacocca specifically talks about DeVos' leadership in Amway.

Quite frankly, it boggles my mind that DeVos is still willing to talk about Amway.  His company, quite frankly, is built on hundreds of thousands of broken promises; promises that were made to folks who wanted to create a better live for themselves and became independent distributors for Amway to make that happen - only to be left with nothing more than a few cases of soap for their trouble.

When Iacocca was making televised pitches for Chrysler cars, he didn't talk about how many product recalls his company had.  So, why in world would he want to make an ad that was obstenstibly in support of DeVos' candidacy; only to talk about his leadership in Amway?

It truly boggles my mind.

 

Posted by fnemecek at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Saulius “Saul” Anuzis announced over the weekend that he will leave his position as Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.  Effective immediately, he will begin campaigning full-time for Democratic Governor Jennifer M. Granholm’s re-election.

Okay – that’s not totally true.

Anuzis is still Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, but – for all practical purposes – he did start working for the Granholm campaign over the weekend.

For the past couple of weeks, the Granholm campaign has been airing ads that attempted to link Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos’ decision to layoff Michigan workers at Amway to his subsequent opening of a factory in China; implying that those Michigan jobs were sent to China by DeVos.

Anuzis was the latest person to join in the fray by issuing a statement regarding the DeVos/Amway/China connection.  In doing so, he kept DeVos’ decision to layoff Michigan workers at an Amway factory in the news cycle.  The fundamental problem with this whole thing, and the thing that the Granholm camp is undoubtedly trying to capitalize on, is that any connection to Amway ultimately hurt DeVos.

DeVos promised millions of people a better way of life by becoming independent distributors for Amway.  In fact, most people in Michigan know someone who bought into DeVos’ Amway promises and worked hard as one of his Amway distributors – only to be left with nothing to show for their troubles than a few cases of soap.

This November, voters in the Great Lakes State will have to decide whether or not they can trust DeVos to deliver on his promises.  If the connection between DeVos, Amway and China is still being debated on Election Day then Granholm can start practicing her second inaugural address.

Posted by fnemecek at 02:12 PM | Permalink

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos named Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson as his running mate this morning.  Johnson, 51, is a former GOP state lawmaker from Holly who served in the House of Representatives from 1999 through 2004.

Most of the commentators have focused on the fact that this choice should help DeVos, of Ada in western Michigan, balance out the ticket with a woman from the highly populated southeastern portion of the state.  However, I believe the most important fact in the selection of Johnson is that she doesn't have any political baggage that could hurt the DeVos campaign.

This, of course, stands in start constrast to some of the other prominent Republican women from southeastern Michigan whose names were floated around.

Yes, State Senator Nancy Cassis (R-15, Novi), I am talking about you.

You single-handedly blocked a blocked a legislative package that was put together by your Republican counterparts in the Michigan House to bring more major television and motion picture productions to Michigan - and did so not once, but twice.

In doing so, you cost the Great Lakes State more than $1 billion in investments and new jobs.

For what it's worth, Senator Cassis, we hope that your Democratic challenger this November, Ray Rackowski of Novi, makes you eat everyone of those lost jobs.

But I digress.

Congrats to Johnson on becoming Dick DeVos' running mate. 

Posted by fnemecek at 04:26 PM | Permalink

I was surfing the web this afternoon. I found some interesting background information on Republican gubernatorial nominee Dick DeVos and what he did before assuming the presidency of Amway.

It would appear that Governor Jennifer M. Granholm and her campaign are in for a considerable amount of trouble this November. http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/devosff.htm

Posted by fnemecek at 10:04 PM | Permalink

The Prussian stateman Otto Von Bismarck remarked in 1867 that, "Politics is the art of the possible."  Some historians have viewed that sentiment as setting the bar incredibly low for the body politic - even though Von Bismark was the man who in January of 1871 united 25 previously independent states into what we now know as Germany.

As I look at the current race for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, however, I can't help but wonder if the bar really could be set any lower.

Earlier this month, Republicans in the U.S. Senate introduced a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban desecration of the American flag.  U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) voted in favor of this amendment, even though there hasn't been a public act of flag burning in years.

Of course, Stabenow's vote wasn't the thing that made me start wondering if the bar could possibly be set any lower.  Instead, it's the fact that her Republican challengers, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Rev. Keith Butler of Troy, have each publicly criticized Stabenow for voting in favor of Republican's proposed amendment.

So, to recap for everyone at home, first the Republicans sponsor a constitutional amendment that was so important that it had to wait until an election year before they did anything and then they criticize a Democrat for going along with them on it.

I ask you, could our standards in American politics really get any lower?

Interested readers can read the Lansing State Journal's coverage of Stabenow's vote as well as Butler's and Bouchard's critisism of it at http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060713/NEWS01/607130344/1001/news

Posted by fnemecek at 08:27 AM | Permalink