Respected political pundit predicts even bigger losses for House Republicans in 2008

Bill Ballanger, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, predicts in his most recent newsletter that Michigan House Republicans will lose even more seats in 2008 than the net loss of six seats they suffered in November.

Now, there are lots of political pundits out there that make lots of predictions, but Ballanger is one of the most respected pundits in the state who brings some impressive credentials to the table. He was a Republican state Representative and state Senator, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare under the late President Gerald Ford and he was an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. House and U.S. Senate. I once served as a panelist for a political debate where he was the moderator, and he was very knowledgeable.

The Republicans went from controlling the House for more than a decade and wining one of the largest majorities in many years in 2002 to suffering the worst back-to-back election cycles since the early 1940s that culminated with the loss of the House in November.

Open seats are always open game, even in districts that are considered likely Republican or Democrat. The election in 2008 we will see a much larger number of open seats than 2006, and of the at least 45 open seats 28 of those are in districts now held by Republicans. Ballanger predicts House Republicans will see a net-loss of at least six more seats than the six they lost in November, and House Republicans will be reduced to the least amount of seats in some 20 years.

State Republicans tying to justify the losses say it’s just the normal cycle of politics due to external forces beyond their control that happens to both parties, but Ballanger said it’s because of the Republicans ineptitude, saying “House Republicans have little identity other than gotcha game-playing and obstructionism.”

I have also heard Republican “leaders” blaming the misguided mess in Iraq for their loss of the state House, but that’s ridiculous. I worked on a House campaign in Monroe, a so-called "battle ground area.” I made hundreds of phone calls to voters and knocked on hundreds of doors, and I never once heard anyone say they were not voting for the Republicans of Iraq. Nor did I ever hear any state Democrat use Iraq as a campaign issue.

But I did hear state Democrats talk about stopping the flow of Canadian and out-of-state trash, creating jobs, helping the many people who no longer have heath care and eliminating Michigan’s drug immunity law. Those issues resonated with voters. I sincerely hope state Republicans continue to blame Iraq and politics as usual for their woes.

Now, the Iraq mess may help Democrats with voter turnout if it’s still around in 2008 when the president is at the top of the ticket, but I hope by then the uncalled for war is just a bad memory.

Levin to speak at Livingston County fundraiser

BRIGHTON – U.S. Sen. Carl Levin will speak on the Iraq war and the Democratic Party’s First 100 Hours Agenda at a fund-raiser set for 12:30 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Whispering Pines Golf Course, 2500 Whispering Pines Dr., Pinckney.

The fundraiser is to help celebrate the huge historic Democratic victory across the country that gave the Democrats control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and the state House, and to help the Livingston Democrats prepare for the next election cycle.

After the Democrats took control of the Senate for the first time since 2002, Levin became chair of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. In that role, Levin is in a pivotal position to influence the war in Iraq.

This will be one of the first opportunities that many Michigan residents will have to hear Sen. Levin in person commenting on President Bush’s recent plan to send more troops to Iraq. It is an important moment in the national debate over American participation in the war, and Livingston County Democrats will not want to miss it, said Matt Evans, chair of the Livingston County Democratic Party.

Furthermore, Evans said, the national party’s 100-hour agenda that is already is moving through the U.S. House addresses important concerns that voters raised in the November election, including raising the minimum wage, congressional ethics reform and restraining earmarks that encouraged irresponsible spending. Levin will be able to shed light on how that agenda will fare in the U.S. Senate.

Levin will begin speaking at 12:30 p.m., and there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Tickets are $55 and can be purchased at the Livingston County Democratic Office, 10321 E. Grand River, Suite 600, Brighton, Mi. 48116. Tickets can also be purchased at the door. The event includes hors oeuvres and a cash bar. Proceeds benefit the Livingston County Democratic Party. Call (81) 229-4212 for information.

Anti-gay groups association with proposed high school ROTC program sours the proposal

A possible Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program at Howell High School is off the table because of the apparent high start up costs of establishing the program, according to the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.

It was reported the startup costs for an ROTC program are between $80,000 and $100,000, and with the looming budget crunch facing the state the expense was too great. I spent 20 years in the military, and I believe the military is a fantastic place for anyone starting out in life to pick up some maturity, valuable training and perhaps the most responsibility you will ever have in your life, short of being a parent. But a few things trouble me about this program.

First, this paragraph from the article: But Vicki Fyke, a member of the Livingston Organization for Values in Education traditional values group and an active member of the county Republican Party, held out some hope that U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, may be able to help get the ROTC program started.
She said she had contacted a member of Rogers' staff to get some help with the application process and, possibly, funding.

The so-called LOVE group is nothing but an anti-gay hate group, and their association in this immediately turns me off. Will gay students be excluded?

Second, the only real info I can find on this program is from the U.S. Army’s recruiting web site. I don’t want this to be simply a tool for recruiters to find new recruits. I know recruiters have a tough job, especially now with the misguided Iraq fiasco, but I want any program to live up to its goals of instilling the values of citizenship, service to the country and community, personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment, and I don’t want the goal to be a farm system for the U.S. Army. The support or lack of support of the failed Bush policies in Iraq should have nothing to do with the decision to establish a program.

A Soldier, Sailor and Marine’s job is to serve their country and obey the orders of the Commander-in-Chief and the Congress, and it’s our job as voters and citizens to see that these brave men and women are not being placed in harm’s way needlessly.

Frankly, I’m not sure why the program would cost so much to establish. Is there full-time paid staff involved, is it taught during school hours, is there classroom instruction or is it after school? It can’t cost nearly as much as fielding an athletic team.

However, I would like to offer an alternative for the two students – but I’m sure there are many more – who expressed interest in the ROTC program. Right here in Livingston County is one of the best Civil Air Patrol squadrons in the state, the Livingston Composite Squadron.

I was once a member of the squadron – they are a composite squadron, which allows senior members and cadets – with my daughter, and I met some of the most outstanding young people I have been associated with.

The Civil Air Patrol is the all-volunteer, official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force with both senior members and cadets from age 12-21, and CAP flies 95 percent of the nation’s search and rescue missions. CAP is a private, non-profit organization, but it follows the ranks, structures and uniforms of the Air Force.

Not only does it drill and do the same things as an ROTC program, but they help the community by actually being tasked with real SAR missions, both ground searches and airborne searches with its Cessina 172. They can also be tasked in a natural disaster or other emergency, just like the National Guard, especially since most of them are in Iraq.

In the last five years the squadron has produced two cadets of the year for the Michigan Wing that overseas the 47 squadrons spread throughout the state, and one cadet was recently appointed to the U.S. Air Force Academy. Many more go on to join the military, and the experience can earn them an extra pay grade when they enlist.
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The squadron meets from 6:30 -9 p.m. every Wednesday at the Howell Armory, 725 Isbell St. in Howell.

For those young people considering joining the military, I say go for it, and you will not find a better place to begin your journey in life. But when going in to talk to a recruiter do so with your eyes open, question everything, don’t take anything at face value, get everything in writing and maybe even take your parent, guardian or someone you trust along with you.

I think perhaps the most telling part of the article is when Fyke claims Rogers offered to help with the start-up costs, which would be one of the few times we have seen a benefit to the 8th Congressional District from his representation. However, Rogers spokesperson clears up that misconception, and the only commitment from Rogers was the promise of a letter of recommendation.

Gleaners Food Bank donation coverage helps illustrate the conservative media bias

As was first reported here last week, the Livingston County Democratic Party raised more than $700 and 100 pounds of food for the Gleaners Community Food Bank distribution center in Brighton as part of an annual drive to feed the hungry. Since then a couple of things have happened. First, a late contribution put that total at $1,000, and I got hammered and called a hypocrite because last month I called out both the local newspaper and the local Republican Party over a $500 donation for Toys to Tots.

The fact that the majority party in Livingston County that holds the Congressional seat, the state Senate seat, the two state House seats, all the nine Board of Commissioner seats and control of all 16 of the township boards in the county can only raise $500 after the campaign season just a month ago where their candidate for governor spent a record $42.5 million to buy the seat seems a bit cheap to me.

Rep. Chris Ward could have given some of that more than $10,000 the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association gave to him last year alone for trying to get a bill passed for them that rips off consumers and local wineries that favors the association. He could have directed a fraction of that money to the cause.

However, what really raised my ire was the coverage the donation received. The story received front-page coverage in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus with a front-page photo and another photo on the inside jump page. This after all we hear from them is their smear campaign disguised as a political strategy called the “liberal media bias” myth.

I told commentators here that if the donation that the party I am a member of gets the same or similar coverage from the newspaper I would apologize. Luckily, that will not happen now. Here’s what we got. A mention in a sidebar to a story on the inside of the newspaper is the coverage it received.

Also, the Livingston County Democratic Party gave $700 in cash and 100 pounds of food this month. Democratic officials said the donation will become an annual event.

The constant cries of “liberal media bias” lie in an era when almost every newspaper in America is owned by a huge corporation has swung the pendulum to the right so far it’s ridiculous. This is a perfect example.

In today’s edition, the OP-ED page featured an editorial on the main story about the Gleaners food drive. Jack Berry, a county resident and co-founder of the Pet Supplies Plus pet store, organized a food drive for the food bank. It’s an admirable job by Mr. Berry. He paid for a fundraising campaign that inserted pre-addressed envelopes into the newspaper to send to the food bank.

Now, I’m sure I’m going to be called cynical, a hypocrite and lots of other names for bringing this up, but one of the biggest benefactors of that campaign is the newspaper, unless they waived the insertion fee. I don’t know if that’s the case.

Michigan House moves forward with the passing of the gavel to Andy Dillon

Lansing – I was one of many people lucky enough to witness an historic event today at the State Capitol when Gary Randall, the Clerk of the Michigan House of Representatives, handed the gavel over to new Speaker of the House Andy Dillon and with it Democratic Control of the House.

The Capitol was awash with the family, friends and supporters of the 110 members of the House as they took the oath of office, chose their seats on the House Floor, elected leadership and set the session days. It was really a day of celebration as the Democrats celebrated their return to power in almost a decade by virtue of their control of the House by 58-52 margin with quiet dignity and a helping hand across the aisle to their Republican colleagues.

The Redford Township Democrat pledged an end to partisan bickering, politics as usual and getting Michigan back on track in his speech on the House Floor today. With a budget deficit looming and the early expiration of the Single Business Tax (SBT) with no replacement on the horizon, Dillon plans to work hard on solutions that move Michigan forward, and toward that goal he has increased the work week of his colleagues by adding Monday session days.

Although it was a day filled with ceremony, tradition and celebration, the Democrats also got to work immediately by introducing the legislation they promised to address in the campaign and netted them the majority in the House.

Democrats introduced a bill that would end immunity for drug companies if their drugs kill or maim the people who take them, and it would repel the current ban enacted in 1996 by then Gov. John Engler designed to shield huge pharmaceutical companies from responsibility. The Democrats also addresses voter’s concerns about Canadian and out-of-state trash streaming across our borders to the tune of some 6.2 million tons of out-of-state-trash in 2005 alone, and legislation introduced would ban any landfill expansion until 2011.

The next session of the 94th Michigan House of Representatives will be Monday, Jan. 22.

Howell Public School reject attempted assault on the separation of church and state

Cooler heads prevailed at Howell Public Schools after a lack of interest in establishing an elective course that will study the Bible in a literary context and as history died because of a lack of support.

North Carolina-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools - an affiliate of The American Family Association, the most well-known anti-gay hate group in America – would have provided the curriculum after a parent proposed the high school adopt the course. The group claims the “program is concerned with education rather than indoctrination,” but its website also says it want to return the Bible to public schools in a backdoor assault on the 1st Amendment’s separation of church and state.

The district issued a press release Monday that said the course would not be established at the high school because none of the high school’s social studies teachers volunteered to bring the curriculum to a K12 departmental committee meeting. To get the ball rolling on new curriculum and new courses, a recommendation first had to come from a curriculum content area to go on to the District Curriculum Council for adoption. There was no interest in doing that. However, the issue is not completely dead, and Jeanne Farina, Associate Superintendent of Curriculum, said the curriculum is scheduled to be a topic for discussion during the next scheduled meeting of the social studies faculty in April.

A couple of groups did step up to the plate to defend against the assault on the Constitution, and they included the Michigan Atheists and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Even though the press release was issued Monday afternoon before the School Board meeting later that evening, meaning it was a dead issue until at least the spring, sources at the meeting said the school board’s resident rightwing extremist, Wendy Day, made a motion to approve the course. Luckily, her motion died for a lack of support, and it did not even reach a vote by the full board.

Day, who says Evolution is a theory, was just elected to the board last spring. She is a founding member of an anti-gay hate group called the LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) PAC that sprang up last spring in response to a diversity flag they mistakenly claim is a gay pride flag that promotes and endorses homosexuality. The so-called “LOVE group claims it wants to bring traditional values back to the schools, but traditional values are all too often are simply code words for intolerance, discrimination and fear. That appears to the case here in Livingston County as well.

It’s business as usual for the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate

It’s business as usual for the Republican-controlled Senate after Majority Leader, Sen. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, announced the Senate would follow the normal session schedule of meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday.

Bishop chose not to follow the lead of new Speaker of the House Andy Dillon, D-Redford, in holding hold House sessions from Monday to Thursday instead of the normal Tuesday to Thursday. With the looming budget crisis and the need to fix the mess left by the Republicans with the irresponsible early repel of the Singe Business Tax the extra session days will be needed. The Republican majority killed the tax this summer in an election ploy with no replacement in sight, and they refused the governor’s request to address the replacement in the lame duck session.

Even when Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate, the Senate served as a roadblock for legislation the public has been clamoring for, such as campaign finance reform. A package of bills pushed by Brighton Republican Chris Ward was passed in the House, and even though the bills heavily favored the Republicans, the Senate still chose not to act on them or even take them up. Ward’s bill - House Bill 6128 – would have allegedly regulated so-called "soft money,” but it especially favored Republicans. But the rest of the package would have been a small step toward more accountability with better reporting and access requirements, and it would have been better than nothing.

There has also not been much of talk about bipartisanship coming from the Senate, and it’s unclear if the Democrats will again be shut out of the legislative process in the Senate like they have in the past. Apparently, only Democrats have to practice bipartisanship.

Despite the House session not beginning until the swearing in of all the members on Wednesday, that bipartisanship has already begun. The Speaker has given both sides of the aisle the same allotment of money to each member to maintain their offices and provide office staff instead of the past practice of the majority party getting a larger allotment of money to operate their constituent services.

Iraq supporters ignore logic and mounting evidence the invasion was a mistake

After the 9/11 report, the Iraq Study Group Report and admissions by the people who plunged us into this misguided Iraq fiasco, there are still people out there who actually believe the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have something to do with Iraq and still support this insane mess.

I know it’s amazing, but it’s true. I haven’t posted much lately because I have been wasting my time debating one of our two conservative wingnut bloggers in Livingston County that the Iraq fiasco is the reason we have not had a terrorist attack in the U.S., and that we should invade Iran and Syria next. I normally prefer to write about local and state political issues that have more of an effect on my daily life, but after reading about the funeral of the ninth solider from Livingston County killed in Iraq I would say it has had a huge effect on our lives here in Michigan.

The argument is that because of Iraq, “we are fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over there,” and the only reason we have not had a terrorist attack in five long years is because of Iraq. They ignore the fact that terrorist attacks on U.S. soil are very rare, and Middle Eastern terrorists have only pulled off two such attacks in our 216-year history. That’s an average of 108 years. Talk to me in 108 years. The fact is they ignore any logical argument they disagree with, and they even ignore the men they profess to have great respect for when they say Iraq was a bad idea, like President Gerald Ford.

They ignore the fact that Iraq has created more terrorists than it has killed. It’s like the Pearl Harbor for them, and how many young men joined the U.S. Military after the attack on Pearl Harbor? A lot.

The latest surprise came from a former soldier from Pinckney, who says,
“So I ask this question: To those who say we shouldn't be in Iraq, who asked the thousands of people who died on 9-11 what they wanted? Who asked them if they wanted to die, if they were ready to serve our country?

So I ask this question: What does the Iraq mess have to do with 9/11?

I would rather celebrate them and their courage and bravery, duty and honor, than to send any kind of message that I don't support them.

I think supporting the troops means a lot more than putting a flag on their graves on Memorial Day. It means ensuring the civilian leadership that controls the military only places them in harm’s way when it is absolutely necessary, ensure they have the proper equipment, ensure they have a clear mission and they know what and how to achieve victory. None of those conditions have been met in Iraq. It also means taking care of them when they return.

Like Mr. Prescott, I am both proud and honored to be called an American, a retired member of the U. S. Armed Forces and a citizen of this great country.