"The decision to close the Jackson Prison comes as a complete surprise... Her recent talk in the press of working together with the Legislature in a bipartisan fashion seems to be just that - talk."

Go get her, Mike!  What's that?  You will?  OK, sorry for interrupting.  Please, continue...

"If our corrections problems are this serious and closures were this
imminent, the governor had numerous opportunities to alert the Legislature and address the problems through her State of the State address, through her Executive Order only two weeks ago, or during the testimony of her deputy director of Corrections yesterday afternoon.  We can only conclude her continued lack of communication with the Legislature on serious issues is intentional.

"Michigan is currently in a state of economic crisis, but closing prisons, reducing our state police force and putting the public's safety in jeopardy is not the way to solve our budget shortfalls.

"For our part, Senate Republicans have no interest in playing politics with public safety.   Despite no warning from the governor's administration, Senate Republicans will do what we were sent to Lansing to do - to find solutions to serious problems like these without endangering Michigan families and neighborhoods."

It wasn't long ago that RepublicChic wondered aloud here on RightMichigan why Republicans in the legislature seemed to have lost their spine in dealing with Granholm.

Looks like the top Republican in the Senate isn't missing his.

For those who've missed the news, Granholm announced yesterday evening her plans to close the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson, releasing 1,500 inmates and killing 400 local jobs.

I doubt this sort of statement will make the governor any more inclined to meet with the Majority Leader.  She seems the vindictive sort.  But if nothing else she knows she's not dealing with a pushover in the Senate this time around.