So, Governor Granholm is now saying that she's prohibiting personal travel for those who have state purchased vehicles.  Wonder where she got that idea from?

Oh that's right!  After over four years as being governor, Granholm elects to do nothing about this problem and neither did legislative Democrats.  But that all changes once the Detroit Free Press writes an article in their Easter Day edition (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070408/NEWS06/704080660) exposing the waste on state paid personal cars to the public.  Suddenly this needs to be dealt with urgently.

This time I did laugh, I know it's a bit of a big deal, but I just couldn't help myself.  Should Andy Dillon just surrender his job as speaker to Free Press Editorial Board Head Ron Dzwonkowski?  Should Granholm just appoint Free Press Writer Chris Christoff governor?  At this rate they might as well.

This is by no means a first for Granholm, as I've pointed out on this page several times.  Since she has taken office she has done nothing but chase ambulances and jump in front of parades in the absence of REAL IDEAS on how to govern.  Let's review:

Last summer the Free Press editorial page (I believe it was mostly Brian Dickerson) blasts the state for not providing timely or efficient health care to corrections inmates.  After that sizzled and got momentum, Granholm announces that she'll have appropriate authorities look into it.

Nearly every media outlet talked about the problems in Michigan's foster homes and in January of 2006 (before Ricky Holland's body was found) Department of Human Services Director Marianne Udow said before a Senate committee that her department lacked funding.  But suddenly, Holland's body is found.  Then the press starts going down the list of other foster care victims: Isaac Lethbridge, Rose Kelly, Allison Newman, and sadly others.  So Granholm reacts by announcing she's going to make room in the budget for 51 new child protective services workers (after falsely blaming the legislature for the shortfall in employees, see: Detroit News, 2/18/06 "Granholm's Knee-jerk Blame Game is Offense; and Skubick's column 2/24/06 "Capitol Double Standard").

Then there was the PR disaster that was the Patrick Selepak situation.  Which piggybacked off of the Daniel Franklin situation (Franklin was mistakenly released from prison and murdered his wife and her children with another father.  Only Franklin's own child's life was spared from his onslaught after being abducted).  But there was even an answer for this from Granholm.  The answer: run campaign ads about those "mean Republicans" who are capitalizing on human tragedy (or telling the truth, I guess it depends on your point of view) and remind everyone that you're a former federal prosecutor and a former attorney general, and that you put "tough new safeguards" in place to make sure the mistakes won't be repeated (don't worry about actually developing those safeguards, those are just details).  Then, to show you're serious, increase Corrections spending by $73,611,700.00 at a time when you're proposing to release 5,000 inmates because corrections has to cut. Anyone else seeing the contradiction here?

But I guess we shouldn't be surprised.  Even in her 2002 campaign for governor when she got caught red-handed at an NAACP event saying that she would support Congressman John Conyers' bill to give reparation's to the decedents of slaves, Granholm ran a campaign ad to quickly mop up her mess.  Apparently when she said she supported reparations, she didn't mean cash reparations.  Though she said she would support Conyers' bill calling for........CASH REPARATIONS!  Gosh, I would love to see The Daily Show episodes that would air if Granholm were president.

All these things are in addition to the number games this administration continues to play in an effort to make the ordinary appear heroic.  From this we have a governor who has signed 93 tax cuts into law (actually, 28), has cut state government (actually, the GF/GP budget has increased by over $600 million), is trying to balance a $3 billion budget deficit (actually $686 million), proposed an executive order worth over $350 million of hard cuts (actually about $44 million).  Need I go on?

And I could go on, as I'm sure most of you know, but I want to get to the point and that is: NONE of these problems were new problems, NONE of them.  The governor knew full well that ALL of these things were going on and chose to do NOTHING about them.  But once it came to light that they were problems and hurt her image, then and ONLY then did it become necessary to take action.  And that's a big reason we see ourselves in the budget dilemma we're in now.  Granholm, as a lame duck, has got to be the unpopular one in order for Dillon to maintain a majority.  The problem is, she is way too concerned about her public image to lead that way.  Andy Dillon's been speaker for 4 1/2 months and he's supposed to have all the answers?  I honestly feel a bit sorry for him that he's not getting more help from the top on this one.  Say what you want about John Engler my Democrat friends, but when he was in office I don't ever remember having to talk about shutting down state government.  The man led and he got things done.  A stark contrast from what we have now, as Granholm seems to be looking for someone else to do her job for her so that she can escape the consequences of proposing unpopular but necessary reforms.  I guess she ran out of task forces to appoint.

I must ask in all honesty to our friends from the other side of the aisle how could you have possibly worked so hard to get a person like this re-elected?  This is quite possibly the fakest person I have ever come to know in my life with the exception of Jessica Simpson.  I mean really, there is something wrong if I can be this disgusted with my governor and not yet mention the down right LIES about China and Dick DeVos.  So how did you do it?  How did you keep lying to yourself that Granholm was an effective leader?  That Granholm was worth the hours of sacrifice you undoubtedly devoted?  I don't think I'll ever know.