By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
The conventions are finally over. This week, Congress is back in session. One would hope that that would mean it's policy time, not politics time in Washington. Unfortunately, that hope is just as vain as President Obama's hope to lower the seas. The politicking will only intensify as we get closer to Election Day.
Democrats here clearly think they have a political winner in President Obama's decision to bail out the American auto industry, but numbers on the bailout's cost released this week suggest that the move could pose some political potholes for both presidential campaigns this fall.
Rusty Bongard keeps a 1976 photo of motorcycle lobbyist Jim Rhoades sitting on the steps of the Michigan statehouse in Lansing, holding a sign that reads "Helmet Laws Suck."
The classic 1969 rebel flick "Easy Rider" featured motorcyclists Captain America and sidekick Billy storming the Southwest, their open-road, hog-riding journey producing an iconic vision of generational freedom.
Last week, while Wisconsin's 14 renegade Democratic state senators continued to wash their socks and underwear in a hotel sink in a "principled" standoff to avoid voting on Gov. Scott Walker's public union reform agenda, and as similar legislative efforts unfolded in Ohio and Indiana, there was a quiet but seismic victory for working people in my home state of Michigan.
Think wrangling one or two teenagers at home is tough? Some high school teachers in Detroit could end up with as many as 62 students per classroom under a proposal geared at helping balance the district's budget, which is $327 million in the red.
The auto industry is providing President Obama a good-news story automakers are making money, plants are hiring and the taxpayers' stake in General Motors is dwindling. Things are looking up for the president in assembly-line country just not the voting.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, turned back a challenge from Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. on Tuesday, but Republicans still appeared on track to achieve their 2010 goal of retaking a majority of the nation's governorships.
Incumbents beware. Another lawmaker just bit the dust.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The state Legislature agreed early yesterday to raise the income tax and expand the sales tax to services in a deal with the governor that quickly ended a partial state government shutdown.
The "n-word" is dead according to the NAACP, which staged a mock funeral for the racial slur during its annual convention in Detroit yesterday, complete with a horse-drawn caisson, black roses and a plywood casket.
"This budget agreement is the right solution for Michigan," Mrs. Granholm said. "We prevented massive cuts to public education, health care and public safety while also making extensive government reforms and passing new revenue. With the state back on solid financial footing, we can turn our focus to the critical task of jump-starting our economy and creating new jobs."
The final budget for the new fiscal year will include $440 million in spending cuts, including no inflationary funding increase for public universities and community colleges, Mrs. Granholm said.
