Right-wing columnist says throw the rascals out

This column was in today’s Detroit News by Editorial Page editor Nolan Finley. Anyone who has ever read his stuff or saw his cable show on PBS knows how far right this guy is. So much for the “liberal media” strategy myth the republicans have got people to buy into.
I agree with him on a lot in this piece, and the first rascal we need to throw out is Chris Ward, the leader of the do-next-to-nothing state House.
It’s funny he goes after the governor, but are we really surprised, considering the source?

Michigan voters are crankier than I've ever seen them. They're worried, afraid, angry and looking for someone to punish.
Not such good news for incumbents standing for re-election.
The Detroit News/WXYZ-TV Mood of Michigan poll unveiled last week found that voters are convinced the state is rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell.
They think the economy stinks, the roads are lousy, the auto industry is doomed and the schools are no great shakes. And they don't see things getting better anytime soon.
In short, they're in what looks like a kick-the-rascals-out mood.
They should be. Michigan is in this sorry state because leadership has failed at every level.
Voters can't do much about the auto executives whose hidebound resistance to change handed Detroit's vehicle-making franchise to Japan and Germany, and soon to South Korea and China.
But they can pummel the political leaders who sit around bickering and snickering while the foundation of this state crumbles.
Michigan's collapse wasn't slow in coming. It's been a rolling disaster that everyone watched develop, but no one had the courage to confront.
No incumbent should be spared from accounting for his or her role in this criminal neglect.
Give 'em all the boot
For starters, what would it hurt to make a few changes in the state's congressional delegation, considering how poorly the current crop has represented our interests in Washington?
With the exception of the tireless warrior Rep. John Dingell of Dearborn, our congressmen have been impotent in turning back the relentless assault on the auto industry.
Apparently, they've got bigger fish to fry. Carl Levin is one of the Senate's most influential members. He's always on the Sunday morning talk shows. What's he talking about? How he'd fight the war on terrorism if only he were the decider.

Never about how Washington's car-hating regulators are putting good people in Michigan out of work. (I’m not sure what he means here, but if he’s talking about gas mileage standards they should have been made tougher years ago.)

State lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, are as useless a body as ever sat in Lansing. If this is what a citizen Legislature looks like, give me back the career politicians. (Except, as we have seen from previous posts, the republicans have frozen out the Democrats and poisoned the atmosphere so badly in Lansing, thanks to antics like Ward’s, that the blame belongs at the GOP’s feet.)
They act as if crafting a sensible business tax is a task akin to unraveling the origins of the universe.

Why not just look at states where jobs are growing and say, "Let's do what they're doing"?
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has just one response for why Michigan deteriorated so badly on her watch: Blame Bush. (She’s right, and much of the work of her first years have been dedicated to correcting the mess left by Engler. This guy is from the smoke and mirrors school of accounting, and we’re still dealing with that system.)
What she can't tell us is why 49 other states, even fellow Rust Belt states like Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, are managing to prosper and grow under this administration, while Michigan can't. (Because it’s not true, and what state’s economy is tied so closely to the auto industry?)