As Michigan lurches closer and closer to financial disaster, it’s important not to let the human element get lost in all the budgetary mumbo jumbo and political skirmishing.
Three people are absolutely critical to any solution to our problems: Governor Jennifer Granholm, House Speaker Andy Dillon and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop.
Certainly, as Democrats, Granholm and Dillon have more in common than they do with Republican Bishop. But their situations are different.
Now in her second term, the governor is precluded from running again, and as long as sitting U. S. Senator Carl Levin is running for re-election, she doesn’t have an obvious target for higher office. To put it plainly, for the governor the risks of being bold and decisive are relatively slight.
Dillon, on the other hand, won his speakership by a slim majority and doesn’t have much maneuvering room, especially with organized labor, which was lukewarm at best when he was elected. Moreover, he has a vested interest in maintaining Democratic control of the House, which could be kicked away by too-rash behavior during this crisis.
Republican Bishop is in an equally vulnerable position. Having to negotiate with Democrats Dillon and Granholm, he’s the odd man out. Moreover, he was elected Majority Leader by only one vote, and Lansing insiders report his caucus is largely composed of Alpha Males, many of whom think they could do a better job than he.
In all this calculus, it’s important to recognize that our top leaders – Granholm, Dillon and Bishop – are smart, capable, well intentioned people. They’re genuinely interested in making good policy to save our state, and they’re realistic enough to know if they are too dogmatic, overtly partisan or merely ineffective they’ll quickly be blamed for disaster. Dillon and Bishop, in particular, have a good personal relationship.
I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure that there are lots of negotiations going on privately in Lansing between our three top leaders. They are all genuinely motivated to do the right thing, which counts for a lot.
There’s also something to be said for reflecting about how previous Michigan leaders would have dealt with this crisis. I’m lucky enough (i.e. old enough) to have known some of them.
Former Governor G. Mennen Williams (together with his long time friend, state Democratic Party Chairman Neil Staebler) made the Michigan Democratic Party into a citizen participation powerhouse. I’d guess Williams would have convened a series of citizen meetings designed to give Joe and Josephine Six Pack a good look at the facts behind the crisis and listened hard for their advice.
Former Governor William G. Milliken was the consummate bipartisan bridge builder. During his governorship, he created “the quadrant” – weekly meetings between himself and the top Democratic and Republican leaders of both houses of the legislature – to hash things out and come to consensus solutions. In today’s situation, Milliken would have convened the quadrant and worked feverishly to find common ground.
Former Governor George Romney, a hard-charging businessman, would have insisted on common sense, businesslike solutions to our present crisis. He would have summoned the 10 top business leaders to meet with him and top legislators and pushed for a top down solutions.
When he was governor, John Engler was a great combination of a policy wonk (carefully hidden from public view) and bare knuckle partisan. Under today’s conditions, he would have met first with GOP legislative and party leaders, looked six moves down the partisan chess board, then called in the Democrats to lay out their (uncomfortable) choices for them.
My old friend, Ed McNamara, was Mayor of Livonia and then Wayne County Executive. A man disinclined to take much guff from anybody, McNamara would have invited legislative leaders from both parties into his office, locked the door and told them they couldn’t come out until they’d hashed out a solution.
There is something to this latter method, especially in times of looming crisis. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Governor Granholm did something very similar in the next couple of weeks.
3 Comments
The above article may be five months old but it still pertains to the current crisis in the legislature. Neither party wants to be the first to show real leadership by doing what is necessary and that is to cut spending and raise taxes.
Legislators are worried about being elected again and are afraid to reach across the aisle and forge and work in bipartisanship for the citizens of Michigan.
Where are the Bill Millikens that worked as legislators and later as Governor to work with members of their own party as well as the other party?
Bill Milliken always reached out and took great political risks such as recognizing the role that Detroit had to play in Michigan and our nation. He never worried about the next election but rather worried about accomplishing what was best for Michigan.
The only answer to the current crisis in Lansing is to take a page from the Milliken years and that is to listen and agree that both sides have to be willing to give as well as meet the public and share why their joint actions are what is best for Michigan.
After reading many of the suggested ideas for change I am not pleased. We need real nitty-gritty changes. Very visible, very understandable changes. This will get the public’s attention. I was a public servant of the “Blanchard Era”. I felt it was an extension of the Milliken era. We were very hands on, out in the field people, really helping, really solving things, within our funding limitations.
I left State government about 15 days into Engler’s second term. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. The lies, corruption, poor service, decisions, it got to a point that I could no longer violate my personal values, morals or professional ethics.
Why don’t we seriously look at how services are delivered ? Reshape and rethink our priorities. You know, folks are folks.
There is far to much finger pointing and blaming in Lansing and Washington.
We are told by our governor to suck it up when we complain about tax increases. Lansing and Washington democrats and to many republicans seem to think that they produce revenue. They really do not understand that they do not produce a penny, they only transfer money.
The only reason for a tax increase today is to expand government. It has no other purpose. Therein lies the fundamental difference between the right and the left. The left seems to think it is governments responsibility to solve all problems. The larger the government the less efficient it becomes.
The real problem we face is voter ignorance and apathy. Too many vote based on the latest TV ad or sound byte, not having a clue as to what the important issues are or choose to not vote at all.
The dumbing down of America continues and both parties deserve recognition for this.