Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun Opinion

[Greg Starks]

http://themorningsun.com/articles/2010/10/21/opinion/doc4cc06aff5070a934938714.txt

 

When the state's term limit law was written, the kind of person its authors had in mind was Bill Schuette. Their intention was to open elected office to new blood with new ideas and to cycle "career politicians" off the public teat.

 

Schuette defines the term "career politician." If you look at the trajectory of his public service, he has jumped from job to job to job with no coherent path. He has been a state lawmaker, a congressman, an official in John Engler's Department of Agriculture and finally -- despite having no relevant experience -- an appellate judge (his election to this office makes a strong case to appoint these judges rather than elect them). Now, he wants to be the attorney general.

 

 

If you go by the depths to which his campaign has plumbed, it appears that he really, really wants the job. In fact, if there were an award for the vilest, most awful campaign every election season, we wouldn't need to wait for Nov. 3. Schuette could walk away with it right now.

 

You knew at the outset of this race that the Republican nominee, no matter who it was, would attempt to paint the Democrat as "soft on crime." It makes no difference that the attorney general's office has little direct role in prosecuting criminal cases. The Republican would promise to crush criminals while saying that the Democrat would serve them tea and cookies while patting them on the heads and telling them to behave.

 

I don't doubt that this fable is intentional. In this political environment, campaigns to large extent bank on voters being poorly informed. Lying to reporters isn't just commonplace, it's considered a crucial element of strategy. Inventing job duties is simple extension of that. (This phenomenon knows no political party, incidentally. I spent all summer being lied to.)

 

Republicans are trying to frame the Democratic candidate, David Leyton, as soft on crime. If elected, he will allow criminals to roam the streets, murdering and plundering. To the contrary, Schuette is a Republican. What you're supposed to not remember is that there isn't anything on Schuette's resume to suggest that he's a tough guy (aside from heading up the campaign opposing medical marijuana two years ago.) The closest he's come to prosecuting criminals is watching reruns of “Law and Order.”

 

The effort to tar Leyton as soft on crime is predicated on the fact that Leyton has not brought every murder suspect in Genesee County to trial. He has allowed some of them to plea to lesser crimes in exchange for lesser sentences.

 

Trials are incredibly expensive things, and any prosecuting attorney who brings every major crime to trial would in short order exhaust his department's budget, and the citizenry would become outraged that he was going through taxpayer dollars like it grew on trees. Allowing criminal suspects to take plea deals not only saves time and money, but it also creates some justice in cases that the prosecutor could well lose at trial.

 

Here is where things turn vile. To support this charge, the Schuette campaign has been parading around family members of crime victims who say that David Leyton denied them justice, and set up a website to provide them with a place to tell their story. They've also put them in television ads.

 

....

 

Schuette owns the bigotry unleashed earlier this week. He helped create the monster, He owns part of what it unleashed. If elected, the state's attorney general will have gotten there by engaging in conduct worthy of nothing but deep scorn.

[+Annnie]

Mt Pleasant is really an extremely Hip place to be lately.. Im loving this..

[greenbuddha]

These 'political hogs' should not be elected into office to feed at the 'public tax trough'.

[Mr. Wilson]

No doubt that his first move in public office will be to "bribe" the State Police into starting a campaign of fear and harassment directed towards us.

 

He will try his hardest to interfere with the MMMAct and if possible, support any effort to repeal or replace it.

[DT61]

Now - how do we get that clarifying message in front of everyone we can?

[Mememe]

Now - how do we get that clarifying message in front of everyone we can?

Simplify what it says down to about 6 easily understood words and post signs with those words at the polling locations.

[+Silverblue]

Remember, he ran the campaign against our law, but it passed anyway, but we must still fight this propaganda he's spewing. I hope Mr. Leyton can put out convincing enough ads to state the truth. If Mr. s. wins, we better have a darn good plan, well organized, and ready to implement, but for now, let's do our best to keep him outta there.

 

Sb

[greenbuddha]

Remember, he ran the campaign against our law, but it passed anyway, but we must still fight this propaganda he's spewing. I hope Mr. Leyton can put out convincing enough ads to state the truth. If Mr. s. wins, we better have a darn good plan, well organized, and ready to implement, but for now, let's do our best to keep him outta there.

 

Sb

 

 

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!