*Ahem*

MEA (0.00 / 0)

It would of been highly unlikely for the MEA to follow through with Backing a GOP cantidate.

http://mi-wire.blogspot.com/

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by: buda4every1 @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 12:13:35 PM CDT

It must be time to fund raise. (0.00 / 0)

Need money, kiss a baby and hug the union.  Get elected, declare war and pass mandated health insurance with a tax on the middleclass.    

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by: dkmich @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 13:55:57 PM CDT

Pure fluffery. (4.00 / 3)

J'aime beaucoup Teh Demas (tm Eric) when she tries to be all analytical.  It's kind of cute.  Alas, she's spent far too much time paying homageto Coy Aquamarine Eyes and Delusional Dillon and not enough time actually paying attention to Lansing politics. 

Bets on how many diatribes she posts this month in "retaliation" against us liberal bloggers?

Do stupid people know they are stupid?

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by: JPowers155 @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 15:42:57 PM CDT

Pool (4.00 / 3)

Great idea. We should start a pool on how many times she complains about us liberal bloggers and how we're all wrong wrong wrong every month.

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by: rich @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 16:10:04 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I guessing two this week... (4.00 / 2)

...and there will be some Tolstoy-length diatribe in some other medium -- perhaps how insiders know that the MEA's endorsement could be put in play, and the liberal fringe doesn't realize this because they're all on the payroll of Jennifer Granholm, and ... at some point in there, there will be a reference to "drink the Kool-Aid," which is a staple cliche of her work.

Whatevs...

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 22:40:36 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Union Default? (0.00 / 0)

It's petty not to mention insulting to say that the union default position to back the Democrats.

Perhaps if the GOP default position wasn't essential to want to drown the unions instead of,oh, I don't know, working with them, this would not be the case. But Republicants don't want to do that.

The unions aren't stupid. They know that most, if not all, Republican candidates would just screw them over after winning off. So why would they back one?

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by: sonnypi67 @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 17:16:37 PM CDT

unions (4.00 / 1)

unions--and the mea--are powerful entities. the gop needs to accept this and stop grousing about it.

they ain't going anywhere.

:giant middlefinger:

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by: healtHcareforall @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 19:36:31 PM CDT

Democrats have special interest groups (4.00 / 1)

Republicans have "real Americans."

Just look at the Teabaggers...

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by: Nazgul35 @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 21:17:02 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What was the bet? (0.00 / 0)

She's already linked.

http://blog.mlive.com/capitolc...

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by: NoviDemocrat @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 22:50:30 PM CDT

... (0.00 / 0)

So, she wrote two highly inconsistent blog posts (in the one about unions, she writes about the GOP retaking the House through unions punishing Andy Dillon by withholding contributions and then finishes it by suggesting that this might have something to do with Mike Cox winning the governor's race) for the express purpose of provoking a response from this Web site?

How pathetic.

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Sun Oct 18, 2009 at 23:17:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Wow... (4.00 / 1)

that didn't take long. Talk about Pavlov's Dog.

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by: rich @ Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 06:49:30 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Actually Eric (4.00 / 1)

I think it have everything to do with getting us to link to her and having everyone click through.

We are driving her traffic and she is reaping the rewards when she goes to her bosses and shows them her traffic.

Do what Cole does for some of the odious bloggers, list but don't link and let people go if they want to.

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by: Nazgul35 @ Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 12:27:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

MEA support of GOP candidates (0.00 / 0)

They have been known to endorse Republican candidates.  See Roger Kahn in 2006.  You'll find more if you look back through the books.

"Action is what separates a belief from an opinion."

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by: Erding @ Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 06:23:24 AM CDT

Right here, right now (0.00 / 0)

I'm usually a fan of history's ability to burst the bubbles of supposed trends and conventional wisdom, but right here, right now, the odds of the MEA endorsing a Republican -- especially any of the Republicans currently running for governor or any other statewide office -- is nil.

I'd add to that two things -- Teh Demas' original announcement of this was predicated on unions picking one of the current Republicans over John Cherry because of tweaks to MESSA (the system the state Republican Party is attempting to dismantle); and came from the new MEA lobbyist, who Teh Demas claimed was a rock-solid source and not just someone playing her for cheap publicity.  Most good journalists are able to discern when someone is attempting to use them to fire a shot over someone else's bow ... to Teh Demas, it's just another faux Nixon-goes-to-China moment.

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 07:36:11 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I should clarify (0.00 / 0)

The first paragraph says that right here, right now, the MEA wouldn't endorse a Republican, and it reads as if this applies to all Republicans even though you pointed out that the MEA endorsed Republicans for the state Senate (I believe the organization also endorsed Bruce Patterson).  My point is that right here, right now the MEA will not endorse a Republican for the office of governor.

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 07:45:41 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Labor and Democrats (4.00 / 1)

I think the split between labor unions and House Democrats is being blown out of proportion both by the Republicans, the media and some self-serving interests within the Democratic Party.

The reality is that likely all House Democrats support a fair wage and quality health care negotiated through a collective bargaining system for public employees in schools, state government and local government.  Republicans, on the other hand, has long taken an anti-union attitude and would prefer to break the unions and impose salary and benefits on public employees without any bargaining at all.

The split between Dillon and some one the state's labor unions is largely about how to sustain quality health care benefits for public employees into the future given the state's fiscal outlook.  The state, school districts and local government cannot continue to fund the super-inflationary increases for public employee benefits as they have in the past at current revenue levels.

The choice then comes down to increasing revenue to pay for the existing system, cutting benefits, or some method of restructing how public employee health care is provided.  I don't think anyone can reasonably expect that MEA, AFT and SEIU be enthusiastic about a proposal the reduces benefits.  At the same time, it's not reasonable to expect taxpayers who work in the private sector to be enthusiastic about tax increases to pay for public employee health care benefits that are better than what most private sector taxpayers have.

Regardless of what happens with the Dillon plan, ultimately some type of cost controls are going to need to be adopted for public employee health benefits as are increasingly being done in other states.  This will start becoming increasingly obvious with contracts come up for renewal given the cuts in education funding and revenue sharing.  As a public employee, I would much rather have Democrats developing the solution than I would a Republican House Speaker, Governor or Senate Majority Leader.

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by: Brady @ Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 12:00:37 PM CDT

Agreed... (0.00 / 0)

Although it's not just the unions that oppose this.  There's a considerable sense, provoked in large part to the same kind of feelings that got us term limits, that turning over health insurance to Lansing will create an expensive boondoggle. So, there will also be conservative local government types who won't want to see this happen.

Among the Trees

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by: Eric B. @ Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 13:41:31 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Local Government Employees (0.00 / 0)

Of course, it's those local government employees that are at the most at risk of having some low-benefit, high-deduc plan imposed on them by conservative local government types.

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by: Brady @ Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 14:14:19 PM CDT

[ Parent ]