The sun was out and so were Livingston County Democrats of all ages, welcoming Lt. Governor John Cherry to the LCDP BratFest at Huron Meadows Park today.
Bratfest guests started off by choosing their favorite Democratic Presidential candidate in the county's first straw poll; they were also able to add their signatures to a letter of support for Governor Granholm, urging her to stay strong in the current budget crisis.
A quick stroll away from the political table brought the aromas of brats, hot dogs and vegetable burgers on the grill. These were complimented by a buffet of baked beans, potato salad, veggies & dip. Of course, LCDP functions always offer an outstanding choice of desserts and today was no exception. It was a delicious way to support the local party, and a bargain at just $10 per person /$25 per family.
As tasty as the cookout was, it's clear that the star of the afternoon was Lt. Governor Cherry. A 20-year veteran of state politics, John Cherry offered a healthy perspective on the Lansing political situation. He noted that today's Democrats and Republicans have profoundly different ideas of the government's function. Republicans, increasingly suspicious of all government, see it as unnecessary; anti-tax guru Grover Norquist has often referred to shrinking it down "until you can drown it in a bathtub." Democrats understand that funding effective government programs like education, public safety, environmental protection and public health will actually make our state stronger.
Cherry spoke about the media's treatment of the Governor. In addition to sexist comments about Gov. Granholm "changing her mind," the mainstream media has also ignored her notable accomplishments -- like managing to trim $4 billion in her first term after inheriting a budget deficit from her Republican predecessor.
The LG went on to applaud the great work done by Livingston County Democrats to get the word out. Blogs like this one and Michigan Liberal, the LCDP website and the steady streams of letters to the editor are making a difference. In fact, the only two GOP legislators to have openly shown flexibility on the budget are from Livingston County, Rep. Chris Ward (R-Brighton) and Sen. Valde Garcia.
Cherry stayed to take questions from the audience, with topics ranging from health care to public employee pensions and, of course, the budget mess.
The LCDP Bratfest was a wonderful way to spend an autumn afternoon -- good food, good ideas and an appreciation for the values of good government.
6 comments:
And where was the local press? We had the Lt Governor speaking on the number one topic in Michigan and no press? Seems like they spent the entire day in Pinckney at the rodeo!
And they want to be considered a serious newspaper?
How much coverage wil they give the Howell children's assault story?
And they wonder why Livingston County has such a strange reputation? They contribute to it.
I bet they will have a full crew covering Ann Coulter!
who won the straw poll?
who won the 50-50 raffle?
Rich Perlberg's answer as to why the Press Argus didn't cover Lt Governor's appearance in Brighton on Sunday. The news blotter story was on the oline paper today and it was funny.
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Okay, a few responses:
First, the "ember alert" line was one of the funniest I've seen on this forum.
Second, the story got higher placement online than you would expect because of the way story budgets get "sent up" to our corporate center where web pages are managed early in the morning. The story hardly got much play in the paper -- a couple of inches buried on the lower half of Page 4A.
Third, a lot of Police Blotter items may seem trivial and petty, but we know that they are well received by a good number of our readers. They might not be your cup of tea, which is fine, but whenever we cut down on the Blotter, we get a lot of feedback.
Now, about your major point. Perhaps Cherry would have been an interesting story, but we decided against it. He shows up in the area, but anything he offers could be gained by a phone call.
We do and have covered the budget stalement extensively -- our own articles, wire articles, columns and editorials. Maybe Cherry could have added something new. But we figured the fight in the Legislature was more pertinent.
Newsrooms make these decisions. For example, a week ago Sunday we had a front-page story about the latest legislative debate on the budget and an inside lead state story on GM-UAW talks. The Ann Arbor News by the way had not a word about either hard-news story, although they carried a column on the overall stalement by the fine political writer, Peter Luke. Likewise, our Sunday lead was about how Chris Ward broke ranks with the House GOP and voted for a tax hike, only to be shafted by Democrats who have the ability to pass a tax hike but are apparently afraid to. The Ann Arbor front page had two stories: a long-planned soft feature on Google and a column about how the Michigan football team won Saturday. Do you question their credibility? (I'm not criticizing Ann Arbor, by the way, but I'm showing that different news organizations can make different decisions.)
We didn't feel we need to talk to Cherry who, although more experienced than most of Lansing, is still only Lt. Gov. We had already talked to the Governor. She told us that major cost-cutting issues, such as teacher health care and pension costs, were really not her concern. Health care costs were school board issues, she said. We covered her visit extensively as we did when she showed up at Brighton library a few weeks later. That was supposed to be a closely orchestrated event without press coverage, but since it was in a public building we covered it. There she was flanked by school officials and school board members. Did she admonish them to take the responsibility of controlling benefit costs? She did not. She told them to call their lawmakers and tell them to raise taxes.
So, guess what? Chris Ward perhaps drove a stake into his political future by voting for a tax hike. And the Democrats bailed on him. Consider this: Granholm says we have to have a tax hike in order to avoid massive cuts. The GOP-controlled Senate votes for a tax hike (albeit with cuts the Dems don't like) but the Democrat-controlled House won't vote for it because Dems are afraid of voter reaction. No one said you had to have courage to get elected to the House, I guess.
So maybe we should have been there to ask Cherry what is it exactly that the Dems want? They had a tax hike handed to them, but they wouldn't vote for it.
Rich Perlberg
Executive Editor
Perlberg's statement is more of a rant against Democrats than anything else. It sounds like he made the decision because he was mad at Democrats, not based on news judgment.
Well certainly Rich Perlberg's rant explains wy the Dems do not get equal treatment with the Press/Argus in Livingston County!
So much for fairness!
I just canceled my Press Argus subscription. I'll miss out on local news, but, what good is news when it's being passed through an unabashedly biased filter?
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