The mud. The mud was everywhere. Ottawa County, in 2002, was covered in mud.
The second Dick DeVos said not to "look back" in campaign ad... what was it... number 67 or so, well, I immediately decided that was my cue to start looking back. I figured the guilt was getting to Dick, causing him to subconsciously reveal his past transgressions into the "mud" of his own making.
And now, I'm really sorry I did. I can't believe what I found.
Did you think Hitler was bad? You are sorely mistaken my friend. Things can get worse. Much worse.
We are not talking evil dictators here.
We are talking... Sesame Street characters.
Yes, you heard me. Oscar the Grouch.
I know. It's shocking. I will give you a minute to collect yourself.
It is enough to make state Sen. Leon Stille a grouch.
An attack campaign flier featuring a mock-up of the disagreeable Sesame Street character Oscar the Grouch asks readers to "dump Sen. Stille."
"I've never seen anything that low, particularly in Ottawa County," the longtime legislator said. "Ottawa County is just not known for that kind of mudslinging. It's well below the belt."
Children wept. Men wandered the streets, dazed and inconsolable. The churches filled with people looking for answers to the horror that had befallen them.
Ottawa County had never experienced anything like this before. Who could be behind such an atrocity?
In the battle for the 89th District House seat, Betsy DeVos' Great Lakes Education Project paid for and mailed the flier against Stille. The flier recounts Stille's recent brush with the law for illegally dumping trash in a Spring Lake school Dumpster and criticizes Stille for accepting campaign funds from the Michigan Education Association.
Sen. Stille cleaned up his trash. Oscar the Grouch could not be reached for comment.
He was not charged for dumping the trash and worked cooperatively with the school to remove the items from the Dumpster. He apologized for the incident.
"I did something that I deserved to be called on, but I don't know what more I can do to correct it," Stille said.
Dumping trash in the dumpster, and he gets Oscar the Grouch from the DeVos'. Harsh.
Dick and Besty's GLEP had their hands in some other "muddy" puddles-
Mike Pumford and Al Gore as playground buddies?
That's how Betsy DeVos' school choice political action committee, Great Lakes Education Project, is portraying Pumford, the Newaygo Republican lawmaker, in a flier.
"Al Gore and M. Pumford have a plan for education in Michigan: Higher taxes. More spending. No accountability," the flier announces.
DeVos' PAC has endorsed Pumford's primary opponent, David Noble, in an effort to rid the GOP caucus of one of its charter schools' foes.
It even tags Pumford with a new name: Liberal M. Pumford.
That's news to Pumford, who has been endorsed by Right to Life, the NRA, Farm Bureau, Small Business Association of Michigan, numerous police associations and other conservative groups.
"If I'm like Al Gore, we have a whole Republican caucus that's like Al Gore," Pumford said. "Too bad they have to stoop to this level."
The PAC has singled Pumford out as captive of the Michigan Education Association.
A recent MEA letter urged members to vote for Pumford "even if you usually vote in the Democratic primary. Mike needs all of his friends to pull the lever for Pumford."
Targeting their enemies, targeting the MEA. Targeting other folks too, using their past indiscretions.
The GLEP also supported numerous other candidates with campaign funds and ads.
In the race for the 24th District Senate seat, Birkholz recently mailed a flier that cited Geiger's February arrest in Charlotte for drunk driving. He later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of impaired driving.
Birkholz said she decided to go with the flier after members of her campaign committee and "several constituents" told her she had to answer "some of the lies" that she claims Geiger has been telling on the campaign trail.
Birkholz charged that her supporters are getting electronic phone calls from someone in Geiger's campaign criticizing Birkholz for her role in the firing in Mike Murray, a former aide to House Majority Floor Leader Bruce Patterson and husband of Jennifer Murray, Geiger's political consultant.
"We didn't campaign on it until my constituents said they're lying about you, and you aren't pointing out his record," she said.
But Joe Baumann, campaign manager for Geiger, said Geiger didn't know anything about the phone calls and didn't sanction them.
"We're not paying for them," he said.
The Barry County GOP was not amused.
The Barry County Republican Party put out a resolution condemning the Birkholz campaign for behavior that is "reprehensible and beneath the standards of fair campaigning, and is morally and politically unacceptable."
Barry County GOP Chairman Mark Englerth said his cell phone "rang so much I thought it would catch fire. People were outraged. It's disgusting."
He said the arrest record was not fair game, pointing out that Geiger had "apologized, took responsibility, didn't blame anybody else, was held accountable. The guy made a mistake in his life."
"What else do you want? Blood?"
It hasn't come to "blood" yet, but I wouldn't put anything past the DeVos family.
Ask Proctor & Gamble about the mud. They know first hand how nasty it can get.
But that's a story for another day.