We have an obvious medical emergency at the Detroit News. They have completely taken leave of their senses and are displaying that they have truly and irrevocably left the realm of reality. It is a cry for help that should not be ignored.
I usually dismiss the Detroit News editorials like one would dismiss a screaming child throwing a fit after being sent to their room for a time-out. You let them cry it out because further attention only encourages the behavior, right? Nap time. But today's editorial indicates that they may be a danger to society. Professionals should be called in.
Yes, I'm kidding. Sorta. You tell me.
We had hoped Gov. Jennifer Granholm would move out of campaign mode after her election victory and start showing some leadership.
We should have known better. Granholm returned from her post-election vacation sounding the same partisan, confrontational tone that defined her first term.
Now she's taunting the Legislature's lame-duck Republican leadership to come up with a replacement for the Single Business Tax, saying that since they killed the tax, they have the responsibility to replace it before they leave their posts in three weeks.
The governor knows that won't happen. This is sheer vindictiveness, one last opportunity to get a dig in at the GOP leaders who blocked her efforts to run the state completely into the ground.
"Run the state completely into the ground"? Are they seriously suggesting that is what she had in mind all along, and that by asking the Legislature to behave in a responsible manner she is "taunting" them and being vindictive?
"You're ruining my life!", cried the teenager denied.
And are they really suggesting that is was the GOP who valiantly stopped her efforts to destroy the state when they acted to slash our revenue without a replacement?
Really?
Pop psychologist diagnosis: This statement shows the Detroit News is suffering from mixed-type Delusional disorder, leaning heavily toward Persecutory Type with a touch of Grandiose Type. Medication will be required. Look it up.
Consider the previous statements from the DN when they endorsed DeVos a little over a month ago. Their complaints at that time were radically different from the complaints of today, proving that the DN is suffering from acute differences in perception, molding the circumstances of reality to fit their particular delusion on any given day.
We don't fault Gov. Jennifer Granholm for the collapse of the domestic auto industry or for the resulting avalanche that continues to decimate Michigan's economic base.
No matter who was sitting in the governor's office the past four years, the forces roiling Michigan's bread-and-butter industry could not have been turned back nor their impact on the state muted. The challenges the governor has faced have been immense, and we have often sympathized with the enormity of the task she faced.
But in measuring her performance in leading Michigan through this crisis, we find her lacking. She was too slow to implement policies to change the state's economic future, too ineffective in dealing with the Legislature to push through urgent legislation and too uninspiring in rallying citizens to the extreme challenges of transforming the state's economy and breaking its culture of entitlement.
"Slow, ineffective and uninspiring". But when she acts today to "implement policies" to address those "extreme challenges", she is "partisan and confrontational". And the "sympathy" the News claims to have had a month ago was obviously a smokescreen of epic proportion, for now they accuse her of trying to "run the state into the ground".
So, which is it? Victim of circumstance who was to slow to act, or purposeful partisan destroyer?
The News goes on with some misdirection to support their delusion, the classic behavior of those suffering from this illness.
Tax policy should not be formed by a lame-duck legislature. Lawmakers crafting tax policy should be still accountable to voters, not headed out the door.
Denial of responsibility comes first. It paves the way for what comes next in an attempt to justify the thought process.
The governor in four years couldn't create a broadly endorsed tax alternative. Yet now she wants lawmakers to rush through a plan in a few days.
False statement. They had an agreement last November that was scuttled at the last minute. The GOP promised to work on the issue this year. They did not, and I think we all know the reason why now.
Doing so would deprive those impacted by the business tax of input in the process. The business community has the right to voice its opinion about how the new tax should work.
The "business community" was asked for its input starting in 2004. To suggest that they weren't part of the plan offered last year is disingenuous.
Granholm says she will offer her own plan to the lame duck session. Most likely, she will reintroduce her discredited tax shuffle that the Legislature shot down last year.
And again, they had an agreement on the previous plan. Repeating the charge that it was a failure or was discredited does not make it true.
What is really fascinating to me is that the DN and others who repeatedly called for immediate and radical action throughout the year are now saying that we can take our time.
There's no reason to rush. Michigan has several months to devise a new business tax plan before the Single Business Tax expires at the end of 2007.
The governor and the new Legislature must work together to first establish the goals of the new tax, and then create a plan that best meets those goals.
But the cooperation and compromise necessary to reach consensus won't happen until the governor loses the chip on her shoulder.
I think we have identified who has the "chip on the shoulder" here, and we have identified who needs to compromise.
The Republicans have had plenty of time to present their ideas, and so far they have refused to do so. Here is their opportunity to have a strong say in what happens next, and yet the DN and others are suggesting it is best left to the Democratic House. While that may be true, it sure sounds like a set-up so they can continue to deny their responsibility to the citizens and businesses of Michigan.
The delusion must go on, or it might shatter their tenuous grip on reality.
I'm not sure if they prescribe Thorazine anymore, but the need for it seems to be indicated here.