by Tim Skubick
July 24, 2009

As confidential memos go, this one is…well, unprecedented in its candor, rancor and anger. In other words, it’s a classic. In fact, union leader Lu Battaglieri of the Michigan Education Association says: “It is not hyperbole to say we are at war on this issue.”

And that “issue” is the stunning proposal released last week by House Speaker Andy Dillon to create a state-government-operated insurance fund for the state’s 400,000 public employees, including teachers.

The MEA lashes Dillon for promoting an “anti-labor, anti-union, and anti-collective bargaining” scheme that is even worse than what the union battled during 12 years of former Gov. John Engler.

In quick order, Battaglieri lays out these charges against the Democratic speaker: (1) He allegedly reneged on a promise to let the union review the plan before it was released. (2) The plan will cost Democrats control of the governor’s office and the state House and Senate next year. (3) Dillon is splitting the Democratic Party. (4) Dillon is a Republican, a different union official argues.

Dillon is: “A nice house — nobody home,” concludes Battaglieri as he rants on. “This is not meant to be pejorative. I believe it is true.” He says Dillon is a “nice man,” but that’s about the only nice thing he has to say.

The MEA “is not going to be sacrificed on the altar of the budget yet again,” Battaglieri warns after his union’s insurance company, MESSA, took a hit during the last budget meltdown two years ago.

All this is really a “war” on two fronts. The MEA is loath to risk its workers’ benefits by letting the remote state government dictate what those benefits will be. It is much easier to bargain across the table from school board members you play golf with and have a closer relationship with.

Secondly, there is the political war this could foster.

Dillon told the union that he was offering this plan to prevent Democrats from losing the House, Senate and governor’s office next year. Battaglieri lectured Dillon “that’s exactly what will happen” if this is adopted. Dillon is “seemingly clueless as to the damage he is causing the Democratic Party,” opines the union official.

Furthermore, Big Lu believes Dillon has handed the GOP an issue. The speaker points to $900 million in health care savings, which the Republicans will twist around to say there’s $900 million in waste in the system and Democrats don’t want to do anything about it.

All this just serves to increase the flow of bad blood between the Democratic speaker and the Democratic-leaning MEA and does nothing to solidify Dillon’s support in the labor movement, even though several unions will back Dillon.

And to underscore his lack of standing with labor, the ink was not even dry on his proposal when he picked up the endorsement of two Republicans running for governor.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm was lukewarm, claiming she had a “million questions” she wanted answered before she signed off, if at all.

Dillon has placed his caucus in a tough position. The MEA will warn House Democrats who are running for re-election that they are free to back the Speaker, but the MEA is free to ignore them when they ask for money next year. Self-preservation being what it is, Dillon will lose votes.

And all that cheering you hear over there on the sidelines? It’s from Republicans who love watching a family feud in the other party…for a change.

Tim Skubick is Michigan’s senior Capitol correspondent and has anchored the weekly public TV series “Off the Record” since 1972.

Tim Skubick Extra Extra… (A weekly bonus for Dome readers)

Rick Who Remains Rick Who
The latest entrant into the GOP race for governor has two objectives as he bounces around the state to announce his candidacy. The obvious one is to stir up enough support to become governor, but first things first. Rick Snyder has to address a more immediate challenge: Rick who?

As a complete and utter unknown quantity in the political game, Snyder starts with zero name ID. And, frankly, his first attempt at building on that goose egg was an abject failure.

Despite some very high priced handlers who provided the applause track for his speech, they somehow forgot to provide him some sound advice on how to get his name out to the public.

Snyder’s advance team showed up on the steps of the state Capitol and erected a podium with a mike and a bumper sticker attached to the podium. It read, “Rick for Michigan.”

The sign was arranged so that you couldn’t see the word “for,” and so to the unwashed who didn’t know this guy from Adam, it looked as though his name was Rick Michigan.

In fact, after the Lansing event, a female tourist who happened to watch the event asked somebody, “What is his name?”

One of the “savvy” handlers responded, Rick Snyder.

The woman said, “Oh. I was pretty sure his name was not Rick Michigan.”

It was bad enough that the tiny bumper sticker did not reveal his last name, but the huge bus he is using doesn’t either. It’s Rick for Michigan only in bigger letters.

If businessman Snyder is the hotshot business guy that he says he is, somebody’s fat paycheck should take a hit for this sophomoric blunder. Unfortunately, “Rick who?” can’t fire the inept hire because he has pledged to reduce the state’s jobless rate, not increase it.

Uncle Walter
WWWD?

What would Walter do or, now more appropriately, what would Walter have done?

During the media gluttony of the Michael Jackson story, this thought kept swirling around: if Walter Cronkite were still anchoring the evening news, how would he have covered this overblown, over done, over-the-top coverage of the King of Pop?

Rest assured he would not have led the CBS Evening News with the story and he would not have devoted the first 13 minutes of the broadcast, as Brian Williams did over at NBC.

“Uncle Walter” would have covered the event but buried it lower in the rundown — where it belonged.

He would have protested to the news division when it decided this story deserved a one-hour special in prime time. He would have reminded the “suits” that they no longer wanted to air more serious fare on CBS Reports or other documentary outlets that long ago had been killed by the same “suits” for lack of ratings.

Cronkite, of course, would have lost the battle, but he would have gone public with his condemnation of same.

Good thing for CBS Mr. Cronkite was not around, because he would have reminded everyone that the role of the journalist is to present the news “that people need to know and not what they want to know.”

Implicit in that standard is the notion that covering the news is not about profits; it’s about sharing with citizens what they should know about the world. My, oh my, those days died long before Mr. Cronkite left this earth.

And how ironic it was to watch all the cable talking heads bemoan the loss of this great broadcast journalist when most were living examples of how far the TV news biz has degenerated and strayed from the ideals Mr. Cronkite espoused.

And how ironic that you won’t see the gluttony of coverage over his death, even though, compared to Mr. Jackson, Mr. Cronkite impacted many more lives and in a more substantive manner.

And, unfortunately, that’s the way it is and was.