Proper Prior Political Planning Prevents..............

Our zillionaire Governor is hitting up the Michigan Treasury for $ 1.5 million to cover the cost of really excellent lawyers who are mounting his criminal defense in the Flint water fiasco. Yesterday, he suggested that the two MDEQ employees criminally charged in the Flint water fiasco will no longer receive State paid legal representation. The State had been paying for outside counsel for Stephen Busch and Michael Prysby since AG Schuette stripped them of direct state assistant AG legal counsel in February.

Apparently, the distinction here is actually being criminally charged. Snyder hasn’t been, but Busch and Prysby just got charged.. AG Schuette could not resist piling on with the same common law misconduct in office felony charge used against Courser and Gamrat, but the actual substance of the statutory charges here are lying and tampering with evidence.

Note that the AG is filing actual statutory felony charges of evidence tampering against both Busch and Prysby to substantiate the common law misconduct in office charges, something he did not do with Gamrat. Snyder hasn’t even been interviewed by AG Schuette’s crack investigation team, which tells you something about the nature of AG Schuette’s investigation. Investigator-in-Chief Andy Arena is probably wetting his pants at the prospect of interviewing the Governor. Only time will tell whether Special Counsel Todd Flood‘s investigation is genuine or not.

We told you that Headlee evasion was the genesis of the Flint water fiasco and bureaucratic capture of our Governor allowed it to morph into a bleeding ulcer. Exactly which actions were criminal and which actions were the usual Michigan government bungling will only be determined over time. It is not surprising that the  first charges in the Flint water fiasco would fall on the lowest level players. The usual strategy of prosecutors when delving into such convoluted, multiparty crimes is to start at the bottom and work up to the top. But prosecutors usually have friendly chats with everyone involved, before anyone heads to court.  You learn a lot from contradictions.

Michael Prysby & Stephen Busch

Busch and Glasgow had reservations about Flint River water sourcing before it happened, but then flipped over to the dark side after it happened. Busch and Prysby are both registered professional engineers and Glasgow is a chemist, so they all knew exactly what they were doing when they flipped. All three are a profound embarrassment to their professions, but engineers and chemists can take cold comfort in the knowledge that these clowns are exemplars for government perversion of noble professions.

Someone(s) superior sweated this trio into going way out on a limb to cover up Flint water problems. That someone(s) is in real jeopardy if this charged trio starts singing. Government employees do not subscribe to the ‘no snitching’ culture which makes Michigan’s urban centers such paradises. So if the Flood investigation is real, more heads will indeed roll. And the higher the investigation goes, the more volume from each tier of bureaucratic singing.  They have ever more to lose. Even the Christmas burglary of Howard Croft’s office in the Flint City Hall will not save them.

The political optics at this point are horrendous, though, and you can bet that the Democrats will have a field day as we approach the November 8^th election. Our zillionaire Governor is debiting the Michigan Treasury for $ 1.5 million to cover his legal representation while the snuffies at the bottom are cut adrift. You can expect every government employee across Michigan to go flat out berserk for the Democrats on November 8^th.  The average Michigan voter will probably not greet this warmly after our lefty media drives this seeming contradiction home.

The Democrats in the Legislature proposed stripping State support of Snyder’s criminal defense legal team this week, but this is going nowhere in either Republican dominated body right now. The Republicans in the Legislature might want to reconsider State support of Snyder’s criminal defense legal team. The disparity of treatment on display here could create a political firestorm by November 8th, regardless of the fine distinctions. Remember that Snyder’s Flint pointmen, Harvey Hollins III and Jerry Ambrose, knew of the Flint Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak 11 months before Snyder acknowledged knowing. More very bad political optics.

Michigan’s Republican political establishment is focused on Presidential politics right now and that is all well and good. It is the highest office in the land. But we have the Michigan House of Representatives to defend down ballot and this defense is way more important than gaming the Virgin Islands’ delegates. Redistricting is coming up in five years – 2021 – and, if the Democrats control either state legislative body then, our political future is grim. At the very least, those Republican pashas casting covetous eyes on the Governorship should be deeply concerned about how the Flint water fiasco is playing out. Redistricting will take effect between the first and second terms of the next governorship.

They might be thinking that U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara’s dismissal of a poorly executed Flint water law suit is some kind of turning point legally. It isn’t. O’Meara is a crotchety old Democratic fossil who never encountered a corrupt government employee, Islamic fanatic, or Mafia kingpin he didn’t like. He gets slapped down by the 6^th Circuit on a regular basis for his dubious temperment.

Flint water lawsuits are going to be a continuing embarrassment and drain in the 2018 and 2020 elections. It is time for Michigan’s Republican establishment to demonstrate that they can indeed find their butts with both hands in broad daylight and start cleaning house.

Proper Prior Political Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!

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