Oh, wait...he converted every new Oakland County employee over to private Health Savings Accounts and saved taxpayers millions?

He also converted every Oakland County employee over to Defined Contribution retirement plans, saving taxpayers millions more?

Neither Macomb County, nor any other county I am aware of, did both of those things.

Wait! Didn't he also support privatization of jail functions like food service at Oakland's jail? And it got done. Granholm refuses to do that for state prisons and costs taxpayers PLENTY.

Hmmm...Patterson also privatized the operation of Oakland County's Senior Hospital while Macomb taxpayers pay millions in subsidies for our similar facility.

Oakland County has a AAA bond rating. A balanced budget. Macomb's Board of Commissioners is about to raise taxes, making Oakland County the lowest county tax rate in the state.

L. Brooks has his flaws. But he has actually gone out and DONE what many in the limited-government, fiscal conservative wing of the GOP have just talked about.

Bob Daddow, Brook's financial manager guy, is affiliated with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Statists HATE that and will try to make it a liability. I sense that Brooks, who is famously brusque, doesn't care.

But Brooks really hasn't cared what whiny elitists have thought on many politically-incorrect issues. While every elitist ignores fiscal reality over Cobo Hall expansion plans just so they can hold hands and say the word, "regionalism", Brooks demands financial details and witholds support. Brooks took on the Detroit Water and Sewer Department when the politically-correct elitist "conservatives" in the media supported Neville Chamberlain-style negotiations.

Brooks came out against government racial preferences and supported the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative when most country club Republicans opposed it. (Mike Cox, Craig DeRoche and scant few other Republican leaders deserve credit here, too).

L. Brooks Patterson doesn't care what the political elites think. He doesn't care what the government employee unions think. He has gotten actual, real-world reforms accomplished in Oakland County.