Bolger got into trouble by conspiring with Schmidt to recruit a non-Democrat to run against him after the latter switched parties just before the May filing deadline.

Schmidt, according to an investigation by Kent County's Republican prosecutor Bill Forsyth, [Schmidt] offered to pay one of his son's friends $1,000 to run as his Democratic opponent.

It was the equivalent of asking a boxer to take a dive -- but not illegal under Michigan law, according to the prosecutor.

Bolger said on my WJR radio show that he had no knowledge of the payment offer and there is no evidence to contradict his statement.

Speaker Bolger is truly an amazing man.  He has to be the first individual that I've heard of that can actually walk through a septic tank and not get anything on him.  Didn't know how The Left acts?  C'mon Jase, you didn't just fall out of bed one morning into that Speaker position of yours.

In other words, he's about the last politician you'd expect to take a page out of the Richard Nixon playbook of dirty tricks.

And yet, inexplicably, that's what he did in this case in the name of political expediency.

It's important to repeat that Bolger's involvement in the Schmidt race was not illegal, a not-insignificant distinction.

His actions, no matter how Machiavellian, don't qualify for more serious rebuke than his own embarrassment, and Bolger told me he feels plenty of that -- not over being caught, but over agreeing to become involved.

Bolger is right to reject calls for his resignation as Speaker [Stop]

Sure, Frank.  But, the Edsel was still an Edsel, and the plug was pulled on it 'cause like Speaker Bolger, nobody bought the Edsel, either.

We aren't talking about being Christ-like here, it's just plain common sense.  Jase made himself a marked man for his embracing The Left.  So has Bobby Schostak.