"Without that slim GOP control of the upper legislative body over the next two years just imagine the staggering possibilities.

The economy is in the tank and revenues are down.  Papa Jon says raise taxes."

"Mike Bishop is going to have to play the part of Davy Crockett over the next few years.  Hold the Alamo, boys, while we reorganize the army.

And next week, we can send a signal and tell Papa Jon that our votes can't be bought."

Uh, Nick? I don't need to jump into the DMC-12 first to tell you that we were at this junction once before.

A more accurate comparison there would be the Battle of Thermopylae rather than the Alamo, with the democrats as the Persians, a handful of fiscal conservatives as the Spartans and Mike Bishop skillfully playing the role of Ephialtes.

And we all know that that one turned out.

For the record: I'm not stumping for Stryker.

But it should be important to take a closer look at the other players as well and what they have done recently.

It's his money and he has a right to spend it anyway he chooses.  It is up to the people to decide whether or not to vote for a liberal democrat.  If they are so stupid that they can't see for themselves what Stryker and others like him are doing than that's their problem.  

Republicans throughout the entire country have run poor campaigns.  They have another of their Senators convicted of crimes in Alaska.  They have done a poor job governing these last few years.  And the President hasn't helped matters much either.  

Republicans failed because they strayed from their core values and became "democrat lite."  

Real change will come only when this country wakes up to the fact that the two parties are corrupt and that means voting for third party candidates.

If I had the kind of money DeVos or Stryker had, I'd be bankrolling all sorts of legal actions to counter some of the stupidity that our government takes part in - I.E. no-knock warrants.

I'd love it if Dick DeVos grew a pair and got involved.  Imagine if he threw 10% of his entire 2006 campaign expenditure to House/Senate/County candidates in 2006.  He'd have outspent Granholm AND Jon Stryker at the same time.

But you also know that MichiganLibel and the Detroit Free Press would pillory DeVos for trying to buy the election.  It'd piss off liberals by the thousands.  Just like we should be pissed off that Stryker is spending millions trying to buy the election.

"And you can say what you want about Mike Bishop... we were all disappointed at one point or another over the last two years, but I absolutely shudder to think what this state might look like if that slim GOP majority in the Senate weren't there to push back and, at the very least, moderate some of the garbage coming out of the lower chamber. "

I started by asking, "would you be pissing and moaning about a republican spending that kind of money?"  I doubt it.

Yes, Stryker is buying an election, but it's his money.  The democrats and republicans are responsible for the laws that let guys like him do what they do.  Republicans could have closed all the loop holes at one time, but didn't because it benefited them at the time.  McCain also is hamstrung by his very own campaign finance law, so quit the whining.

Finally, as I said until the people of this country do something about the monopoly the two parties have nothing is going to change.  

There are several dems who for the most part are ok in my eyes. The partisan issues will always be tough, but that's only a part of it. I have friends and associates who share very different political beliefs from the each other, but most of them are very moderate. That's why we're all friendly to each other!

If we're talikg about the elected dems, it seems like those from areas that had trended republican are usually better (in my opinion) than the ones from dem stronghold areas. Right to Life and the Second Amendment are good examples but it goes beyond that too.

My curiosity was limited only to the question i asked. Reading more into it was not intended, and I'll stand by what I said. I dont want anyone to stray from strict adherence to respect for taxpayer funded resources.