By Joel Thurtell
Hard to say it better than Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib put it:
DIBC’s money and influence has manipulated our elected legislative body in such a way that it has completely warped the perceptions of a bill that would have benefited everyone. Sadly, their tactics triggered a lack of confidence among Michigan families that there is a fair and honest legislative process.
Except, well, there are a couple things I would add.
First, any legislator stinks who has taken money — EVER — from Matty Moroun.
I don’t care if the last largesse was in 2006, as Michigan Senator Tupac Hunter insists for his most recent handout from the bridge tycoon.
Hunter and Michigan Senator Virgil Smith were the two Democrats who abstained on the Senate Economic Development Committee vote on referring the government bridge bill to the full Senate. They claimed to have begged off because of concerns that the proposal didn’t address concerns of people in Southwest Detroit about environmental and other issues.
Lame.
The claim gets lamer still when you consider that the two Dems took Matty’s money.
Six of the seven senators on that committee had supped at Matty’s trough.
The effort to move the bill to the full Senate failed, 3-2. Three Republicans voted in favor.
The Dems were the obstructionists.
It was the Dems who killed the bill that, as Rep. Tlaib says, would have produced 30,000 jobs in Michigan.
Hard to justify under any circumstance.
Factor in that they took Matty’s goodies, and we can legitimately wonder what went on in their heads as they withheld the “yes” votes that would have put the issue before the full Senate.
They can argue till hell frosts over that their abstentions were done on principle.
What principle do they invoke for accepting Matty’s money?
The problem is not WHEN they took Matty’s bucks. The problem is that they TOOK his money.
Matty’s “donations’ have strings attached, and those strings are long.
As long as the shadow he casts over the voting record of anyone who takes his money.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com
Joel, I don’t think we can blame all of the candidates who accepted Moroun money in the distant past; after all, it wasn’t until your blogs on Moroun’s machinations that many Michiganders even realized who and what Moroun is. Many Detroiters — including me — had never heard the name Moroun, and never even thought about the bridge; we just took it for granted that it was governmentally owned. My own awareness began with an article by Dave Battagello in the Windsor Star about five or six years ago. That started a growing awareness of what Moroun is and what he’s been up to.
What is important is that once candidates and public officials did become aware of Moroun’s machinations, too many turned a blind eye, while extending an open “gimme” hand.
Virgil Smith has been referred to as Moroun’s Houseboy, which is a pejorative term and a sad commentary.
Two state senators whom I respect are Hildenbrand and Emmons, two of the Republicans on the Kowall committee. If I recall correctly, Hildenbrand’s campaign did not receive Moroun money; Emmons’ campaign did. In any case, both voted to uphold the democratic process and release the NITC bill from the committee for a full senate vote.
Many NITC supporters consider that Smith and Tupac were at best misguided; at worst — ?
At bottom, it’s up to the voters to express their opinions directly to their representatives — and to remember those representatives’ legislative actions when they come up for re-election.