Sounds like Huey Long in Louisiana back in the day

I know I just quoted Charlie Pierce in the last post. But he's very quotable. In Esquire Politics Blog 01/05/2012, he reports:

To sum up: The governor of Michigan has been granted the power to suspend unilaterally the democratically elected government of any city based on criteria that he alone can determine. He will then install a crony to run the place, generally at a higher salary than the mayor whom the governor has chosen to replace. This crony will be fully in charge of all city government functions. He will determine what company gets the contract to pick up the garbage. He will determine which company will plow the roads. I am sure, of course, that cronyism and favoritism will not infect any of these decisions, because that only happens when people are elected to do these jobs, not when they're appointed by a governor who been given himself alone the power to do it. ...

(And, yes, my friends who are Ron Paul fans, by his lights, a state is empowered to do everything that is being done in Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan, if that state chooses to do so. That's why Ron Paul's concerns for civil liberties are a mile wide and an inch deep.)

Since all the Republicans declare themselves to be passionate lovers of the Constitution, it worth noting this from Art. IV, Section 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government ..."?

So I'm sure our President and former professor of Constitutional law will step in and put a stop to this nonsense immediately, right?

Tags: authoritarianism, michigan

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