There she goes again.

       Gov. Jennifer Granholm continues with the "care and feeding" of her bud and candidate for governor John Cherry.

        As she has done in the past, she has plucked the lt. governor from obscurity to place him front and center on revamping and downsizing state government.

        "The lt. governor wants to hear from the people," advised media secretary Liz Boyd.

         You know what that means: The John Cherry road show.  It will take him to all parts of the state gathering first hand knowledge from the electorate on how to reinvent state government.

       A 0  Oh yeah. He will also pick up a ton of free media in every little Podunk town he visits to help promote his bid to replace his current boss.

          Is that the only reason she taped him for the job? Of course not. He's a 20-some year veteran of state government and will do a good job, but there is that hidden political agenda, too.

         But here's the problem with the Cherry commission.  The GOP asks, do we need a six-month to a year study on how to eliminate 10 of the state's 18 departments which is the governor's charge?

        Instead of a study, why not just do it? The governor could tell lawmakers to do it now, but she won't.

        But be careful of what you wish for.  Legislative republicans figure if the governor wants to downsize government but wants to wait, they will do it without the wait.

         When the new budget is introduced next week, watch for the R's to take a shot at slipping in the department elimination stuff without waiting for Mr. Cherry to do is thing.

         And if democrats rail against that and call for more study, the republicans will argue, if she wants the cuts, just get'er done.

          

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