Everyone assumed when she took office that Jennifer Granholm would be the classical neo-liberal democrat.

        Asked the Michigan ACLU about that and you may be shocked at the response.

        On civil liberty issues, "She's not been a leader in anyway."

        Oh my.

        That rather harsh analysis of the Granholm legacy comes from Kary Moss who runs the American Civil Liberties Union around these parts.

        She has watched this governor for seven years and concludes she has not led on emotional civil liberty issues such as gay marriage, affirmative action, bullying in schools and privacy rights because beneath that Gran holm smile is a woman who "is afraid of controversy."

        Moss is not the only person in town to utter that observation.  It is shared by many  players in both parties. But they won't say it in public as Moss did the other day on Public TV's Off the Record broadcast.

       Given a chance to lead on the affirmative action ballot proposal, the governor said she did not support a ban on the hiring practice, but Moss says the governor then "stayed in the background." And when she had the opportunity to "step forward in a bigger way" she stepped back instead.

       The governor would of course disagree.

       Moss is not surprised at any of this. Jennifer Granholm signaled even before she became state attorney general that he alliance with and allegiance to the ACLU was a thing of the past.

       Before she ran for office, Granholm was an intern in the Detroit ACLU office and eventually gained a seat on the board of directors.

       Then she turned in her card.  Some figure she was afraid of being tagged as a "card carrying member of the ACLU."

       With no card, republicans could not make the charge.

       Maybe she turned it in because she was afraid of the controversy that might have cost her an election or two or three?

        

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