Some described it as a cold shoulder.  You could have said she was luke warm, but whatever descriptive phrase you select, it was clear that the governor is not ready to embrace a wholesale rewrite of health care for public employees just yet, if at all.

     "I have a million questions," she began the discussion in the wake of House Speaker Andy Dillon's status quo upsetting plan.  He seeks to create a state government run health care system for almost half a million public workers and retirees.

      Gov. Jennifer Granholm is well aware that segments of the labor community are mad as wet hens even though three or four of those unions are poised to jump on the Dillon bandwagon.

      Not so fast, the governor intones.  With the Obama administration jawboning for a redo of the national system, the governor figures, let's see what happens in D.C. before we tackle it here.

     While democrat Dillon forecasts $900 in savings "over time", the governor politely counters, "Show me the money." She's not sure the savings are there.

     And she says the "timing is challenging" which is another diplomatic way of saying, doing this now won't solve the immediate budget deficit problem.   The only phrase missing from her analysis was, so why bother.

     The governor is good at traversing that tight rope between hacking off labor by siding with Dillon and hacking off Dillon by siding with labor.

     "I appreciate the effort to save health care money," she patted Dillon on the head, but "we are not going to willy nilly cut employee benefits" as she bowed to unions.

      Granholm: Once again ensconced in the middle where perhaps she makes no one happy.

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