Charles Pugh is the real deal.

   Anything would have been an improvement on the embattled and allegedly crime-invested Detroit City Council, so the entrance of the former TV anchor guy as president of the council represents a breath of fresh and honest air.

   Pugh made his first statewide TV appearance on the Off the Record series this week.  Most politicians bring a fog machine to the program, Pugh left his at home as he pretty much answered all the inquiries, did very little shucking and gyving, and left the impression that maybe, just maybe, he and the other four new members of the council, might help to turn the city's image around not to mention getting it out of debt.

    Mayor Dave Bing is taking some hits from organized labor for laying off 460 city worker and counting.

    Pugh says, "That's one of the things we're going to have to do."

    A panelist wanted to know, "What kind of a democrat are you, taking on union workers?"

    Pugh did not flinch.  "I'm a realist.  This is not about protecting any group…it's about the city."

    Well then what about some union folks who want to toss his Honor the Mayor in the clink?

     Pugh did not flinch.  "I think it's in many ways disrespectful" to the mayor.  "He is a hero" in this city.

     Wonder what they think about that over at the AFSCME brain trust?

     And on it went as he urged outstate Michigan folks to "come visit" Detroit to get over their negative attitudes engrained for years.

     Pugh, who has has never run for anything, let alone won any elective office, has a chance to build a record and in four years, who knows, maybe he could trade in the council president name plate for one that says Mayor of Detroit. 

     Don't rule it out.  He hasn't.

    (In the interest of full disclosure, this blogger worked with Mr. Pugh at FOX2 in Detroit.  See the full broadcast at WKAR.org.)