Dust off the word "hypocrisy" because it is likely to get a heavy
work out in the unfolding debate over recalling state lawmakers.
When Macomb County anti-tax gadfly Leon Drolet targeted about a
dozen lawmakers for recall because they raised the income tax, the
Democratic Party leaders went ballistic.
They argued that trying to boot out legislators who had the courage
to do that was wrong, un-American, you pick the adjective.
Now comes an effort to oust a GOP lawmaker who introduced the
legislation allowing a local emergency manager to, in effect, cancel
Democracy. If a local government or school is headed for bankruptcy.
the EFM can run the whole show leaving locally elected officials to
watch it all from the sidelines.
Rep. Al Pscholka (r-Stevensville) is not amused. He's got the
first recall target on his back and protests, ""It is sad and shameful
that some would use others as political pawns on behalf of their own
agenda to take the spotlight off their own poor performance."
Boiling that down, he's fingering local officials who have been
temporarily neutered by the EFM for backing the recall to cover-up
their own ineptness.
Let's be clear the recall mechanism is in the books and from time
to time has enjoyed widespread support despite efforts by some
lawmakers to rewrite the law to make the process more difficult.
So now that a Republican is subject to a possible recall, what will
Democrats say about that with the shoe on the other foot?
They have two simple choices: Be consistent and denounce the
effort as they did when their colleagues were under attack or they can
look up the definition of hypocrisy and go with that.