Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm had her Andy Dillon. Gov. Rick Snyder has his Randy Richardville.
The relationship between a governor and his or her legislative lieutenant would appear to be a piece of cake. Cut from the same apparent political cloth, governors seeks to advance their agenda with the able-bodied assistance of their legislative leader.
They call it carrying the governor?s water.
How?d that work out with Ms. Granholm and House Democratic Speaker Andy Dillon? For the most part, it was O.K., but then there were times when he drove her nuts. It was not a match made in heaven.
Which brings us to the Snyder-Richardville duo. Batman and Robin it ain't right now.
Randy Richardville is the Senate GOP leader and he?s been carrying the water for his governor quite nicely, but there have been some spills.
The most recent produced some harsh feelings as the governor took to his bully pulpit to call out Mr. Richardville and his Republican caucus, accusing them of ?lack of leadership.?
The rare admonishment from this usually positive governor was over the GOP Senate's failure to vote on the governor?s top priority, providing health-care coverage for 320,000 folks who don?t have it. (By the way, the governor claims he is not fighting with anyone.)
Instead of doing his bidding, GOP senators left town. The governor called it a ?vacation,? which only added more salt to the open wounds.
Things came to a head when Lt. Gov. Brian Calley met with the Senate GOP caucus as it became apparent some senators were going to stiff the gov.
Mr. Calley explained the front office was preparing to send out a ?simple request? to act on the bill. There was no hint of confrontation, nor any indication the mild-mannered governor would morph into Snidely Whiplash.
But morph he did, leaving one GOP insider to suggest the governor was used to ?always getting his way? and his behavior revealed a heavy dose of ?arrogance.?
There is one thing to know about this governor. When he wants something, he wants it, which is what he told individual GOP senators he summoned to his office for a little face time. One source reports he even ?threatened? some, which is not his normal M.O.
As the day wore on, Mr. Richardville sauntered into the inner sanctum. Reportedly he explained that his caucus, which elected him leader, was going to study this. And that is a key point that sometimes governors forget: The leader works for the caucus first and the boss second.
Mr. Snyder, now in no mood to send a ?simple request,? announced - according to someone who heard about the conversation - that ?things have changed? and he was going to call out the Republicans in a news conference his office was scurrying to tee-up.
When he got to the tee, he used his biggest driver to take aim at the GOP leader and his colleagues.
He just bopped them on the head and never hollered ?Fore!?
In recent days, the governor thanked Mr. Richardville for creation of a work group to iron this out ?over the summer.? But that is not fast enough for the impatient Mr. Snyder, which is why he continued his road show cajoling the public to call the GOP senators and urge them to vote.
Still, the relationship appears to be improving after a contentious one-on-one exchange between these two. After the half hour session, Mr. Richardville reports the governor called back an hour later saying, "I understand some of what your are saying." The governor agreed to drop references to "vacations" and there apparently won't be any robo calls or billboards aimed at GOP senators back home.
In return Mr. Richardville sees a possible Senate vote in August, which the governor wants, and now Mr. R. reports, "We think were on a positive path to success," which is not what he was thinking last week.
Warm up the Batmobile.
Watch "Off the Record with Tim Skubick" online anytime at video.wkar.org
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/michigan-news/~3/UelH56O3XeM/tim_skubick_see_how_the_dust-u.html
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