"You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille...."

My last conversation with Congressman Thad McCotter was one of my favorites.

I was still in the newspaper business back then and we were discussing the difficulties the U.S. automakers were having in getting loans from the federal government, compared to the blank checks that had simply been given to the banking industry. We had similar thoughts on the issue—it was basically Main Street vs. Wall Street—although his opinions were more well-informed and articulate.

"You know," I said, "maybe I should get a bunch of newspaper guys to come to Washington and ask for a bailout or a loan, too."

His answer: we'd have to ride in on bikes, bundle up the plan, and throw it in everyone's bushes at four in the morning.

I always thought that was a good joke; and his sense of humor was one of the things I always liked about him. That and he always struck me as a voice of reason within the Republican Party which, in my humble opinion, wasn't always easy to find.

I still liked the guy and respected what he's done in office, even as I watched the apparent end of his political career with a growing sense of unease and disbelief. Already strange, it crossed over into the truly bizarre when he abruptly resigned from his office rather than serve out the few remaining months of his term. I don't know if we'll ever know the true reason for that and I might not believe it even if I did.

The end result is that has left Republican voters in his district with not only one conundrum, but two. First, the choice on primary election day, between Kerry Bentivolio and Nancy Cassis, a write-in candidate. I personally can't get behind either of them. I am all for getting more 'regular people' involved in politics, but I don't think congress is an entry-level position--although Bentivolio may get a sympathetic vote or two for having the temerity to run against the Republican machine.

The second conundrum is the post-primary-pre-November election to find someone to fill out the few remaining weeks of McCotter's term. I wonder if that's what McCotter meant when he referred to 'striking a match' in his resignation email—because that aspect of this certainly stinks.

It'll all be over in a few short hours and my mailbox will probably appreciate the rest. Then, it's on to November. What a weird year; politics as unusual.

"Pick up my guitar and play; just like yesterday..."

With elections in Wayne County and at the state and federal level, not to mention what will likely be contentious local races in places like Plymouth Township and Van Buren Township, this campaign season promises to be one filled with intrigue.

One place I did not expect to see it, however, was in the race for the 11th Congressional District, where incumbent Thad McCotter was destined for re-election.

I know one of his Democratic challengers, Dr. Syed Taj, both through my job at Oakwood Healthcare and former work as a newspaper editor who sporadically covered Canton Township, where Dr. Taj served on the board of trustees. While I like and respect Dr. Taj very much, I thought he faced the proverbial uphill battle in taking on an incumbent in a district that so heavily favored Republican candidates—and McCotter's district is so thoroughly Republican that all he really had to do was get his name on the ballot.

Oops.

Well, by now, anyone who cares (and many who don't) know about the issue with McCotter's petitions. For those that don't, about 84 percent of the 1,850 or so signatures turned in on behalf of McCotter were ruled invalid. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said recently that he would investigate the situation and would not hesitate to prosecute if his office found any sign of fraud.

That's a good thing, of course, because the last thing anyone needs is to give voters another reason to be suspicious of the electoral process. (Although one could probably make a case that the gerrymandering that created a district virtually destined to remain in Republican hands, itself, 'undermines the whole validity and credibility of the election process'.)

I will be interested in the outcome of the investigation, which McCotter has said he asked for and will cooperate fully with. I've known McCotter for more than a decade, as I sporadically covered his political career dating back to his time on the Wayne County Commission. As he climbed the political ladder, I thought all he needed to do was work on his people skills and he would be able to do anything he wanted in government. I was happy to see him run for the top office in the nation, actually, and still think he's a better option than Mitt Romney.

I can't believe he had any direct involvement in this petition fiasco. He has too much integrity and too much respect for the electoral process to knowingly allow such a thing and, besides that, he's too intelligent to think that the petitions—if they were as obviously false as they've been described in the news reports—would pass even a cursory inspection.

It's hard to say what the long term and short term fallout will be, who will benefit and who will not; if McCotter will be able to pull off the monumental long shot of a successful write-in campaign or if someone else will. The end result, though, is that McCotter now faces his own uphill battle, and this race got a lot more interesting.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120601/POLITICS01/206010372#ixzz1wYqPPSNW