Having failed miserably as Attorney General, Schuette sets his sights on the Governor’s office

Last winter, as you may recall, Donald Trump didn’t have a lot of friends inside the Michigan GOP. Governor Snyder, in a rare show of moral courage, refused to endorse the real estate developer turned reality television celebrity, and Lieutenant Governor Calley, who had endorsed him earlier in the campaign, withdrew his endorsement, once the Trump’s hot mic confession about grabbing women “by the pussy” without consent become public. There was, however, one prominent Michigan Republican who stood firm in his support… Bill Schutte. While, among other things, calling Trump’s comments about Mexicans “deplorable,” our long-time Attorney General said he was, “going to support the nominee.”

Schuette, of course, was rewarded for his loyalty; first being given a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention, and then, after the election, being brought to the White House to meet with Trump and Pence. And, this weekend, Donald Trump repaid Schuette in full by endorsing his recently announced run for the governorship of the Michigan… Here’s Trump’s endorsement via Twitter, which was sent out just before he tweeted out an animated video of himself striking Hillary Clinton with a golfball, knocking her to the ground. Be sure to notice the fact that he misspelled Schutte’s name.

[Trump retweeted the endorsement 12 hours later, correcting the spelling.]

And, that’s not all. Schuette, having announced his candidacy just five days ago, has already apparently… at least judging from Twitter… picked up the endorsement of performance artist Bob Ritchie’s unashamedly loud, white and drunk “Kid Rock” character. Here’s a photo of the two men together in Detroit, either just before, or just after, the show where Rock declared from the stage, “I don’t believe you should save, sacrifice, do things by the book and then have to take care of some deadbeat, milking the system, lazy ass mother-fucking man,” to the wild applause of his unapologetically “redneck” fans, many of whom, I suspect, receive government assistance in some form.

Final tip of the day: have a Badass beer when you go to a @KidRock concert pic.twitter.com/oBvhQoYRJF

— A.G. Bill Schuette (@SchuetteOnDuty) September 16, 2017

So, yes, Bill Schuette, who wasted nearly $2 million of our tax dollars fighting against gay marriage, fought to kill a medical marijuana law supported by 63% of Michigan voters, and attempted to kill “straight-ticket” voting, before being stopped by the Supreme Court, is running for Governor, and has our President’s support… Yes, it’s true that he looses at almost everything he puts his mind to, but, given the polling, I don’t think we can afford to just assume that he’ll come up short this time out, like he’s done so many times before. As Congressman Dan Kildee said not too long ago, Schuette’s “losing court cases waste Michigan tax payer dollars and are attacks on our entire democracy,” and, for this reason, we cannot allow him to take the Governor’s office.

Fortunately for us, we have a good alternative in former Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, who, according to the polls is running neck and neck with Schuette, with 37% of registered voters saying they support each of the two candidates. [26% of those polled were either undecided and refused to say which of the two they intended to vote for in a head-to-head race.]

While I don’t know about Whitmer’s fundraising to date, the Detroit News is reporting that Schuette has already raised nearly $2 million, and I have to think that high net worth donors will be flocking to his campaign, given that he’s talking about cutting taxes even further and ending Obamacare… So, if you’d like to help level the playing field a bit, give a few bucks to Gretchen Whitmer.

OK, I’m a bit hesitant to do this, as I know that a good number of you are of the opinion that we shouldn’t discuss Bob “Kid Rock” Ritchie’s threatened run against Debbie Stabenow for the U.S. Senate, but, seeing as how we’ve already brought him up in relation to Schuette’s run for governor, I can’t help myself. And, honestly, I don’t agree that people like Ritchie will stop being a threat to democracy if those of us on the informed left just ignore them. And, while I’m fully aware of the fact that free media coverage, to the tune of nearly $5 billion, helped put Donald Trump in office, I suspect there’s a difference between networks running softball interviews for ratings and some local folks on this site discussing what it would mean to our state if we were to allow this Trumpian trickle-down to continue unchecked.

I should add that I’m almost certain that Ritchie has no interest in the position, and only floated the idea as a way to get himself in the media, and build some kind of buzz around the series of shows he’s currently doing in Detroit, at the new Redwings’ arena, but I think I probably said the same thing about Trump during his campaign… that there’s no way that he’d want to do the work required of the position, and the he was likely just doing it to sell t-shirts and hats. But, as we now know all to well, we have to be prepared for anything, especially in the age of Trump. I’m sure there are people out there, who really think that Ritchie, with his appeal to the “don’t give a flying hillbilly fuck” crowd, might have a shot at taking down Debbie Stabenow. And I’m sure there are people telling him that, if he were to do it, they could make the work easy for him, and ensure that he’d make a lot more money than he currently does selling piss-yellow beer, tickets to hillbilly cruises and shirts that say “_onald Trump, the D is missing because it’s in every hater’s mouth”…

If you haven’t heard his “campaign” speech yet, here’s a clip from his appearance a few days ago in Detroit. It’s really fascinating… kind of like a perfect mashup of Donald Trump, Lonesome Rhodes, and Idiocracy’s President Camacho.

Read Kid Rock's R-rated Detroit speech on welfare, gay rights and his political aspirations https://t.co/dT71uroPBR pic.twitter.com/eqzKhdw2TQ

— TIME (@TIME) September 13, 2017

Oh, and I don’t know how much it helps his chances, but Ritchie now has the endorsement of Sarah Palin… so, just to be safe, while you’re giving to Whitmer, maybe also give something to Stabenow too.

In conclusion, as Kid Rock said so eloquently yesterday in Detroit, “Please, almighty Jesus, if you’re looking down on us tonight, please guide us with your wisdom and give us strength to fight.”