Tim Skubick

Everybody knows there are two sides to the political game. The outside game when what is said is for public consumption and the inside game which thrives in the cone of silence for as long as the pols can make it so.

So our discussion here focuses on a bit of history involving the relationships, or lack of same in some cases, between sitting governors and two other entities in town: Their lt. governors and the Speakers of the Michigan House.

Let’s begin with GOP Gov. Bill Milliken who had to boot his lt. governor Jim Dammann because there was a mere hint of some wrongdoing. End of story.

1974 a new Democratic Speaker Bobby Don Crim took over. They were deeply committed to bipartisanship except when there weren’t.

Mr. Crim was hoping to knock the incumbent out of his office. He became the lead provocateur as Gov. Milliken was up to his eyeballs in the PBB statewide food chain contamination of the entire state of Michigan. There’s no room here to layout all the ugly details that left 90% of the population carrying around this fire retardant chemical in their bodies including the breast milk of new mothers.

The two went at it tooth and nail. Mr. Milliken was re-elected as the D’s went too far in their attacks some of which were not the whole truth. Eventually that ended and the two got back to doing the people’s business and now years later, the former speaker reveals his regular visits to visit the former governor in Traverse City whey they broke bread and most surely shared war stories from the past. “I loved him,” Mr. Crim explains and it’s pretty good bet the feeling was mutual. Showing that politics is not personal…if you want it to be that way.

Next on the scene was the election of Jim Blanchard who made his own history by brining the first female lt. governor candidate on the ticket with him. With his opponent Dick Headlee making all sorts of sexists remarks about former First Lady Helen Milliken, Mr. Blanchard astutely tapped into the growing women’s movement by selecting Martha Griffiths as his team mate and together they left Mr. Headlee in their dust.

The elderly former Congresswoman Ms. Griffiths, who was a pistol to cover, worked well together until they didn’t.

With the governor hoping to get re-elected he noted that his second in command was probably not up to the task. In fact it got so bad that he was reluctant to leave the state and leave her minding the store. On top of that, she turned the story into a headline grabbing issue as she and her husband attacked the governor for not selecting her to run again.

Never before in modern state political history was there open warfare between the sitting governor and his L.G.

Next was John Engler and running mate Dick Posthumus. For reporters hoping to see these two have their disagreements, the hopes were dashed. After all the two guys roomed together in East Shaw Hall on the MSU campus and plotted an upset victory in his first foray into politics. They sent to the showers a sitting veteran House GOP member who never saw it coming. With that the Mr. Engler slow march to the office on the second floor of the capitol was off and running.

More history followed the Engler years as the first female, make that the first reluctant female candidate for governor, came on the scene and knocked the socks off of everyone. Name: Jennifer Granholm. Her running mate: Husband Dan. No not really but in reality he was in on a ton of decisions maybe even more than the male she did pick for the second slot, veteran legislator John Cherry.

Ms. Granholm as state attorney general knew she did not have the experience to be governor and did not want to run. Dan talked her into it. She was also smart enough to conclude that former legislator Mr. Cherry had a resume she needed i.e. somebody with the chops to work the legislature in ways she could never do at the outset. It was a marriage made in heaven and while she tried to return the favor by giving him his endorsement when he ran for governor, by that time there was Granholm voter fatigue and Mr. Cherry never made it to the starting gate as he dropped out.

Ms. Granholm did have a bundle of problems, however with her House Speaker. Andy Dillon was a Democrat and in her corner but at other times he seemed to be more comfortable witt the GOP Senate Leader Mike Bishop. The Dillon/Bishop axis produced many a sleepless nights for the new governor as the media delighted in reporting the two on one tag team match that gave her fits.

Gov. Rick Synder, another new comer sans political bona fides, never had problems with the GOP speakers and certainly none with his hand chosen running mate Brian Calley who had the legislative history Mr. Snyder lacked ala the same boat Ms. Granholm was in at the outset.

Which brings us to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer whose first Speaker was Detroit Democrat Joe Tate. He was new to the game. They appeared to get part of the job done especially at the outset of the trifecta where the D’s ran the whole shootin’ match, but then there were those in town who felt the duo lost part of their mojo as Mr. Tate’s tenure came to an end.

Of course now with GOP Speaker Matt Hall in the drivers seat, the governor and Mr. Hall have fashioned an effective bi-partisan relationship unlike any seen before. They finally avoided a protracted government shutdown and passed a budget that has gotten mostly good marks. They promise to spread their unusual magic sauce to bringing more jobs to Michigan.

So there’s the inside out of stuff that did get out, despite the use of that Maxwell Smart Cone of Silence.