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This is a whacky time of the year around these parts.
Members of the state House are itching to get the heck out of here to run for reelection back home, which is Job One for them.
The only problem is that Job One for you, if you want any state services, is for them to spend $80 billion of your tax dollars first. That includes everything from state cops to janitors at your local school and everything in between.
However, one of the subplots gobbling up loads of time is the fight for which party will run the state House next year. The Democrats have the power now, and the Republicans are within a whisker of taking it back. And that provides for all sorts of intrigue, including who will be the next speaker of the House and who will be the next to the governor, the most powerful individual in the building.
Detroit Democrat state Rep. Joe Tate has the job now and wants it again for the next two years.
West Michigan Republican state House Leader Matt Hall has labored in the minority for two years. He is not fond playing second fiddle and would love to bounce Tate and take back the majority from the Dems and become the top dog.
The problem for Hall?
Another Republican is mounting his own campaign for the top slot.
Hall, in other words, is not a shoe-in, and Republican state Rep.Tom Kunse thinks he should be the top dog.
Let the games begin.
One of the sacred rules of the game is that all good Republicans are pledged to keep focus on the big prize of state House control, and any individual desires are supposed to be secondary to that.
So, when Kunse showed up on the "Off the Record" broadcast, he wiggled around the pointed question with the best of them.
Question: Is it time for new leadership in the GOP caucus if you guys win?
Answer: "I'm focused on the majority. I think we need to get that first."
Question: What about the chatter in town about your interest in the leadership post?
Answer: "I've heard that" -- the weaving commenced -- "and, again, my focus is on the majority."
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get that.
Then, finally, a sliver of the truth emerges with this:
Interviewer: "Say for me, 'I don't want to be speaker.'"
Now confronted with either fibbing or spinning the truth, he revealingly retorts: "I'm willing to serve wherever my caucus wants me."
"So that is a possible yes?"
"Anything is possible," he confesses, which, to the trained ear, is about as close to a "yes" you are going to get from him.
Notice he never admits his intentions, but, as one source suggested, "It is the worst-kept secret in this town" that Knuse is running. And another source confirms he has shared that desire with Hall, although the Kunse camp won't touch that with a 10-foot pole.
In fact, he comes to Hall's defense when asked about what kind of leader he has been.
"He is in a roomful of class presidents," Knuse begins, referring to the composition of the 54-member state House GOP caucus. "He's trying to herd cats.
"It's difficult being in the minority," he goes on, while suggesting Hall has not been "perfect," but has not had any grandiose blunders.
He is certainly "acceptable," he ends the analysis of his opponent.
And those two will battle that out below the radar while focusing on winning back the majority, while Speaker Tate has his own worries over getting all of his members to vote for the new budget.
Turns out, he has a number of progressive colleagues who are refusing to vote for the budget unless they get some benefits under the state's no-fault car insurance law for those who have been catastrophically injured. But the speaker is loath to do that because it could result in higher insurance rates for voters in the suburbs, and Democrats could lose some of those seats and, poof, there goes his majority.
Ain't that fun?
Especially if you are watching from the outside, looking in on all that palace intrigue.