Tuesday, September 09, 2008

What Were They Thinking?

Ding dong, the RMGN plan is dead! The Michigan Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that the proposal will not appear on the ballot. This follows a 3-0 ruling from the Michigan Court of Appeals to the same effect a couple weeks ago. They ruled that the proposal is so long that it cannot be summarized in 100 words.

The Republican judges were joined by democrat Michael Cavanaugh, with only democrat Marilyn Kelly dissenting. RMGN backers had demanded that two Republican judges recuse themselves, since the proposal would have eliminated their jobs. They could attempt to appeal to federal court, though the prospects for such an appeal seem bleak.

All this raises the question--What were they thinking?

Did the RMGN backers really think this would work?

Did they really think nobody would find out about their stealth petition?

Did they really think that people would believe that a proposal with millions of dollars in funding was a grassroots efforts sponsored by a couple of nobodies?

Did they really think that nobody would ask who wrote it and funded it?

Did they really think that nobody would read it and find out what it really did?

Did they really submit a proposal without proofreading it carefully enough to discover that it references a section of the constitution that doesn't exist?

Did they really think that submitting a 19,000 word proposal without preclearance was a good idea?

Did they really think that a proposal to rewrite the Michigan Constitution that couldn't possibly be summarized in 100 words would survive judicial scrutiny?

Did they really think that a proposal attacking the Michigan judiciary, which they believe to be unfairly controlled by Republicans, wouldn't be struck down by that same judiciary?

Did they really think this proposal was a good use of a couple million dollars?

Apparently so.

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