"I voted for it before I voted it against it": Bloomfield's Mike McCready goes John Kerry on the EAA

In the 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry's Democratic "handlers" had their hands full -- so to speak.

For starters, they couldn't quite figure out what to do with his wife, Teresa Heinz. She had inherited a billion dollar fortune from her first husband, Senator Heinz, himself an heir of the Heinz Company family, was distinctly more "Euro" than American and, up until, 2004 was a registered Republican.

Simply put, she existed in an entirely different stratosphere than most Americans and, in particular, much of the Democratic base. 

And it showed.

The Democratic attacks on the Romney family's wealth and corresponding detachment from the concerns of everyday people in 2012 conveniently forgot Teresa and John. In comparison, the Romneys looked positively down home cutesy.

Maybe it is a Michigan thing where the trees are the right height.

Heinz even managed to make Laura Bush look like a working class Texan again when she chided the First Lady for never having worked (Laura Bush, of course, had been a school teacher and a librarian -- and Heinz then struggled to articulate that teaching was a "real" job. Rather perversely, Laura Bush's seemingly legitimate and good hearted interests in public education led in part to the disasters brought about by her husband's "No Child Left Behind." Lesson: spouses matter).

Heinz, who only begrudgingly took the name of Kerry in 2004 (she had the big money in the family after all) was perhaps the least of Kerry's problems.

He had articulation issues himself.

His most famous and damaging gaffe was the "I voted for it before I voted against it line."

Here is the CBS News summary of his flip-flops from that time:

"In September 2003, Kerry implied that voting against wartime funding bills was equivalent to abandoning the troops.

'I don't think any United States senator is going to abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq to whatever follows as a result of simply cutting and running,' he said.

Then, in October 2003, a year after voting to support the use of force in Iraq, Kerry voted against an $87 billion supplemental funding bill for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He did support an alternative bill that funded the $87 billion by cutting some of President Bush's tax cuts.

But when it was apparent the alternative bill would not pass, he decided to go on record as not supporting the legislation to fund soldiers.

Kerry complicated matters with his now infamous words, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

. . . . he acknowledged that his explanation of his Iraq war votes was "one of those inarticulate moments."


I was reminded of Kerry's political acrobatics yesterday when I started getting reports  that Mr. McCready and his office were responding to emails about the EAA vote last week in Lansing, a vote that allowed for a fundamental change to public education in the state of Michigan -- assuming the Governor wins in 2014 and retains power in the house and senate to pull off politically what they now have the legal authority to do.

Here is Mr. McCready's "I voted for it before I voted it against it" moment of inarticulation on public education:

"Thank you for taking the time to write regarding House Bill 4369 dealing with the expansion of the Education Achievement Authority. When the bill passed the Senate, the Senate substituted a new bill called HB4369 S-3 which had, as you may know, many changes from the original HB 4369. Some of these changes include removing the cap on the number of schools which could enter the EAA, removing a definitive method for how schools both entered and existed the EAA, and removing a provision which would have allowed local intermediate school districts or ISDs to intervene first as opposed to the EAA for a struggling school. While I did support the original version of HB4369 back in March, I had several concerns on the substitute given the substantive changes and removal of provisions which I considered important. In HB4369 S-3’s current form I was leaning to oppose the bill. Several of my colleagues shared my concerns on the legislation and because of this, House Leadership decided to not bring HB 4369 S-3 up for a vote before the end of the year. I appreciate hearing your thoughts and will keep them in mind if discussion continues on HB 4369 S-3 in the next legislative session.
Again, thank you for writing."

Translation: while I had been told by my constituents that the EAA was not really about the "lowest 5%" but would hurt my community and my constituents I voted for the EAA in a manner that made it look like I was working with my constituents. This was politically convenient for me and allowed the process to move forward where term limited Senators could finish the deal later on behind a smokescreen of other bills and a quick December session. Now, in addition, and this is the real hoot, I would like you to believe that Lisa Posthumus Lyons and Michigan House Republicans are now stalling the Governor on ending public education as we know it so they can work productively with folks like Vickie Markavitch at Oakland ISD and help public education.

Oy...

Last night, Mr. McCready got himself to the BHSD schoolboard to show his support and his concern for his constituents -- but well after the 20-18 vote that gave the state legislature the chance to give the Governor his own school District and the power to undermine our constitutionally defined Districts.

The time to talk was before the vote was brought to the fore.

McCready knew the concerns of many citizens and decided not to inform anybody what was up. BHSD couldn't send out one of their "alerts" to parents until this was a done deal (last Thursday) and the District had parents emailing reps for no particular reason other than the opportunity to receive one of these crystal clear clarifications ("I voted for it before I voted it against it") from Mr. McCready.

The comically Orwellian duplicity continues even in his inarticulate boilerplate response. "I will keep your thoughts in mind IF the discussion continues."

Oh, for conditional pete's sake, Mr. McCready.

He knows full well -- as does everyone else -- the discussion is going on right now and the public will be handed a new public education system Jan. 8. If we are lucky, that system will be held in abeyance pending what happens in fall 2015. While the Governor now will have legal authority to remap Districts across the state more than a few will balk when he actually tries to do this. Better to wait for the election and take that as a mandate.

Food for thought: when you vote in 2014 you have now been put in the position of voting for whether you want recognizable public education in Birmingham, Bloomfield, and Troy or not.

It was one thing to trash teachers and teachers unions, but it will be quite another to begin disrupting the communities and property values of many in the state mainly to please the Broad Foundation.

Food for thought: when you vote in 2014 you have now been put in the position of voting for whether you want recognizable public education in Birmingham, Bloomfield, and Troy or not.

But remember: he voted for it before he voted it against it -- and that is all our Mr. Kerry had to do here to help the Governor and the Broad Foundation.