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Sometimes ya just gotta say; Huh! The article below makes about as much sense as saying Jennifer Granholm delivers a speech well… And just by coincidence Granholm was left out of the article. Now why would the writer be including Dick DeVos and Geoffrey Fieger and not Granholm?

“Two of the richest guys in Michigan are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars this month on TV advertising campaigns designed to curry favor with Joe Sixpack and his working-class buddies.”

Let’s see if I can figure this all out… The writer is trying to make the case that DeVos and Fieger have a lot of money and are spending it to accomplish a purpose. Jennifer Granholm was left out of the comparison even though she is spending a lot of money trying to accomplish a purpose.  

I got it! There is something that DeVos and Fieger have in common; DeVos and Fieger are spending their own money, which they earned… Granholm is spending money she has not earned! Granholm spends money from MEA, AFL-CIO, etc., and our tax dollars to develop programs that will pay all these groups back for their vote. 

That’s the difference!

 Full article follows…

DeVos, Fieger hope commoner can relate

BY BRIAN DICKERSON FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

 Updated: 2/27/2006 7:06:45 AM

Two of the richest guys in Michigan are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars this month on TV advertising campaigns designed to curry favor with Joe Sixpack and his working-class buddies.

One multimillionaire's 30-second spot says he's ready to go to bat for "folks who want to work and maybe through no fault of their own, their prior company went out of business."

The other multimillionaire's ad says he's the only one fighting to protect ordinary Michiganders from the politicians, mega-corporations and government bureaucrats who seek to devour them whole.

What can Dick DeVos and Geoffrey Fieger be up to?

As far as I can tell, the fact that both men hit the airwaves at approximately the same moment is a coincidence. Certainly neither would admit he has much in common with the other.

DeVos is a conservative Republican (although his first state-wide TV buy doesn't consider that a fact worth mentioning). Fieger is a liberal Democrat (although plenty of Democrats would rather you didn't mention that, either).

DeVos is a devout evangelical Christian from Grand Rapids; Fieger's an irreverent provocateur from Oak Park.

DeVos is running for governor, hoping to beat Jennifer Granholm. Fieger is running for his life, hoping to beat a federal rap for campaign spending violations.

But these superficial differences belie some striking similarities.

DeVos and Fieger both boast bank accounts larger than those of some sovereign nations. Both are audibly tan. And both have been unable to resist the lure of elective politics, despite considerable evidence that neither is especially suited to it.

DeVos' first gubernatorial ad, which debuted Feb. 16, introduces DeVos as "a Michigan manufacturer" innocent to the ways of Big Government.

"I'm a job-maker," the Amway scion says in the 30-second spot. "I haven't spent my life in politics."

Why political inexperience is considered such an estimable quality in those who aspire to political office is, of course, one of life's enduring mysteries. After all, you don't hear trial lawyers bragging about how little time they've spent in a courtroom.

Fieger is actually bankrolling a couple of different ad campaigns this month. His Black History Month vignettes celebrating champions of the civil rights movement are the latest in a series Fieger has underwritten for years. But what of the more self-serving spot extolling Fieger's success as an advocate for the persecuted and downtrodden?

Is Michigan's most famous attorney hurting for clients? Or is the new ad part of a public relations blitz designed to prepare the local jury pool for an anticipated showdown with federal prosecutors?

Fieger himself denies the latter. But other well-heeled defendants have courted potential jurors, sometime with notable success. Richard Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth Corp., was acquitted of financial fraud charges last summer after he bought TV time for a morning prayer show featuring himself and several prominent black ministers in his native Birmingham, Ala.

If a TV advertising campaign seems like an inefficient way to cultivate jurors, recall that in a criminal trial, guilty verdicts must be unanimous.

DeVos will have to make believers of hundreds of thousands of working class Michiganders in order to beat Granholm. But Fieger needs only one sympathetic juror to beat the U.S. Justice Department.

Contact BRIAN DICKERSON at 248-351-3697 or bdickerson@freepress.com.