foolmenot.comSometimes the press does catch up with reality; when they have to… I talked about the gall this Governor has yesterday, February 17; her disgusting attempt to use a child’s death for political expediency!
It has been obvious for months that Governor Granholm has been blaming and excusing her poor job performance. The media, if they wanted to, should have been smart enough to pick up on it- if the media would have criticized her for previous blame games, perhaps she would have thought twice about trying to pin this on the Republican Legislature.
The writer of the article expresses hope that; "the governor has learned from this incident that constant finger-pointing is no way to run a government"...
When behavior is consistent, it becomes a matter of personality, character and trust... Do you all think she has "learned her lesson"; hmmmmm?
The “Peter Principle” refers to someone who has been promoted beyond their level of competence... You be the judge!
Full article follows…
Granholm's knee-jerk blame game is offensive
She tries to tag lawmakers with not funding child services
The Detroit News /
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Gov. Jennifer Granholm may want to stop blaming the GOP-led Legislature for every stumble that occurs in the state government she oversees.
Early Thursday, she implied that Republican legislators were responsible for an understaffing of state child protection caseworkers, which may or may not have been responsible for the abuse and death of 7-year-old Ricky Holland. An investigation will try to determine what went wrong.
"We repeatedly asked for additional resources," the Associated Press quoted Granholm as saying. "This year, no budget gets signed unless those resources are there."
Later that day, the Granholm administration was forced to backtrack after Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming, protested. The administration admitted it "has not asked for additional resources for Child Protective Services in the past," but has asked for 51 additional case workers in the 2007 budget.
Although she said she wasn't trying to exploit the tragic situation for political gain, Granholm's earlier statement sure seemed like an attempt to score political points at the Legislature's expense.
The governor also argued that Gov. John Engler's early retirement program in the late 1990s caused the understaffing of caseworkers for a long time. The facts don't support that claim.
According to the Michigan Department of Human Services, there was a dip in child protection case workers from 1998 to 1999. But the number of caseworkers grew by almost 80 -- from 639 in 1999 to 716 by 2002, when Engler left office.
Under Granholm's watch, staffing has decreased to 693 case workers -- and that's still 92 workers more than the 601 employees in 1997. Given the budget shortfalls of the last few years, that's not bad.
Michigan may lack experienced caseworkers. And more workers may be needed in an overwhelmed system.
That need will have to be balanced against many others as Granholm and the Legislature set budget priorities in the face of a terrible state economy.
The Human Services department's review and the state children ombudsman office's investigation hopefully will answer what went wrong in the Ricky Holland case.
Hopefully, as well, the governor has learned from this incident that constant finger-pointing is no way to run a government, and is not useful in trying to build consensus with lawmakers to address the state's many problems.
Granholm continuously harangues GOP lawmakers for not working with her on solutions.
But why would they trust a governor whose first instinct is to blame them whenever something goes wrong?