Just as conservatives across the nation will soon lament the Clintons’ disappearance from the political radar, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette will miss having Barack Obama in the White House.
Politics is much more enjoyable and effective when you have a foil to jab, to blame, on a routine basis. For Schuette, who’s expected soon to announce he’s running for governor in 2018, he seemed to relish joining lawsuits to challenge Obama on a host of issues.
Columnist Susan Demas notes that “Schuette on Duty” skillfully claimed that it was the job of the attorney general to be the people’s attorney, regardless of the issue at hand or who occupies the Oval Office. But Demas also points out that in the first legal battle of the Trump administration over the president’s travel ban the Republican AG was “left to meekly root for the home team.”
Demas, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, sees Trump as a potential hurdle for Schuette’s political ambitions:
… Trump proposed cutting Great Lakes funding by 97 percent, which would, of course, be devastating for Michigan, the only state that lies completely within the Great Lakes basin. Schuette, who has long railed about the threat of Asian carp, once again couldn’t bring himself to slam Trump. In a radio interview, Schuette appeared to blame Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Obama (the AG said he misspoke when he said “Obamacare”) for threats to our waterways.
Schuette will certainly have to draw up more tap dance routines, as Trump’s controversial actions keep coming. And that’s revealed an unexpected weakness in his impending 2018 campaign. It’s never as much fun to be playing defense in politics.
But it’s more than that. The AG was able to go after Obama with such zest and aplomb. He was never nasty and looked like a man of “rule of law” principle, yet he managed to skillfully (twist) the knife in.
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