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| Left to right: Trupiano, Hoekstra, Davison, Baerren. |
In contrast to the raucous, highly partisan bloggers
edition of Public TV’s “Off The Record” in April, the bloggers show this
weekend, with a new pair of conservative panelists, was a relatively cozy
affair.
Host Tim Skubick replaced the previous GOP
representatives, Republican strategist Dennis Lennox and West Michigan Politics
blogger Brandon Hall. Lennox said he was traveling in Europe at the time the show was taped and Hall wrote on his Facebook page that he missed the taping due to an emergency urologist appointment.
The replacements were Detroit News blogger Kathy Hoekstra
and Jake Davison, president and founder of the Advantage Associates lobbying
firm.
In a low-key discussion (see the video here), the panelists found little to
disagree with on legalizing marijuana. In addition, the bloggers unanimously
named Jeb Bush as the Republican presidential frontrunner and they all
predicted Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination, despite the surge
by Bernie Sanders.
of a battle between the conservatives and the two liberal bloggers, Tony Trupiano,
host of the Tony Trupiano Show on Blogtalk Radio, and Eric Baerren of
Michiganliberal.com. Sharp disagreement was the order of the day.
collegiality and across-the-board consensus in predicting that the Legislature
will not reach agreement on a new road funding package because the
GOP-controlled Legislature will not allow any kind of tax increase for infrastructure
repairs.
Interestingly, as the show was taped on June 25, all four
were at least partially wrong.
Days later, the state Senate surprisingly approved a
roads package that calls for a 15-cent gas tax hike in three increments. That plan also seems to call for diverting
hundreds of millions of general fund dollars to the roads.
warm response when Proposal 1 received final approval by lawmakers last
December – and proceeded to get clobbered by the voters at the polls on May 5.
This time around, conservative Republicans are furious
that Senate Republicans approved a tax hike, and a rather large one at that.
Meanwhile, Democrats have denounced the plan, insisting that it will require
big cuts in programs and services.
there is no way that the Legislature will reach agreement by the end of summer.
If the House concurs with the Senate plan, I'll eat my hat
Liberals dominated this edition. Hoekstra seemed out of it while Davison seemed happy to play the row of a tea bagger hack.
And of course Davison also being a paid lobbyist.
If anyone thinks Eric Baerren truly represents progressive blogging in Michigan, I have about a half dozen bridges and tunnels to sell them.
Trupiano is the only decent panelist there.
I agree. Electablog is way better than Baerren who actually works as a janitor at a nursing home, cleaning up poop left around toilets by old farts.
Kathy Hoekstra is horrible… Not to mention a whore!
Agree. How can you respect opinions is you can't respect the person making them.
KH: Not weak by any means, but I'm sure you'd like to think so. Guess you are also too stupid to understand the definition of WHORE! Keep livin' the dream!
Another word to probably look up: Hypocrite, as you report on Courser and Gamrat. Just a thought.