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Wed Dec 10th, The Daily Kos
Of all the arms the Republicans twisted to pass the Medicare bill, none were more clumsily twisted than Michigan Republican Nick Smith's. Smith, who's leaving Congress, hopes to be succeeded by his son Brad. Bob Novak reported that Smith was told that his son would receive $100,000 in campaign donations and endorsements from the Republican leadership if he voted for the Medicare bill, but if he voted no the leadership would work to defeat Brad Smith (Ed.-see December issue of Vox Populi Nebraska). Slate's Tim Noah has followed Smith's shifting story and argued persuasively that the offer was a bribe, and that Smith is protecting somebody who may have committed a criminal act. Hesiod has gone even further, naming MI Congressman Mike Rogers as the likely offender. Hesiod makes a strong argument, but there are additional factors that suggest that Rogers offered the bribe, and one of those factors is the Republicans' continuing struggle against John McCain.
Let's back up.
More than one long-time staffer of the Michigan legislature has declared Nick Smith the dumbest person they've encountered in the legislature. And while causing problems for his fellow Republicans might warm our hearts, Nick Smith is not a particularly likeable guy. One of his cousins once related to me his disgust with Smith for showing up at the funeral of an elderly relative and asking the attendees for campaign contributions. But while possibly disliked and dumb, in 1992 Smith nevertheless defeated fellow state senator Joe Schwarz in the Republican primary and has held his seat since.
Smith's Congressional career has been unremarkable, but Schwarz' entire career has been remarkable. A physician, polymath and former CIA officer, Schwarz exerted tremendous influence over health, budgetary and education issues in the State Senate, and he was the body's most immoderate moderate. Pragmatic on most health care issues, reasonable on labor issues, principled on budgets, and a rabid protector of funding for the University of Michigan, Schwarz often made alliance with the Democratic minority to stop some of the Republicans' most egregious initiatives. And on social issues Schwarz was a constant problem for the Republican right.
In an extraordinary 2001 interview he complained that "every bubba straps on his 9 millimeter" because of Michigan's concealed weapons law, "the stupidest law I've ever seen." He supported the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies. He opposed a law that cut funding for family planning clinics that provide contraceptives, because to "penalize common sense in the name of an unreachable ideal makes no sense." On passage of the bill he said that "Right to Life (of Michigan) has asked this Senate to line up to the precipice and jump off and 23 of us did." Even his praise for conservative Republicans can come with a sharp backhand, as when he said that "George W. Bush `did the right thing' in approving limited embryonic stem cell research. `I think the guy's got b----, but I just don't know how much brains he's got...'"
In short, Joe Schwarz is like a Michigan version of John McCain, and that's what leads back to the bribe offered to Smith. In 2000 the entire Michigan Republican establishment lined up behind George Bush--everybody, that is, except Joe Schwarz, who chaired McCain's Michigan campaign. Michigan was a tremendous humiliation for Bush, as McCain won 70 of 83 counties and 52 of Michigan's 58 delegates. In 2002 Schwarz ran for the Republican nomination for Governor--McCain campaigned for him--but he lost to the Republicans' anointed gubernatorial candidate, Richard "Dead Dick" Posthumus. Since then, he's done a short stint working on health issues in Iraq, but he's mostly tended to his medical practice.
Schwarz has been quiet, but he's a factor that ties together some of the strands of the Smith bribery story. One should wonder why, for instance, the Repubs would want Brad Smith to win if his father is a dim bulb and an occasional pain in their butt. The seat isn't rock-solid, but it leans Republican, so you would think they could just throw their support behind a more malleable candidate--the stick makes sense, but why did they feel the need to offer the carrot? Because the problem for Bush, Hastert and Mike Rogers is that the person polling first is the least malleable candidate they could imagine--McCain's buddy Joe Schwarz.
Rogers is the Republicans' golden boy; he's being groomed for a run against either Jennifer Granholm or Debbie Stabenow. But his ambitions could be thwarted if Schwarz usurped his position as the most energetic and quotable Republican member of the Michigan delegation. Rogers and Schwarz were friendly in the legislature, but Schwarz
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