Matt Schonert

U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer traveled to Afghanistan with a bipartisan House delegation last week, ostensibly for diplomatic reasons (he met with Gen. David Petraeus and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in some capacity). But the timing makes it hard to ignore the trip’s inevitable function as campaign event: it’s an opportunity to connect with voters stationed in Afghanistan — an opportunity only afforded to incumbents.

A few weeks ago, House Republicans griped about not being allowed to use their Congressional office budgets to purchase flights to the Louisiana to “survey the damage” (of the BP incident). At the time, I wondered about the potentially self-serving motive for these trips.

What expertise do these relatively inexperienced legislators bring to Louisiana, Afghanistan, and other crisis areas? Should taxpayers foot the bill for these thinly-veiled photo ops, especially when they tilt the scales in favor of incumbents?

Popularity: 15% [?]

In Michigan’ gubernatorial primary race, competition is heating up between Republican front-runners Mike Cox, Pete Hoekstra, and Rick Snyder.

Last fall, Snyder, an Ann Arbor businessman and former Gateway CEO, called on his Republican primary opponents to refuse campaign funding from PACs and lobbyists. Snyder, who has made significant personal contributions to his own campaign, said in a 2009 editorial that he would reject PAC and lobbyist money.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox issued a terse response. “We’re not about to take a lecture from a millionaire who lives in a gated community,” a spokesman said.

This is a surprisingly populist remark coming from a Republican whose household earned $195,030 last year (2-3 times the median income in the state) and who shares at least $581,499 in assets with his wife Laura, a Wayne County Commissioner. This is according to voluntary financial disclosures Cox submitted for public review this week, when he challenged Hoekstra, Snyder, and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard to do the same.

What is most striking about Cox’s “millionaire” quip is that while Rick Snyder earned his fortune entirely in the private sector, taxpayers have paid the salaries of Cox and Hoekstra since they both took office—in 2003 and 1993, respectively.

What does Mike Cox find so dishonorable about earning a living in private enterprise? We can’t all be career politicians.

Popularity: 42% [?]