Months ago Obama, Edwards, Clinton, Richardson and the entire Democrat field signed pledges promising not to step foot inside Michigan, refusing to ask for a single vote.  Obama, Edwards and a few also-rans even went so far as to demand their names be stricken from the ballot, ensuring voters in the Great Lakes State wouldn't even have the CHANCE to vote for them, whether they liked it or not.

Obviously, these guys didn't earn any PR brownie points for this tidy little package of flipped birds and "get lost"s directed at Michigan residents.  So what's a candidate hoping to save a little face to do?  Blow up the primary and there's no issue... MDP could go back to their little disenfranchisement caucuses at a later date, candidates could come back to our fair battleground state and they could start convincing us they never left in the first place.

And it looked like that plan worked as Democrat political consultant Mark Grebner (his former partner and protégé founded the leading "managed community" in the regressisphere) filed suit and blocked the primary, even on appeal.  Until the Supremes stepped in last week.

Now we've got a primary.  Oops.  What are the Edwards and Obama people to do?  Time for political shell game number two!  Get some of the State Reps that you've got in your pocket to help pass a bill restoring their names to the primary so you can save a little face but hold just enough of them back to kill immediate effect just like their supporters in the Dem Senate Minority did two weeks ago.  Boom... you've voted to give Michigan residents a choice and then gone and denied it to them through parliamentary tricks.  The Associated Press reports:

The Senate and House could try again Tuesday to give the bill immediate effect, but some labor groups that support candidate John Edwards are trying to block the move.

(House Speaker Andy) Dillon, who previously opposed the primary, said once the state Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the primary, he figured Democrats and not just Republicans should have a voice in selecting the presidential nominees, one reason he now supports the bill.

In the end it all reads the same.  Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Hussein Obama each have two hands extended towards us, four fingers down and the one in the middle turned skyward on each.  Because we don't count.  Michigan doesn't deserve to have a say.  Our issues don't matter.

Which is strange, because they seem to matter to mayors from across the nation who are preparing to gather in Detroit to discuss pressing social and economic issues that affect... or is it afflict... Michigan more than any other state in the union.  Things like foreclosures, for instance.  The Ivory Tower reports:

The Detroit region ranks seventh in the nation in loss of economic activity among metro areas with a hit of $3.2 billion because of the foreclosure epidemic, the report states. Economic activity is defined as the total value of goods and purchases.

And Michigan overall takes a wallop -- a 75% decline in projected housing starts in 2008 from 2005 and a loss of $124 million in tax revenue from lost property, sales and real estate transfer taxes.

"The foreclosure crisis is no longer just about mortgages," Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, host of the conference, said in a prepared statement. "Entire neighborhoods are being negatively affected on several levels. This issue is now the No. 1 economic challenge of many major American cities."

Just not major Michigan cities, right Barack?  John?  Hil?

Of course even worse than being generally ignored by an entire major political party in it's pursuit of the most powerful office on the face of the earth is the fact that our own elected officials from right here in Michigan... who live and work right here in Michigan, they aren't just complicit in that giant cold shoulder, they're the ones now making it happen.  

Where's the condemnation from Andy Dillon?  Where's the condemnation from Jennifer Granholm?  Where's the condemnation from Mark Schauer?  Heck, where's the condemnation from the regressisphere?  

Won't any of them stand up for us?  Won't any of them take off the bright blue Democrat sunglasses and put their foot down as Michigan natives?  Residents?  Families?  

Nah, they're too busy raising our taxes.  An effort, by the way, which is still far from over.  Take the report in today's Detroit News on road funding.  The move is afoot in Lansing, again, to spike the gas tax by six cents to continue paying road builders to rebuild and repair the shoddy roads they built in the first place.  But somehow these same special interests are wholly unconcerned with the idea of Michigan getting it's fair shake in federal transportation dollars (could it be because they're companies that do business in many states and federal dollars are going to filter through to them regardless of which state plays "middle man?"  Nah, I must just be a cynic).

Michigan gets its road funds from a combination of state fuel taxes, vehicle registration fees and federal funding. Congress sends the state and local governments in Michigan 92 percent of the revenue collected here from the federal tax of 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents a gallon on diesel.

That makes Michigan one of 21 "donor" states, and that's not likely to change...

Michigan's 19-cent gasoline tax ranks 31st in the country and its 15-cent diesel tax ranks 45th. But its sales tax on fuel -- Michigan is one of seven states to charge that -- moves the state up to second in combined taxes on gasoline and ninth in combined taxes on diesel, according to Grand Valley State's Taylor.

Only ninth?  C'mon, lots of room for improvement there.  Number one here we come!  Besides, we're talking about federal dollars and Michigan problems.  Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow have proven wholly ineffective in dealing with these issues (and worse, they've proven to be no friend to the domestic auto industry in CAFE talks) and if we've learned anything through the primary process it's that we can't count on national Democrats to give half a rip about Michigan issues.  We can't even get that that sort of concern out of the Democrats in the state legislature.