Michigan's junior Senator has been in the news these last few days because of her connection with the shirtless-wonder and national Democrat illegal-money man, Norman Hsu.  You'll remember that Stabenow received several thousand dollars from the man, a wanted felon, and after being outed in the press, weeks after evidence of Hsu's shady dealings leaked farther than the cloakroom at the DNC, decided to give that money to charity.

Well, some of it anyways.  Beyond the direct contributions it's also been reported that Stabenow received $27,000 in bundled cash from Hsu.  And Associated Press reports seem to indicate that cash isn't going anywhere:

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., donated to charity $4,200 in political contributions from Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is under federal investigation for allegedly violating election laws...

The FBI is investigating whether Hsu paid so-called straw donors to send campaign contributions to several candidates. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign said Monday it will return $850,000 in donations raised by Hsu.

For those of you not familiar with campaign finance laws, there's a limit to how much an individual can directly contribute to a candidate.  And that limit is substantially less than $850,000.  

In English, that means that Hsu raised... bundled... nearly a million dollars for Clinton.  The same Hillary Clinton who's currently running as far and as fast to the left of the political spectrum as humanely possible to try to win the Democrat Presidential primary while promising never to campaign in Michigan.  THAT Senator is giving away all of that bundled cash.

OUR Senator?  Having received and needing the cash far far far far far less... she's keeping it and hoping you won't notice.

Example 2: Fieger Time!

The Detroit News reports this morning on the legal proceedings that find Dr. Death's lawyer on the other side of the criminal-lawyer slash lawyer-criminal equation as yesterday saw an "emotional plea" for an early trial date by Geoff Fieger-time's outsourced Wyoming attorney Gerry Spence.

Fieger and his law partner, Ven Johnson, are charged with conspiracy, making illegal campaign contributions and causing false statements in connection with $127,000 in illegal donations allegedly funneled to the 2004 presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards. Fieger is also charged with obstruction of justice.

U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman set the Dec. 4 trial date and told Spence the need to consider motions from Fieger's defense team was all that prevented an earlier trial.

In the words of one of Hollywood's biggest action stars, the judge decided to "layeth the smacketh down."  

Not only is Geoff on trial for smuggling illegal cash into John Edward's pocketbooks but his lawyers are dragging out the proceedings then complaining that they're taking so long.  Not exactly ingratiating themselves with the sitting judge.  

Example 3: Hizzoner Kwame Kilpatrick

On Tuesday we discussed the jury decision against the Hip-Hop Mayor, finding him responsible for firing two police officers because they could expose his crooked dealings and late-night extra-marital trists.  

The FREEP reports he's taken a bad situation and made it worse.  In their estimation he just played the race card and they don't very much like it.

If all of it happened or none of it, whatever. I'm convinced it has little or nothing to do with building this city's future.

But that future does depend on how Kilpatrick navigates the filthy waters that clog this region's city-vs.-suburb divide. So it was disappointing to see him dredge that up Tuesday as a way to discredit the verdict in the cops case. It just makes a bad situation worse...

OK, so he didn't come right out and say "Whitey stuck it to me." But public figures around here rarely talk like that; it's almost always subtle, and understood. But the implication's clear, and for Kilpatrick in this case, it's just counterproductive.

So the man steps out on his wife, does a few other things he probably shouldn't have been doing and then instead of admitting his mistakes he tries to silence the men who can ruin him by firing them.  Now that decision has cost the city millions and the Mayor refuses to take responsibility, blaming it instead on the "suburbs" wink wink.  Model behavior from an elected official.

Example 4: Mark "The Liar" Schauer

The Senate Minority Leader continues to stand by a chief of staff who contacted a reporter to vilify a primary opponent because he was... shudder... Jewish.

His tolerance of anti-Semitism continues to surprise many even in the MSM and the Democrat party and represents an unneccessary but genuinely tragic black mark on Democrats across the state.

So lets see... we've got the highest ranking Dem in the Senate standing up for an anti-Semite.  Michigan Democrats taking dirty money from wanted felons and refusing to return it.  We've got Michigan Democrats personally violating campaign finance rules by smuggling six figures worth of dough into the pockets of their preferred POTUS candidates (who refuse to come to Michigan) then ticking the judge off with ridiculous motions that go nowhere.  We've got Michigan Democrats firing police officers to hide their dirty laundry then getting caught and costing the taxpayers millions.  

And we've go Michigan Democrats pushing a multi-billion dollar tax hike at a time when fewer and fewer can afford it.  

Example 5: Michigan House Democrats

New numbers out this morning indicate it's getting tougher and tougher for home owners to avoid defaulting and finding their homes foreclosed.  

The FREEP reports:

"There's that great American Dream when people jump into these opportunities where they're spending a large percentage of their income on housing," (Demographer Kurt) Metzger said. "But that's when they're making money." Those with jobs and little or no debt can likely handle paying as much as 50% of their income for a mortgage, experts said...

Experts say they think many in Michigan are like Gowman -- homeowners whose mortgages consumed larger portions of their income as their wages shrank.

And with many likely to have at least one credit card and a car note, householders' total debt could eat much more of their incomes. That leaves the most cash-strapped at risk of losing their homes, said Pava Leyrer, president of the Lansing-based Michigan Mortgage Brokers Association.

"If their hours are cut or they experience a job loss, they have to choose one debt or another," Leyrer said.

Raise their taxes 13% and it's much worse than having their hours cut.  Workers... US... we lose that income and we don't even get an hour or two a week off for the trouble.  

So now  we've got Michigan Democrats looking to rob the Michigan taxpayers.  Quite a party they've built there.