Mitch Daniels: Right-Wing Marionette

Mitch Daniels was elected Governor of Indiana because he campaigned as a moderate, dropping the normal right-wing rhetoric and focusing on issues that Hoosiers cared about. Deep inside, Daniels must still be at least part moderate. However, it seems a far right legislature has hijacked an inexperienced and inept Daniels Administration and has begun retooling it to fit its own desires. The outcome: politics as usual.

When House Speaker Brian Bosma excoriated Gov. Daniels during his first week in the office, the tension that so many suspected was made public: a clash between moderates and right-wingers. Bosma, the leader of the right-wing fringe, was telling Daniels to back off and play ball for the party. Daniels, to his credit, stared Bosma down and made him apologize for growing out of his britches. Of course, that was only the first time.

Now we see why the legislature is growing so chummy with Mitch Daniels after all of that fighting - Daniels has finally conceded ground to the far-right movement as political payback for blowing all of his hard-earned political capital on a tax hike that died in the House and appointments that fizzled within weeks. The Bosma-approved Indiana budget freezes spending on education while pushing private school vouchers. It slashed Medicare while stripping medical protection from the poorest Hoosiers. Oh, and it still leaves that gaping hole that Mitch Daniels vowed to fill.

Daniels has shown his Darwinist attitude to Hoosiers he once hollowly swore to help and defend. When Amtrak's production and repair factory asked for help, Daniels told them it would be "cheaper" to buy them a plane ticket than to help keep the factory going. Daniels' Administration doesn't seem to be booking flights for the thousands of jobs that now teeter on the brink of irreparable loss. Instead of creating and protecting jobs as he swore to do on the campaign trail, Daniels spent his day pushing his agenda in the legislature with - you guessed it - Brian Bosma by his side.

Now Gov. Daniels, backed by Bosma, wants to create his own appointed Inspector General and vest the position with full prosecutorial power. Why does a governor need his own prosecutor? The question is never answered. Indiana would be the first state in the Union to give a governor his own prosecutor, even though 11 states have non-prosecutorial Inspectors General. That's one way to keep investigations away from your Administration - own the guy who's doing them! Not a bad power grab, either.

It seems that this is the governor Indiana will be stuck with: a leader whose positions are whispered to him from the Republican arch-conservatives in the legislature. That's not a moderate governor: it's a right wing ragdoll. Perhaps Mitch Daniels isn't that different from George W. Bush after all.

It's time Hoosiers began considering giving Mitch a plane ticket out of Indiana. It'd be cheaper than keeping him.

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