SAD SAK
As many of you now know, State Representative Michael Sak (D-Grand Rapids) made a fool out of himself a month ago at the National Governors Association conference up in Traverse City. It appears that Rep. Sak got liquored up and stumbling drunk, even bumping into a bus once or twice, at the Grand Traverse Resort. He then tried to bully a state trooper into giving him a ride to his hotel room by telling the cop that he serves on the appropriations committee and so owes his job to him.
Well, there's something to be said for in vino veritas, and so the obnoxious behavior Sak displayed in the absence of sober restraints doesn't speak well of him. Moreover, whether a happy drunk or an angry drunk, a 47-year-old man who is the speaker pro-tem of the House has no excuse for being a public drunk. Of course, many Republicans are calling for Sak's head. Well, no surprise there. But maybe this is a matter best left for the Democratic leadership and ultimately the voters.
After all, the state trooper was not intimidated by Sak and properly reported the matter to his superiors. So, no harm, no foul. Sak apologized and took full responsibility for his actions (even if he obfuscated that by spinning his demands to the trooper as a thumb's up to the state police and later made the trite promise to seek "help" for his drinking problem, as though the devil was in the drink and not himself). And finally House speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford) did boot Sak from the appropriations committee for the time being.
Let it end there and leave it to the voters come November 2008 should Sak decided to run for office again.
Praise the lord for term limits.
Posted by: Joe | Aug 22, 2007 at 08:31 AM
I'll drink to that, Joe. ;)
Regards,
Bill Tingley
Executive Director, L.A.W.
Posted by: The Executive Director | Aug 22, 2007 at 08:42 AM
Just not in public.
--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com
Posted by: Nick | Aug 22, 2007 at 12:01 PM
True enough, Nick, at least if all you're going to do is bump into busses and harangue cops after having one too many. Back in the day, pols really knew how to make scandalously drunken spectacles of themselves, like Wilbur Mills sloshing around in one of the pools on the Mall with a stripper. The good ol' days. ;)
Regards, Bill
Posted by: The Executive Director | Aug 22, 2007 at 01:05 PM