Episodes

This week’s guest: award-winning Detroit News Lansing reporter Craig Mauger. Republicans keep shooting themselves in the foot — while Joe Biden stands alone in focusing on actually dealing with the challenges facing ordinary Americans. We’ve got another Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justice eyebrow-deep in a scandal over luxury vacations paid for by billionaire GOP activists; U.S. House Republicans censuring Adam Schiff for exposing the criminal history of their Lord and Master, Donald Trum...

Mark and Jeff are taking a little me-time this week. With the historic 37-count federal indictment of the Defendant in Chief, nothing seemed more appropriate than going into our archives. We revisit conversations with two men who know DJT as well as anyone: outspoken Trump critic/Twitter nemesis George Conway, and onetime Trump fixer Michael Cohen. Don’t say they didn’t warn us… (Jeff and Mark return with a new episode next week) =========================== This week’s podcast is underwritten...

UPDATE: This episode of the podcast was recorded about an hour before Donald Trump announced that he’s made history again by being indicted on multiple felony counts … Michigan’s Quality Guru Perry Johnson now has a lot of competition for the most obscure Republican presidential candidate as the field of GOP wannabes grows to about an even dozen, and as we learn that North Dakota has a Governor and his name is Doug Burgum. Mark and Jeff take a look at the most unusual cadre of candidates … as we...

Another crisis averted after the political pros take charge in Washington. Joe Biden quietly cleans up a right-wing created mess, avoiding the shock of a first-ever U.S. credit default with deft negotiating skills and public confidence that he could get it done (and did!). Governor Whitmer takes what could be a major step for Michigan’s future, or could end up as just another report getting dusty in the archives. A key Michigan congressional battleground district gets more focus as the list of l...

Ron DeSantis teams up with everybody’s favorite billionaire for a 404-error campaign launch … while Donald Trump hunkers down in Mar A Lago waiting for what could be his summer of indictments. In Michigan, politics and government is a little more on track – the Governor signing another major gun safety law, the state’s attorney discipline board takes aim at the lawyers who led the Big Lie lawsuits, and there’s still another money-based scandal brewing as part of the Republican legislative legacy...

The polling shows Michigan voters unhappy with the economy, yet the numbers tell a different story. Unemployment rate dropped to 3.8% in April, tying the pre-pandemic February 2020 rate. Since the mid-1970s, Michigan’s unemployment rate only fell below 4.0% during three periods: periodically from 1998-2000, from November 2019 to March 2020, and now. In April, Michigan had a total labor force of 4,869,000. This was an increase of 18,000 over the month and 26,000 over the year. The state recorded...

The two biggest liars in politics had an especially bad week. It’s 5-million dollars for one of the many crimes of Donald Trump followed by a 13-count felony indictment over the Congressman currently known as George Santos. It was topped off by a truly bizarre hour organized and broadcast by CNN, which called it a Town Hall but in reality should have been labeled a Trump campaign rally. On a much more positive note, Governor Whitmer’s sister is running for Congress. Lynn Whitmer Gereghty is runn...

Still no big-name Republicans in the Senate race, but a deep pockets candidate may parachute in. On the Democratic side, a potential deep pockets challenger to Elissa Slotkin drops a hint that he’s running — a hint dropped on national TV. Led by Florida and Texas, red states have launched a book banning binge unlike anything we’ve seen since the days of McCarthyism in the early 1950s. It’s probably the most attention most people have paid to librarians since the 1962 movie The Music Man (centere...

The Biden campaign is officially underway – with Gretchen Whitmer the only Governor among the campaign’s 7 co-chairs. A signal of things to come? There are media reports of a special grand jury on election machine tampering add to state Republicans’ unenviable list of criminal investigations, even as one scandal brings a guilty plea from a former Republican House Speaker whose cooperation may bring still more indictments. Mark and Jeff discuss the latest turmoil (criminal and otherwise) in the G...

It’s now official – Fox News lies, but that’s just a cost of doing business as the media giant buys its way out of getting caught … while failing to share the news with the millions the company has willingly deceived.Also this week: there’s a nationwide contrast on two hot-button issues: gun safety and reproductive healthcare rights look to be the pivotal issues in 2024, and Republicans are on the wrong side of both. The turmoil in the Michigan Republican Party continues and now even features ac...

In a study of contrasts, Donald Trump and Trump wannabes are gathered in Indianapolis as we recorded this week’s podcast. They are all paying homage to the National Rifle Association at the gun manufacturing groups annual convention … even as Governor Whitmer signs two more gun safety laws opposed by the NRA into law with state and national leaders of March for Our Lives at her side…and additional laws working their way through the Legislature. The national debate over reproductive rights grows ...

Photo credit: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/Pool But of course Mark and Jeff weigh in on the first indictments handed down against career criminal Donald Trump. Their focus: the potential political impact on Michigan (site of one of the nation’s first presidential primaries)…and on the multiple criminal investigations into prominent Michigan Republicans. Also this week: In 1866, New York state surrogate Gideon John Tucker wrote in a decision on a legal malpractice claim: “No man’s life, liberty or proper...

Another mass shooting with an AR-15 armed shooter brings more thoughts and prayers from NRA-owned politicians … and that’s about all. In Washington. While Republicans in the U.S. House focus on protecting kids from drag queens and classic books … instead of protecting them from being shot in their classrooms … Michigan’s Legislature continues to do just the opposite. Gun safety is the latest issue to move from campaign promises all the way to the Governor’s desk. Also enacted in this hyper-activ...

Artificial intelligence — A I — is all the rage. It’s more than a tool for school kids to get help with papers, or pass the bar exam without breaking a sweat. But it can be a dangerous new tool for manipulating elections by unscrupulous campaigns, hostile foreign governments … or Tucker Carlson. No longer can we say with certainty that “hearing or seeing is believing.” While what sounds or looks real could all be a deception created on a computer. Helping us wade through this new technology and ...

Clearing the field for Slotkin, a battle over worker rights (including a potential petition drive) and a homeless GOP. That tops the conversation this week. Mark and Jeff focus, however, on the drive in Lansing to finally do something about the epidemic of mass shootings. Joining the conversation is pollster Richard Czuba of the Glengariff Group. His recent polling shows overwhelming bipartisan public support for a wide variety of gun safety measures.Czuba has been conducting survey research si...

Yes, it’s the “March Madness” edition of “A Republic, If You Can Keep It”. This year, the orgy of college basketball is joined by the madness that is Tucker Carlson and Fox News, along with the incredible productivity of the Michigan’s new legislative majority in Lansing. That new Democratic majority is moving major legislation at a record-setting pace. Several huge bills have cleared the Legislature in the last few days. Among them: a nearly one-billion-dollar tax cut, mandatory background chec...

Contact Us! This weekend marks the beginning of our third year with the podcast. This is show Number 108 since we kicked off our weekly chat with columnist Bill Kristol. Since then, we have had the opportunity to talk with many of the top national and state political leaders, journalists and political operatives. We thank them all, and especially thank our growing cadre of weekly listeners.. Elissa Slotkin’s Announcement for Senate – YouTube We begin the podcast with an update on the race to suc...

Just when we thought Michigan Republicans couldn’t edge further into the chasm of conspiracy theory crazy, the once Grand Old Party bypasses Trump-and-Pillow-Guy endorsed Matt DePerno for party chair because he just wasn’t extreme enough. Jeff offer an R-rated analysis of the current status of his former party under the dubious leadership of the Tin Foil Hat brigade. Meanwhile, the new Democratic majority in the Legislature is moving pedal-to-the-metal speed on issues near-and-dear to the hearts...

The horror of this week at Michigan State University casts a cloud over our state, and especially the campus just five miles east of the Capitol building. It was the 67th mass shooting in the first 46 days of 2023. As we recorded this week’s podcast, a memorial service was gathering in the center of the East Lansing campus in remembrance of Arielle Anderson, Alexander Verner and Brian Fraser … and with prayers for five more students hospitalized at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital. Brian Fraser, Alexa...

The State of the Union becomes a soft launch for the Biden reelection campaign; the Governor’s budget takes full advantage of a massive state surplus; Michigan is officially in the first tier of presidential primary states; and more state Republicans are under criminal investigation. Our guest is the chair of the state House Elections Committee, East Lansing Representative Penelope Tsernoglou. Rep. Tsernoglou’s legislative priorities include expanding fair access to the ballot; advocating for la...

The first million-selling hit from Motown is our theme this week. (RIP Barrett Strong, 1941-2023) Virtually all political scandals involve either seeking greater power, or money. This week’s discussion focuses on the latter. We are joined in the podcast by two national leaders in the drive to disrupt the political money machine: Gabe Lezra from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (better known as CREW), and Lisa Gilbert from Public Citizen. Topping the political news this week: legislative De...

Topping the political news this week: the Governor delivers a populist State of the State message, with Democrats in the Legislature cheering repeatedly and Republican members sitting on their hands – even to the point of not cheering a proposal to help young children, or throwing shade at Ohio and Indiana. Mark and Jeff analyze the Governor’s address, and talk legislative priorities with the first woman to serve as Senate Majority Leader, Grand Rapids Senator Winnie Brinks. Also this week: in w...

We’ve got a MAGA alert agenda this week: Michigan Republicans have a battle of election deniers for chair of their party. Some top Michigan Republicans want to draft charisma-challenged Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to lead the 2024 ticket. In Ottawa County, the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party is on full display with a purge of county officials who aren’t radical enough for the new county commission. And the MAGA wing is looking at a takeover of some mid-Michigan school boards. The MAGA-...

The Michigan Legislature’s 2023 session has officially started. Democrats, now controlling both chambers for the first time in 40 years, have already introduced a raft of high-priority bills. And the 2024 game of political musical chairs is underway. We update the race to succeed Debbie Stabenow in the Senate, and the likely domino effect of that race on Michigan’s congressional delegation. Walt Sorg sits in for Mark Brewer who is on vacation. Walt and Jeff decided that makes it a good time to ...