Columnist Boosts Bart Stupak as 'Mr. Smith Flees Washington'

Sunday’s Parade magazine supplement (distributed in many American newspapers) carried a column by liberal Detroit sports writer Mitch Albom titled “Mr. Smith Flees Washington.” The modern Jimmy Stewart he’s selected is departing Rep. Bart Stupak, last seen caving into Team Obama on the abortion portion of the ObamaCare bill. How was that Mr. Smith resisting Washington ways?

But in his own life, Mitch Albom is more like one of those self-interested Washington lobbyists (except in the state capital of Lansing). On The Michigan View, Henry Payne reports that in an October 17 column in the Detroit Free Press, Albom slammed GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder's “unusually specific pledge to end a 42 percent tax subsidy for the movie and television business -- a business that Albom, himself a writer of film scripts - admits to lobbying for.”' Albom's a multi-millionaire for massive book-slash-movie projects like "Tuesdays with Morrie."

Lobbyist Albom says that eliminating the tax subsidy "would be bad for Michigan. I was involved in bringing these tax incentives to our state. I helped with their creation, testified before the Legislature, met numerous times with the governor and her staff." But why stop there? Why not a subsidy for his struggling newspaper? Or fellow struggling book authors? Or....

Albom and his rich Hollywood friends are a classic special interest (Big Hollywood meet Big Oil and Big Ethanol) with a built-in celebrity factor (special interests loooove celebrity salespeople).

...No doubt, the program has worked for scriptwriter Albom who stands to benefit from cheaper film costs thanks to his Michigan neighbors. Indeed, as a Michigan radio personality, his radio program also benefits from the steady flow of celebrities - Richard Gere, the cast of Detroit 1-8-7 - that parachute into the state.

But the hard evidence is that what's good for Mitch is not necessarily good for Mich.

In a devastating study, the Mackinac Center found that after two years the film subsidies "impact on the overall state economy is too small to measure, (but) its effects on taxes and the budget are significant. The state has authorized $117 million in film credits, and the Department of Treasury estimates that the subsidies will cost $155 million in the upcoming fiscal year." Ouch.

"Critics of the program - usually people who will never benefit from it - say we're not making back enough money," snorts Albom in response. This is an argument? By this logic, if you don't like the wasteful B1 weapons program, you obviously aren't a defense contractor who benefitted from it. Don't like Big Ethanol subsidies? Why, you don't grow corn?

It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs, says Albom. "It is terribly hard to measure the ripple effect of a movie or TV show - the hotels, rental cars, restaurants or tangential businesses." So it makes us feeeeeel good. And by that standard, no subsidy will end. Ever.

In his Stupak-boosting column for Parade, Albom deplored the nastiness of Washington:

When did we become so nasty? Former president Jimmy Carter has suggested that we are more divided than at any time since the Civil War. And between talk radio, 24-hour TV and Internet news, and the collapse of civility from town halls to the floors of Congress, it's hard to argue.

I ask Stupak if only the mean or thick-skinned will now enter politics.

"Add one more element: the very rich," he answers. "So many good people would be proud to serve, but they wind up saying, `If the other guy spends $3 million, what chance do I have?' The most money and the sharpest attacks tend to win."

Stupak sighs. "Remember Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? Those days are gone."

Albom gets it wrong when he cites his civility icon Jimmy Carter for saying we’re more divided than any time since the Civil War. That’s not what Carter’s been saying. He includes the Civil War, which makes the whole argument ridiculous. On 60 Minutes, Carter told Lesley Stahl that Obama is “suffering from perhaps the worst Washington environment of any president in history, and I would even include Abraham Lincoln as we led up to the war between the states.”