Look about you. The job was no boondoggle. State Sen. Thaddeus McCotter, the Livonia literature lover who sponsored the bill, faced minimal opposition from legislators. The governor's office was terse about Engler's reasons for vetoing the bill. Perhaps if I were a professional angler, I'd be keener on the trout.
Government officials are happy to decry popular, trash culture.
Sure, the poet laureate selection would have caused controversy. Alas, Michigan has taken the safe, if philistine, road. I asked poet Josie Kearns, a University of Michigan creative writing instructor, to write a poem on the occasion of the governor vetoing the poet laureate position. The state reptile could never have come up with that. Laura Berman's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in Metro.