Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has decided to veto a bill that would have allowed concealed weapons in such places as schools, day care centers, sports arenas, bars, places of worship, hospitals, dorms and casinos.  The bill had been passed by the legislature the night before the massacre in Connecticut.

That might have had something to do with his decision to back away from the bill.

So might this:

The approval rating of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is in the gutter, according to a poll released Tuesday, the strongest evidence yet of the political perils associated with the right-to-work legislation he signed into law last week.

According to the latest automated survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, only 38 percent of Michigan voters approve of the job Snyder is doing, compared with 56 percent who disapprove. In PPP’s previous survey of Michigan in November, Snyder’s approval rating was 10 points above water: 47 percent of voters approved of his performance as governor, while 37 percent disapproved.

The right-to-work bill, signed by Snyder amid mass protests, appears to have changed the political climate in the Great Lake State. Fifty-one percent of Michigan voters oppose the bill, which made Michigan the country’s 24th right-to-work state, while 41 percent support the legislation. Moreover, Snyder trails every Democrat in hypothetical matchups of the 2014 gubernatorial election.

To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, nothing focuses the mind like impending political oblivion.

Finally, some good news to report on Michigan’s “emergency manager” (as in sweeping dictatorial answer-to-no-one) law: a judge has ruled that the law violates the state’s open meeting laws, not to mention the democratic sensibilities of just about anyone to the moderate side of Benito Mussolini.

A Michigan judge on Tuesday restored power to Flint’s mayor and City Council, the latest legal setback for Gov. Rick Snyder and a state law giving state-appointed emergency managers sweeping powers to help struggling cities and schools fix their finances.

The order from Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina says a state review team violated the state’s Open Meetings Act during the process that led to a state-appointed emergency manager in Flint. It’s a case that likely will be monitored in other places where the state has emergency managers, including the cities of Benton Harbor and Pontiac.

The move came the same day another judge in the same county temporarily blocked a potential agreement between the state and cash-strapped Detroit over the same concerns about potential Open Meetings Act violations.

Gov. Snyder is one of those “smaller government, more freedom” types, so the irony is hardly understated when he is the proponent of “emergency powers” that basically overturns democratically elected officials and appoints someone with absolute power in their place… until some mean old activist judge comes in puts an end to all the fun. How dare they? Don’t they know who they’re dealing with?

Yeah; it’s called the “rule of law.” Look it up sometime.

HT to Charlie Pierce.

Finally, some good news to report on Michigan’s “emergency manager” (as in sweeping dictatorial answer-to-no-one) law: a judge has ruled that the law violates the state’s open meeting laws, not to mention the democratic sensibilities of just about anyone to the moderate side of Benito Mussolini.

A Michigan judge on Tuesday restored power to Flint’s mayor and City Council, the latest legal setback for Gov. Rick Snyder and a state law giving state-appointed emergency managers sweeping powers to help struggling cities and schools fix their finances.

The order from Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina says a state review team violated the state’s Open Meetings Act during the process that led to a state-appointed emergency manager in Flint. It’s a case that likely will be monitored in other places where the state has emergency managers, including the cities of Benton Harbor and Pontiac.

The move came the same day another judge in the same county temporarily blocked a potential agreement between the state and cash-strapped Detroit over the same concerns about potential Open Meetings Act violations.

Gov. Snyder is one of those “smaller government, more freedom” types, so the irony is hardly understated when he is the proponent of “emergency powers” that basically overturns democratically elected officials and appoints someone with absolute power in their place… until some mean old activist judge comes in puts an end to all the fun. How dare they? Don’t they know who they’re dealing with?

Yeah; it’s called the “rule of law.” Look it up sometime.

HT to Charlie Pierce.

Remember how the Republicans campaigned on “smaller government” and “local control”? Ah, those were the days.

Via Steve Benen comes a story about the new governor of Michigan being granted basically limitless power to do anything he wants.

Newly elected Republican governor, Rick Snyder, is set to pass one of the most sweeping, anti-democratic pieces of legislation in the country — and almost no one is talking about it.

Snyder’s law gives the state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all — whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so. And Snyder can fire elected officials unilaterally, without any input from voters. It doesn’t get much more anti-Democratic than that.

Except it does. The governor simply has to declare a financial emergency to invoke these powers — or he can hire a private company to declare financial emergency and take over oversight of the city. That’s right, a private corporation can declare your city in a state of financial emergency and send in its Emergency Manager, fire your elected officials, and reap the benefits of the ensuing state contracts. [Italics in the original.]

Ironically, this was the kind of thing all the tea-partiers were screaming about last year that President Obama was plotting to do with the stimulus and healthcare law: he’s a tyrant who will stop at nothing to take away the power from the people and turn it over to the bureaucrats and the evil Soshulists. So, naturally, you’d think that the tea-folk in Michigan would be apoplectic about this. Well, you would be wrong. They’re delighted with it.

One of the Republican state lawmakers who supports this effort characterized the plan as “financial martial law” — and as far as he’s concerned, that’s not a criticism, that a defense for this little scheme.

Rule Number 1 of Dictators: It’s not tyranny when we do it; it’s “emergency powers.” (See: Mubarak, Hosni; Castro, Fidel & Raul).