Political casualties emerge in blame game over Flint Water

Patterson

Two longtime fixtures on the Michigan political scene emerged as casualties this morning in the intense public debate over the Flint water crisis.

Ballenger

Bill Ballenger, founder of Inside Michigan Politics, was ostracized (some say “fired”) from IMP after insisting the Flint crisis had been overblown to the point of becoming a hoax. In a post-State of the State discussion on public TV on Tuesday night, Ballenger said he lives in the city, he drinks the water and he and his neighbors are just fine.

Susan Demas, who bought IMP, serves as editor and publisher, and kept Ballenger on as a contributor to the influential newsletter, reacted quickly. She announced that Ballenger will no longer have any association with the publication.

The second public figure in the crosshairs, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, said the “jury is still out” regarding the Flint situation, which doesn’t seem to rise to the level of a crisis.

"I don't think we should say or use words anymore like ‘Flint's been poisoned,’" Patterson said at a Detroit Economic Club event. "Because I don't think that's accurate."

This morning, critics responded by labeling Ballenger and Patterson as “truthers” trying to create a conspiracy out of a tragedy. 

While only mildly wounded, Patterson had his office put out a statement saying the Republican executive had been “misunderstood” and that varying points of view on the severity of the Flint situation exist.

Ballenger fought back, asserting that the harshest critics of the state’s role in the Flint water contamination have targeted those with alternative points of view.

“If you are embroiled in this Flint water crisis issue, you don’t want to hear that. You’ve got an agenda, you want to blame people, and anybody who says anything different is going to be castigated,” Ballenger said on WWJ-AM radio in Detroit.

Meanwhile, the rhetorical battle over how much blame rests with the state Department of Environment Quality, or with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or with Flint’s former emergency managers or city officials, still rages. Conservative columnist Dennis Lennox stepped forward with a new theory, suggesting that the Genesee County drain commissioner was the true villain.

While the blame game gets louder and uglier, there’s one key figure who quietly slipped away from the fray on Tuesday night.

Gov. Rick Snyder offered no excuses, said he was sorry for the debacle, and said he’ll fix it. In the big picture, that seems to have worked to his benefit.