So, there I was one recent, hot, humid day not too long ago. Standing, with my arms behind my back looking out the window, way up there from my Ivory Tower in downtown Clarkston. Looking out and surveying town, watching all the little people scurrying about their daily lives on the bustling street known as Main.
Blonde moms in short sundresses. Kids scootin’ along on skateboards (even though they shouldn’t be). High-powered menfolk in their businesses suits. Oh, and don’t forget the hipster dudes (with their biggish beards) and chicks (with their tattoos). All pawns ready to be manipulated.

Blue-ish, gray smoke billowed from the big, Cuban Churchill cigar I puffed on . . . I was just thinking, “Ah, to be a highly influential member of the Fourth Estate. Life is good . . .” when the annoying buzz announcing an incoming call from the newspaper’s lobby interrupted my solitude. Damn.
“Mr. Rush. There’s a man — a Mr. Bishop — downstairs to see you. He says he is a United States Congressman.”
I think I actually said, “Harrumphf,” to myself. To the receptionist I said, “I’ll be right down.” I snuffed the fat stogie in a crystal ashtray, pulled out the chained, golden pocketwatch from my vest pocket, looked at it, replaced it in its pocket and headed down to the lower level.
* * *
Mike Bishop, 49, is a Republican freshman Congressman hailing from Rochester. He’s been in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015. And, to give Mike a break, his staff had contacted me a few weeks before about visiting our office, so it was not a suprise visit. I really am grateful he has followed in his predecessor’s footsteps in this regard. Former 8th District Congressman Mike Rogers also made it an issue to visit this lowly, community newspaper scribe when he could.
I appreciate both Mikes doing this, because rarely do even local electeds pay a call when they are in town, and a lot of them can walk here! It would be wonderful if the locals would come to chat, for chat’s sake, but aside from some township folks, the state, county and local officials pretty much look down their noses at us. That’s cool. It just keeps feeding the flame of discontent between government types and their constituents.
(And they wonder why no one likes or trusts them and why candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders created a stir this election cycle.)
* * *
Trust in government was one of the issues I raised with the Congressman. He agrees (of course, how can any rational, sentient organism not), saying, Americans have “Lost their trust completely.”

His words on the state of the nation’s Capitol? “Very polarized.” Which is one of the differences he sees between being an elected Michigan official (which he was prior to going to Washington, D.C.) versus life on the federal side. While in Lansing, he felt he could approach ranking Democrats like Andy Dillon to work on legislation. Not so much in Washington, D.C.
One of the trust issues in Washington is between legislative and executive branches of government, in that there is very little of it. And, when the executive branch, through its appointed department heads, make sweeping changes without public debate or congressional input, unintended

consequences happen. He cited the recent overtime pay regulations passed on by the Department of Labor, as an example of such unintended consequences.
“That change will cost Olivet College one million dollars,” he said. “And guess how they are going to resolve that hit? They will pass it on to students (tuition hikes).”

Oops. Which leads to more student loan debt. Double oops. But, that is how Washington works these days. Can one person make a difference in that Beltway mess? I think Mike is optimistic. He’s working on some bipartisan issues and we will see how well that goes, because this is not an old black and white movie where one honest person wins the day for integrity and the nation.
Good luck, Mikey, you are gonna need it!

Comments? E-mail, Don@ShermanPublications.org

  congressman Mike Bishop, don rush, don’t rush me, winston churchhill