On John Engler as Michigan State University Interim President

Rochelle Riley did not hold back when she published a letter asking John Engler to step down as MSU’s interim President.  She lists things former Governor Engler is not guilty of as reasons: John Engler has politicized the office of President of MSU, John Engler is having a ‘tiff’ with Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, John Engler has not yet fired the Board of Directors of Michigan State, John Engler was guilty of blowing his job when a sexual abuse scandal ‘rocked’ Michigan’s prison system during Engler’s tenure, and John Engler supported a 2002 plan that would have increased the levels of dioxin Dow Chemicals would have been allowed to produce in Midland, Michigan.

Mrs. Riley – Allow me to call you out as a political hack rather than a journalist.  John Engler has not politicized his role as interim President of MSU.  You did that.  John Engler is not having a ‘tiff’ with Bill Schuette.  John Engler was listed as a political supporter of Bill Schuette, but as interim President of MSU, John Engler is expected to be non-partisan, requiring Governor Engler to ask Bill Schuette to remove Mr. Engler from that list.  John Engler did prevent the Department of Justice and the United Nations from ‘investigating’ sexual assault in Michigan prisons, after having a legitimate tiff with the Bill Clinton Administration regarding the punitive nature of Jackson Prison, and some of Michigan’s other prisons.  When the Department of Justice told John Engler that Michigan punishes prisoners, Governor Engler told them that the purpose of prisons is to punish prisoners.  When the Department of Justice told Governor Engler to have Michigan prisons stop punishing prisoners, Governor Engler told the Department of Justice to kindly go to hell.  The so-called sexual assault scandal was something the Department of Justice trumped up, along with the United Nations, to try and discredit Governor Engler, and to try to strong-arm the State of Michigan into changing how it manages it’s prisons, which is incidentally none of the federal government’s business.

The last reason you gave in asking John Engler to step down as interim MSU President is the most egregious.  John Engler did not allow Dow Chemicals to pollute our lands and waters with dioxin.  Dioxins, rather, are a byproduct of the production of chemicals.  John Engler supported a plan – shut down by blabbering enviro-nazis like yourself – that would have allowed Dow Chemical to produce significantly more legitimate chemicals at their Midland plant, as long as the increased dioxin that would have also been produced was handled correctly, such that it would not create any environmental issues.  Dow Chemical is a legitimate company that produces legitimate products, and while dioxins are one of the byproducts of the things Dow Chemical makes, so are jobs, and dramatically expanding operations in Midland would have also created badly needed jobs in Midland, Michigan.

As for John Engler holding the Board of Directors accountable, I might remind you that our university board members are elected officials.  John Engler lacks the authority to do anything to them – only the voters of the State of Michigan can do that.

Now that we have the ‘rest of the story’ on your supposed ‘reasons’ John Engler should step down, let us get into the real problem you have with John Engler as the interim President of Michigan State University: John Engler is a Republican.

Hundreds of students and teachers have already beaten you to the punch on this, marching on MSU’s campus to demand that John Engler be fired.  Those protestors, stupid as they may be, were at least honest enough to list John Engler being a Republican as the reason they want him to step down.

Liberals like you have taken our universities, which were once bastions of higher education, and turned them into indoctrination centers.  John Engler has not been indoctrinated into your liberalistic garbage, and as such, in your eyes he is grossly unqualified to be the interim President of Michigan State University,  You unfortunately lack the moral courage to come right out and say that, so instead you fabricate mistruths about Governor Engler, politicizing his position precisely as John Engler tries to perform the very difficult task of cleaning up the university and it’s image after Larry Nassar sexually assaulted several hundred Michigan State students.  I find the way you are using the victims of Larry Nassar as political tools to try and keep a very qualified person from acting as the interim President of the school, based solely on Engler’s political opinions, disgusting.

As long as we are discussing people stepping down, how about you, Mrs. Riley?  You wrote a disgusting hack piece against someone who did a phenomenal job as Governor of Michigan, and you did so only because you cannot stand the thought of a Republican perhaps restoring some credibility to the sociology department of a liberal school.

John Engler told the United States Department of Justice, and the United Nations, to go to hell once – an event you alluded to in your article.  I sincerely hope Governor Engler says the same to you.

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