But by not repudiating the racists, the crazies, and those filled with hate, today's GOP is giving up any claim to legitimacy. Not to mention taking a serious risk of having blood on their hands.

Consent Agreement update: Last week, as I was watching the Detroit City Council refusing to agree on salaries for the new positions the "consent agreement" is supposed to create, a ghastly Kennedy assassination metaphor popped into my mind.

It was the scene from William Manchester's classic book The Death of a President, when they rush the dying John F. Kennedy into the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Had he been anybody else, they would have put a tag on his toes. Seeing that he was the president, however, they hooked him up to machines and started blood transfusions. Alas, the blood just flowed out of the immense hole in the side of his head just as fast as it went in.

Which brings us to the city. Detroit was supposed to create two new powerful positions, program manager and chief financial officer, within a week and fill them within a month. But this now seems hopelessly behind schedule. The first three members were named to the overseeing financial advisory board last week.

They were strong names. But there are six more to come, two to be named by the governor and two by Mayor Bing, who tends to move slowly, and two by a City Council that seems to usually have great difficulty deciding what day of the week it is.

I've been asking a number of high-ranking and high-placed politicians and corporate executives whether they thought the consent agreement would work — or whether Detroit eventually would be forced to face an emergency manager, go through bankruptcy, or both. I asked them all to tell me off the record.

But I can reveal the names of those who think the consent agreement is likely to succeed. Ready? OK. Here they are:

See you next week.

Jack Lessenberry opines weekly for Metro Times. Write to letters@metrotimes.com.

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