That idea may need work.

But what we have now is failing in every way, failing financially, failing the kids, failing our future.

Why not give something like that a try?

No Egypt here: Mark Brewer, the Michigan Democratic Party's chairman-for-life, was re-elected state party chairman by a unanimous vote last Saturday. Several months ago, some disaffected Democrats contacted me and said they thought Brewer, the longest-serving party chair in the country, needed to go. Why? I asked one of them. She talked about the election disaster last year, when the party failed to rally behind secretary of state candidate Jocelyn Benson, the one candidate who could have been saved.

Then there was the moronic waste of time and money trying to get a phony "Tea Party" on the ballot, as well as the expensive debacle that tried to amend a huge chunk of the state Constitution, something also thrown out by the courts.

Brewer, they said, was mostly a sort of fumbling mouthpiece for no-longer-very-big labor, and a new approach was needed. All right, I said, I'll write about that.

May I quote you? I asked. "No! No!" they shrieked. "We can't go public. We prefer to work behind the scenes," they said. Disgusted by their cowardice, I wrote nothing. Democrats in my tortured youth also often lost elections, but some of them were brave and some even had a sense of humor.

Personally, I'd feel a lot better about the party's future if, when they took the roll call to re-elect Chairman Mark, at least one delegate had voted for Hosni Mubarak.

> Email Jack Lessenberry