Free Republic

"I find it a little bit presumptuous that his first day in the church, (Rev. Keith Butler) wants to lead the choir," Patterson said. "Proposing a preacher to lead the party reinforces what I've said all along: The Taliban wing of our party would lead us to a one-issue position, and it'll be the demise of the Republican Party." --- PONTIAC -- A former Detroit city councilman has joined what could become a three-way race for control of the Republican Party. Meanwhile, conservative Tom McMillin is circulating comments made by a political analyst criticizing the party leadership of L. Brooks...

Bill Ballenger, former moderate Republican state senator and editor of "Inside Michigan Politics" -- widely considered the state's most authorative political analyst -- made the following comments this past weekend on Lansing public TV's state capital political talk show, "Off the Record": “Isn’t the problem really in Oakland County, I’m going to turn things around, Brooks Patterson? "He goes around bashing everybody in the party in Oakland County who doesn’t agree with him and frankly, I think he’s been a disaster as a Chairman. "You don’t want a chairman like that...Brooks Patterson has gone around with a club, and he...

<p>SOUTHFIELD -- The Rev. Keith Butler unquestionably knows how to reach people. He does it daily at his 19,000-member Word of Faith ministry.</p> <p>But can the former Detroit city councilman bring together cantankerous conservatives and mischievous moderates who disrupted an Oakland County Republican party convention?</p>