Hoosiers wouldn't remember your record because you haven't uttered one word in defense of it in the last four years. You let Mitch Daniels savage your time in office and practically state there was a climate of corruption on your watch. Are you listening? He's questioned your integrity and those who served under you. When do you finally get your Irish up?

 Joe, you don't understand Mitch is one of those ideogical Republicans. He's not a mainstream Republican like Doc Bowen or Bob Orr who believed that there was a role for government and who you could reach across the aisle and work with. Instead, Mitch is like his buddy Grover Norquist, who believes government ought to serve only the rich and powerful and the rest of it - public services - should be sold off, privatized or shrunk down so it can be "drowned in a bathtub."

At some point, Joe, it's time to put the gloves on and get back in the ring. Mitch Daniels is trying to divert attention from his far-right agenda of privatization and outsourcing with all these attacks on local government. While so much of what ails this state is due to Mitch's former boss, George W. Bush - such as tax breaks given to companies to ship jobs overseas, billions in tax dollars dumped into Iraq rather than used for bridges, roads and schools here at home - you've been recruited for a starring role in Mitch's campaign to blame local government. You're being used to provide the illusion of "bipartisanship" when these attacks on government at the local level are a ruse, designed to obscure Mitch's real agenda.

While a few of the Blue Ribbon Commission's 27 recommendations, such as those regarding collective purchasing and collaborating on emergency services make sense, many are just outright attacks on a branch of government that is closest to the people and more completely audited and scrutinized than any other branches of government.

For instance, why do away with three-member county commissions when there is no hue and cry for that? The public likes having that accountability rather than one, all-powerful "county executive." Same with doing away with elected sheriffs, auditors and other county officials. Why do it? Your plan to go after local library systems also makes little sense. A director of one local public library put it simply when she said, "They have declared war on small towns."

Ditto for your recommendation that any school corporation under 2,000 kids should be consolidated. Joe, there are some great small school systems including little Dewey Township in my county that still register pretty darned good test scores and turn out successful graduates. Look at John Glenn Schools over in your county.

Simply consolidating and eliminating local schools and government services isn't the answer. Joe, if you want to serve on a commission to ferret out waste and fraud, how about asking the governor to appoint a commission to go after tax shelters and dodges used by many of his big business buddies? According to the non-partisan Multi-State Tax Commission, Indiana loses $350 million every year due to abusive tax shelters and dodges used by the biggest multi-national corporations to evade state taxes. Joe, that's money that could go for full-day kindergarten, free textbooks, or funding other local services.

Joe, we need you to stand up and defend the good work that took place during your years as governor. And please stop letting this governor use you to distract attention from his plan of outsourcing and privatization. Local government efficiencies are welcome, but let's not mislead Hoosiers that it's one of the compelling issues of our day. Hacking away at local schools, libraries and eliminating county commissioners and sheriffs isn't going to improve the quality of life for Hoosiers and you and I both know it.

Shaw Friedman is a LaPorte attorney who advises various local government entities and who also served as general counsel for the Indiana Democratic Party when Joe Kernan was governor.

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