A rare official spokesperson for the mysterious 'The Tea Party' political party made a public appearance Monday at the State Board of Canvassers meeting in Lansing.

It was the party's lawyer, Michael Hodge.

Mark Steffek, the man who formed The Tea Party and was described by the Detroit Free Press as a former union steward, was not present. However, dozens of grassroots tea party activists did show up, and appeared to be unanimously opposed to Steffek's creation.

On a vote of 2-2, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers failed to approve The Tea Party political party formation petitions. Hodge said before the vote that he expected to take it to the state Court of Appeals perhaps as early as Wednesday.

After testifying before the board, Hodge spoke with the media, but had difficulty remembering details about the organization of his client's new political party.

He couldn't remember when The Tea Party state convention was, even though he said he attended it at a Saginaw hotel. Another reporter had to tell him the date (July 24).

He also couldn't recall the name of the hotel.

Hodge said Steffek was his client and was the one paying his legal bills.

"I don't know if I've gotten paid yet," said Hodge.

Hodge couldn't answer questions about how people could join The Tea Party, saying he didn't think they had a website. And he said the party officials would have to call for a meeting, but didn't know when that might be.

Hodge said the The Tea Party officials, of whom there are just three, would have to determine what basis for membership would be, such as membership fees. He said he didn't think they had time to "figure that out."

Hodge said he worked one time for the Democrat Party in 35 years. According to www.campaign.com, Hodge did give $250 to David Nacht, a Democrat, when he ran for Congress in 2008.

And Hodge said he had never heard of Jason Bauer until he became the controversial notary who notarized several candidate statements for The Tea Party.

Jason Gillman, a grassroots tea party activist from Traverse City, discovered that Bauer had notarized many of The Tea Party candidates' affidavits and that he was also the political director of the Oakland County Democratic Party.

One reporter asked Hodge why the 100 or so grassroots tea party members who were at Monday's hearing didn't support The Tea Party political party.

"I don't know who they are," Hodge said. "Who says they are the tea party?"

He alleged the tea party members in the audience were members of the Republican Party.

Sharon Lollio of Plymouth broke out in tears after Monday's ruling.

She scoffed at the notion that Steffek was a real tea party activist.

"Then where was he?" Lollio asked looking around the room. "If I was a legitimate tea party guy, I'd show up and say, 'Hey, I'm one of you.' .. There could be nobody sitting in this room and not know what this fake tea party was about. It's just fraud."

Alleged plagiarism in a study by an MSU scholar is in the news, and it matters more than just as a violation of academic standards. The deeply flawed study wildly exaggerates the amount that could be saved by consolidating Michigan school districts, claiming it to be $612 million. Widespread media coverage ensures that the specious claim will divert attention from the real solution to funding problems in Michigan public schools, which is scaling back outsized employee compensation and benefits.

This is the second time in the last year that a flawed study has been produced by an MSU scholar that serves the interests of government employees and their unions. (The previous one was actually paid for by those unions). A third flawed MSU study paid for by the state's economic development bureaucracy buttressed its own specious claims that film producer subsidies are a wise use of taxpayer dollars.

Consider this latest action from a pillar of the state's academic establishment in light of the passage below from Angelo Codevilla's masterful analysis of today's social and political landscape, America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution. First though, here is one more possibly relevant fact - MSU officials say it could take "a full year" to review whether the plagiarism charges will carry any consequences for this particular academic.

 From Codevilla:

. . . Once an official or professional shows that he shares the manners, the tastes, the interests of the (ruling) class, gives lip service to its ideals and shibboleths, and is willing to accommodate the interests of its senior members, he can move profitably among our establishment's parts.

 

If, for example, you are Laurence Tribe in 1984, Harvard professor of law, leftist pillar of the establishment, you can "write" your magnum opus by using the products of your student assistant, Ron Klain. A decade later, after Klain admits to having written some parts of the book, and the other parts are found to be verbatim or paraphrases of a book published in 1974, you can claim (perhaps correctly) that your plagiarism was "inadvertent," and you can count on the Law School's dean, Elena Kagan, to appoint a committee including former and future Harvard president Derek Bok that issues a secret report that "closes" the incident. Incidentally, Kagan ends up a justice of the Supreme Court.

Not one of these people did their jobs: the professor did not write the book himself, the assistant plagiarized instead of researching, the dean and the committee did not hold the professor accountable, and all ended up rewarded. By contrast, for example, learned papers and distinguished careers in climatology at MIT (Richard Lindzen) or UVA (S. Fred Singer) are not enough for their questions about "global warming" to be taken seriously. For our ruling class, identity always trumps.

The central political struggle of our era is the people vs. the ruling class, which includes politicians (of both parties), government employees and academia. Michigan's academic establishment continues to provide rich illustrations of how its side engages in this struggle.