By Debbie Schlussel
He’s a rising star in the Democratic Party. He’s tight with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. He ranks very high in the Kerry Campaign.

No, not John Edwards.

It’s the other John–Melvin “Butch” Hollowell–who was caught, last week, soliciting a prostitute.

At the time, Hollowell was national attorney and counsel to the Kerry-Edwards campaign and had just stepped down as Chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, a job he got through his close friendship with the Governatrix.

Hollowell claims he was just helping a woman in distress. And Michelle C. Sherman, the known-prostitute must have been in a lot of distress at the Dutch Girl Donut Shop, where he picked her up. It’s tough deciding between frosted and coconut in this low-carb world.

Sherman told police Hollowell paid her $60 to undress and perform oral sex on him — right near his own neighborhood, where his two young children live and countless others have been exposed to this “victimless“ crime (the area is commonly frequented by Donna Summer‘s “Bad Girls”). Sherman gave Hollowell’s three $20s to police. (As Summer would sing, “She works hard for the money . . . .”)

You can’t blame the guy, though. After all, the last guy Hollowell’s party elected to the Presidency taught us all that oral sex isn’t sex. And precedent is precedent.

What — no Rob Lowe video?

In addition to resigning from the Kerry campaign, Hollowell also resigned from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, to which the Governatrix just appointed him.

But, that was a mistake. Hollowell’s “donation” to the drug-addicted prostitute enhances his dirty-swan position on the sewer that is the Michigan Civil Rights Commission.

Notable among Governatrix Granholm’s other appointments is Mohammed Abdrabboh, lawyer for terrorists, illegal immigrants, money-launderers, and even Palestinian and Lebanese accused murderers (allegedly caught cleaning the blood after they chopped their victim to death). Abdrabboh’s photo, with an American flag on his lapel, reeks of phoniness. In 2002, some of Abdrabboh’s clients were indicted for laundering over $50 million cash per year to Yemen, where it is believed it went to finance Al-Qaeda terrorist operations. He is heavily involved with the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which openly praises Hezbollah –the terrorist group which murdered over 300 U.S. Marines and civilians in Lebanon. In the West Bank, Abdrabboh made a career of legitimizing Palestinian terrorists in his work for the United Nations and co-authored a report on the “Syrian Golan.” (Earth to Mohammed: The Golan is in Israel.)

Hollowell’s and the Michigan Democratic Party’s obsequious pandering to the Muslim and Arab votes was apparently behind the Abdrabboh appointment.  Hollowell’s new-found definition of “civil rights” seems right at home in the gutter along with Abdrabboh’s.

The circus revved up, yesterday morning, when Hollowell was arraigned in Downtown Detroit. It’s a far cry from his ritzy Palmer Woods neighborhood, but not too far from Campus Martius, the booming, multi-million dollar Detroit business development he helped prominent Democratic donor Gary Torgow put together. (It’s a small world: Torgow is Chairman of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, from which Hollowell just resigned.)

If it’s Detroit or the Democratic Party, Butch Hollowell has his hands in everything — more things than we realized.

Then there’s Hollowell’s dutiful wife. Normally, it’s wrong to involve the innocent wife in a critique of her husband’s illegitimate behavior.

But not in this case.

The missus, Desiree Cooper, has made a career as a far-left Detroit Free Press columnist, all without disclosing in her columns that she was frequently doing the bidding of her husband, the Michigan Democratic Party Chairman.

Not a single mention of her grubby hubby‘s identity, for instance, when Cooper, this year, viciously attacked Ronald Reagan, before rigor mortis had even set in. The column–comparing Reagan economics to urination and discussing her internal debate about whether she was happy for John Hinckley‘s assassination attempt–was so offensive, it drew a tsunami of hatemail at the Detroit paper.

While the rest of the country was grieving the death of one of the most beloved, successful Presidents, Cooper was attacking — mercilessly attacking a man who wasn’t around to defend himself. Now the shoe is on the other foot. She’s likely grieving, and everyone is expected to feel sorry for the dutiful, unknowing other half.

In her column attacking President Reagan, Cooper said her mother warned her not to speak ill of the dead. I suppose, then, we still won’t be reading anything from Desiree Cooper about her husband, Butch Hollowell’s political career or her marriage.

Both of those now seem to be DOA.