Every so often Detroit has a massive spasm of demolition, where the city targets a part of its rich heritage for destruction — a few years back it was the 2.2 million square foot J.L. Hudson Company department store downtown, once the second-largest department store in the nation, after Macy's in New York.

The plan to downsize — or, as the mayor says: "right-size" — Detroit, returning once-posh suburbs to the wild — has been on the table for decades.  Unfortunately, The Gays who saved the South End couldn't be bothered to travel all the way to Detroit for an intervention (they only got as far as Dorchester in this era of downsized dreams).

And now the City seems to be getting serious.  In this latest spasm of demolition, the WSJ reports, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's childhood home is slated to be, um... right-sized?  Would that be the proper nomenclature?

Mitt is philosophical about it all.  He told the Journal:

"it's sad" that his childhood home is being razed, "but sadder still to consider what has happened to the city of Detroit, which has been left hollow by fleeing jobs and liberal social policies."

"Liberal social policies"? 

I'm sure if Mittt still owned the place it would be in tip-top condition.  Illegal immigrants make excellent gardeners and groundskeepers.  Maybe that's the answer for Detroit! 

His criticism does make you wonder why Mitt didn't run for Governor of Michigan — following in his father's footsteps — instead of liberal Massachusetts, which earned him nothing but suspicion among GOP delegates in the last presidential race. 

Looks like he's on the comeback trail, though.  With vague pronouncements like this, there may still be hope for 2010.  I hear Scott Brown's shopping around for a second.