In 2009, Senator Carl Levin and Governor Jennifer Granholm were prominent in national media coverage, including network TV. Levin was a Capitol Hill power player, as were northern Michigan’s three congressmen.

A year-end recap on the five:

As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Levin, Michigan’s longest serving senator (elected in 1978), was second to none among lawmakers as a Democratic voice on Iraq, Afghanistan, and other military matters, even when he was not in sync with the Obama administration.

Need a Democrat as a counterpoint to a Republican on a Sunday morning TV show? Call Carl.

He’s the best senator Michigan has had as a voice on the world scene since 1928-51 Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg, noted for his conversion from isolationism to internationalism and his bipartisan efforts in support of creating the United Nations.

(Vandenberg is in what amounts to the Senate’s Hall of Fame, a collection of portraits in the Senate Reception Room, for what Levin aptly describes as his "guts, courage, and integrity.")

Levin also has long been prominent on some domestic issues, including a crackdown on Pentagon waste. Most recently, he was among seven senators, including Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow, calling for a new jobs tax credit.

In a recent poll of about 70 Democratic "Congressional Insiders" regarding what it called the Senates 2009 Most Valuable Players, the National Journal asked: "Which senator do you most admire?" Levin came in third, behind Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois and the late Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Term-limited Granholm, entering her eighth and final year in office, is plagued by low approval ratings as governor of a state plagued by horrendous economic woes that, in the nation’s recession, are more severe than the national average (e.g., highest jobless rate among the states and only one of three to lose population in a one-year period ending July 1).

Yet she has been on the national media stage as an articulate advocate of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery initiatives, and promoter of her own alternative energy and other economic initiatives to help revive Michigan’s manufacturing base with green jobs.

"We must diversify or die," she says.

Obama early on included Granholm in group photo ops at economic gatherings and she was cited in national publications and broadcasts as a prospect for the cabinet and Supreme Court.

At her year-end gathering with reporters last week, she confirmed she was vetted for the high court vacancy that was filled by Sonia Sotomayor, and indicated that’s the one Washington job (a lifetime appointment) that would prompt her to leave Lansing early.

Granholm was a pumped-up Obama defender in a December 13 NBC "Meet the Press" face-off with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, an Obama critic and possible 2012 challenger. She said Michigan’s situation "would be so much worse" were it not for Obama.

As chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committees investigative subcommittee, nine-term 1st District Representative Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) has been featured in national media accounts on such matters as food and drug safety.

He’s properly blown the whistle on sloppy regulation by the Food and Drug Administration, and called on it to do better in tracing contaminated food to its source.

Stupak also has been a champion on Great Lakes issues. He’s pushing for basin-wide standards for withdrawals, including "commoditization" of water for sale through such operations as the Ice Mountain bottling venture in Michigan.

But what thrust Stupak into the national spotlight most recently was his success in getting the House to ban federal subsidies from health plans offering abortion coverage. The Senate version, passed 60-39 on strict party lines in a rare Christmas Eve session, is less restrictive than the House bill and unacceptable to Stupak.

So look for him in headlines and tubes near you as House- Senate conferees seek to resolve differences.

Nine-term 2nd District Representative Pete Hoekstra (RHolland), as former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and now its ranking minority member, has been a go-to guy for TV networks seeking the Republican spin on national security issues.

Asked on Fox News Saturday about the alleged terrorist attempt by a Nigerian to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit, Hoekstra said: "It appears this individual has ties to Yemen, has ties to al-Qaida." He said the White House "has been totally unwilling" to share intelligence on some incidents with Congress.

In some respects, Hoekstra is Levin-esque -- working well with the opposing party and not always toeing the line of the White House when it has a president from his party.

The Almanac of American Politics said he "developed into an important voice on intelligence policy in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. In 2002, he sponsored the bill to improve intelligence sharing between law enforcement and intelligence agencies that passed the House overwhelmingly."

Hoekstra, vocal opponent of Obama’s plan to move Gitmo detainees to U.S. prisons, is not seeking a 10th congressional term and now seeks the 2010 GOP nomination for governor. Thanks in large part to the media attention he has been getting in his current job, early polls show him to be a strong contender.

Ten-term 4th District Representative Dave Camp (R-Midland), who declined past options to run for statewide office, instead worked his way up the ladder on Capitol Hill to now be the ranking minority member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

In that role, he was among House GOP leaders prominent in Washington media events opposing the Democratic health care bill.

Although Camp has not had the nationwide media attention that Stupak and Hoekstra gained this year, he clearly is a power player.

The 2010 Almanac of American Politics calls him "a potential bipartisan deal-maker on tax and health issues." In reality, given dominance of Democratic control in the House, conditions are not favorable for bipartisan deals.

The National Journal, in the same December 12 issue that dubbed Levin the third most admired senator, reported survey results of Republican "Congressional Insiders" to this question: "Who is the most creative thinker in your party?" Ex- Speaker Newt Gingrich was the overwhelming first choice. Camp and two others ranked third.

George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.