Please, Lobbyists, Buy This Man a Drink!

Rep. Robert Brawley, Republican of Iredell County, has filed a bill in the NC General Assembly that would roll back many of the ethics reforms like bans on lobbyists' gifts to legislators and would also "relax requirements that lobbyists disclose such gifts."

Rep. Brawley, who has served off-and-on in the General Assembly since the early 1980s remembers the good ole days when a legislator could depend on an evening out with plenty of booze, all at a lobbyist's expense. What happened to good fellowship? Mr. Brawley wants to know.

This guy is "currently a member of House leadership, serving as chairman of the Finance Committee, an influential post that would almost certainly attract lobbyists' interest."

If you can't profit personally from being an elected official, what's the point, eh, Mr. Brawley?

Here's a train wreck waiting to happen to the Republican "brand."