WTF

We were premature in announcing the state lottery DEAD a few days ago, since The Guv and Marc Basnight got the N.C. Senate back into session yesterday & passed the g.d. thing. Opportunists! They pounced on the moment when two state senators were absent (by pre-arrangement? One wonders) and Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue was on hand to cast the tie-breaking vote. It had already passed the N.C. House.

Our own state Senator John Garwood was one of the two absent Republican senators, and he had been described as "wavering." Maybe it became expedient to develop a convenient "staph infection in his leg," to keep him away from Raleigh. Our suspicions are roused especially by this passage in today's N&O: "But they [Republican Senate leaders] desperately sought to persuade Garwood to use a parliamentary procedure in which he would pair his vote with a Democratic lottery supporter -- canceling the effect of his absence. Although Garwood toyed with the idea of pairing his vote with Democratic Sen. Larry Shaw of Fayetteville, he eventually declined, GOP Senate leader Phil Berger said."

If it looks like a duck....