The Pancake House Bribe

Bad batter, the baddest.

Michael Decker, N.C. House member who switched from the Republican to the Democratic party to keep Jim Black in the Speaker's chair, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge that says "he deprived the public of his honest services by engaging in extortion, mail fraud and money laundering."

The N&O thinks it has to have been Speaker Black who offered Decker what amounted to a bribe ... at an International House of Pancakes in Salisbury. Couldn't even find a quiet, dimly lit steakhouse with overpriced entrees?

This is a very knotty cudgel that Republicans will use on every Democratic candidate, whether they were ever within whiffing distance of Speaker Black.

FOOTNOTE (containing an obvious lesson for religiously conservative Republicans):
Michael Decker, he of confessed guilt in this affair, is former head of the N.C. Christian Coalition who, according to the N&O, "often spoke up for issues pushed by Christian conservatives." We wonder if anyone is beginning to see a pattern here? As in, the louder the protestations of piety, the deeper the capacity for graft.