"I Don't Get No Respect"

Our brand new governor is becoming tediously tiresome and utterly predictable in making two repeated claims about his first eight months in office:

1. "I have stepped on the toes of both Left and Right."

2. "All my bad publicity is the fault of the liberal press and outside liberal groups."

We're still waiting for any evidence that McCrory has stood up to the Tea Party wing of the General Assembly Gang, or dared to step out of line, or that his opinion even matters to them. His repeated claims that he's "stepped on their toes" begins to look more like a self-delusion that may require some medical intervention. Does McCrory look in the mirror and see "A Profile in Courage"?

As far as the bad press goes, McCrory is taking the advice of political operatives who apparently cut their teeth on the Spiro Agnew formula of demonization: blame big-city reporters for goddamn DARING to notice what you're actually doing, and finger shadowy "liberal groups" who in fact have far less in the way of resources to spread their views than your own Art Pope Machine has for papering the world with exactly the opposite.

But occasionally -- like every time he opens his mouth to whine -- McCrory will veer "off-message" just enough to keep people like me entertained.

In an interview with The Charlotte Business Journal, which did not apparently go quite as McCrory expected, he blurted out this:

Republicans [in the General Assembly] fell prey to “that 10 or 20 percent overreach that you didn’t need to do.”

"That 10 or 20 percent overreach"? Say whaaa?

We question the Guv's math even while we marvel at the word choice: "overreach." Part of that math problem is that the 10-20% estimate of foolhardiness has not been matched by any 10-20% corrective action that a governor has at his disposal. McCrory vetoed only two of some 334 bills. He signed all the rest, except for the "No Sharia Law in North Carolina courts" bill, which he said was "unnecessary" but declined to veto. He let that ridiculously unnecessary piece of excess become law without his signature. (Way to go, Guv, stepping on those right-wing toes!)

Two bills vetoed out of 332 signed. As far as we can tell by the Guv's exercise of power, two vetoed bills signal an actual functional "overreach" by the General Assembly of something more like .006%, rather than 10-20%.

But, then, we're probably just part of "an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals," as Spiro would say.