The Dickheads in the General Assembly Escalate Their Dickishness

Tim Moore and Phil Berger intend to put themselves in control
of every goddamn lever of power in North Carolina

So you saw it coming, right? The Republicans are reconvening the General Assembly today at noon in a super urgent special session for the sole purpose of messing with the November ballot a little more, because they're afraid that information about their true designs is leaking out to the voting public.

It's all about those six constitutional amendments they rushed through the GA a few weeks ago. Those contain a one-two-three punch of "suppressing the vote, picking their own judges, and appointing their own regulators" (Ford Porter). If passed, those amendments will constitute unprecedented destruction of the whole fabric of the separation of powers in this state.

Their justification for this special session? Rep. David Lewis of Lillington has been the prime mover. He chairs the Rules Committee and is responsible for all sorts of past innovations including voter I.D and the miracle of gerrymandering. Lewis actually wrote to Speaker Tim Moore, in words on paper, his barefaced motives for wanting a special session: “It appears that the Commission [charged with writing amendment descriptions for the ballot] may be falling to outside political pressure, contemplating politicizing the title crafting process, including using long sentences or negative language in order to hurt the amendments’ chances of passing."

Let's clear that up: "A special session is needed to keep my party’s politically motivated amendments from being politicized" (Ford Porter).

Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, who chairs the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission and is a Democrat (clearly "the enemy" to David Lewis), wrote a strong rebuttal to the representative's presumptions and suspicions:

... I was astonished this weekend to find out that Representative Lewis has cast aspersions on the upcoming meeting of the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission ....

... the Commission scheduled a meeting on July 31st to provide simple and commonly used caption language well ahead of that deadline [Aug. 8]. Any assertion to the contrary is false. In fact, Representative Lewis’s proposal for a special session will take much longer and cost the taxpayers a whole lot of money.

Second, I have had no outside groups or pressure tactics aimed at me or used against me. None. If either of the other two commissioners have received such pressure, they have not indicated such to me. In any case, I am publicly stating it has not happened to me. 

Third, the Commission’s job is not to promote or oppose proposed amendments. The Commission did not write these amendments and takes no position on them. It has not asked the voters to approve or reject them. In fact, it is the General Assembly that wrote them, approved them, and has now asked the voters to change our North Carolina Constitution by adding them....

You can read Marshall's entire backbone-of-steel letter here.

In an interview with WRAL's Laura Leslie, Tim Moore hinted that seizing the power to write amendment captions may not be all they intend to grab: "Tim Moore says they may also take up a bill requiring a majority vote for a judicial election, which looks suspiciously like a response to the fact that another Republican candidate has entered the 2018 Supreme Court race in which incumbent R Barbara Jackson is trying to hold onto her seat. 50 percent would force a (low-turnout, base-driven) runoff if Earls doesn't get a majority vote the first time. Shenanigans, anyone?"

They keep trying new shit. They never stop. The voters must stop them.