Michele Morrow Jumps Into an Already Crowded Scrum of Republicans Looking To Lose Big to Roy Cooper

 

The big political news yesterday was Michele Morrow's filing to run for Thom Tillis's Senate seat in next March's Republican primary, thus guaranteeing that Michael Whatley, the already-Trump-endorsed frontrunner, will win that contest even more easily. Morrow is most likely to split conservative voters with Republican lawyer Don Brown, who has established himself as the leading conservative trying to frustrate Whatley's coronation (according to The Daily Haymaker). (There are at least three other Republicans filed to run in that Senate primary. Filing ends at noon today.)

Before Morrow lost her run last year for NC Superintendent of Public Instruction (but she took 48.82% of the vote, which was a little too close for progressive comfort), the NC Chamber of Commerce had come out against her as a threat to the "business climate," recalling the great damage Dan Bishop did to the state over his infamous "Bathroom Bill." Since Morrow was of the opinion that public education amounted to childhood indoctrination in liberal ideals of equity and diversity, she could, as superintendent, have done more damage to the state's reputation than Bishop's Show Us Your Gender law.

Bon voyage, Ms. Morrow, on another great cruise ship headed to the reefs. Roy Cooper hardly needs your help weakening an already wobbly candidate like Michael Whatley, but we feel certain you'll advertise all Whatley's sins and stains, and we'll start designing your participation trophy.

The Knock on Michael Whatley

 

Republican US Senate candidate Michael Whatley, looking to inherit Thom Tillis's seat with the full blessing of Jethro, made the mistake of getting himself designated Trump's czar for Hurricane Helene recovery, because that role has devolved sharply. Whatley has been largely missing in action since that momentous day last January 24th in Asheville when Trump named him "recovery czar." 

So feckless has Whatley been, and so absent from the recovery zone, that some in the mountains -- and not just Democrats, mind you! -- have publicly beat the drum for his resignation. According to the Smoky Mountain News, more than 120 people from 17 counties across the Helene-impacted region signed a letter demanding Whatley be removed from his position. “Michael Whatley has failed us and forgotten about us,” the letter states. “We have spoken out for months, because we simply cannot stay silent and let his failure continue to hurt our communities. Both Democrats and Republicans have called out the sluggish response. It’s clear that Whatley just isn’t up to the task.” 

Margaret Ackiss, a member of the North Carolina Republican Party’s 11th Congressional District executive committee, quipped to reporter Cory Vaillancourt,  “It’s kind of funny to say ‘step down,’ because I never saw him step up." Ackiss said that "Helene recovery should be a non-partisan issue and that Whatley’s attempt to blame Democrats isn’t reflective of Appalachian values."

"This is a human issue. I have friends on both sides of the aisle, although I’m a Republican. When catastrophes happen, I don’t care what party you’re in — we help the people on the ground,” said Ackiss, who claims 10 generations of roots in the region. “To me, it was completely disappointing to see Michael Whatley and many others who espouse themselves to be Republicans not step up and help the people....”

Whatley's attitude is that the Trump government has done all right, has done enough, and he doesn't hesitate to deflect criticism onto his boss -- “What [my critics] are trying to say is that the president has not done a good job in terms of recovery, and therefore I’ve not done a good job. The fact is, $6.5 billion in relief [is what] we’ve brought into North Carolina since President Trump was sworn in” -- which is an actual drop in the bucket against the $60 billion in estimated damage and loss.

$20 billion to bail out Argentina cattle barons, but Kristi Noem's mandate at FEMA is to squeeze the American beet until it bleeds. In the case of the Appalachians, it's Trump's own voters hurt the most. Go figure.

What Did Whatley-the-Feckless NOT Do?

 

Hurricane Recovery Czar Michael Whatley

Trump designated former NC GOP Chair Michael Whatley as Hurricane Helene "recovery czar" back on January 24th, when Trump was in Western North Carolina trying to act like he cared about the devastation from the flooding while also suggesting that we just get rid of FEMA. Whatley is now running for Thom Tillis's Senate seat. He has been noticeably absent -- not to mention totally feckless -- in any management or coordination of hurricane relief. To date only $5 billion in Federal aid has arrived to recover some of the $60 billion in damage to roads and bridges, businesses, and private residences.

Cory Vaillancourt reports that Whatley essentially sneaked into Western North Carolina on Sept. 22 at a closed-door FEMA Review Council meeting in Fletcher, where a leaked agenda listed him as a subcommittee co-chair and former National GOP chair — "not as the recovery czar Trump tapped to head up widely-panned recovery efforts."

Vaillancourt reports that the FEMA review council meeting in Fletcher was not open to the press or the public, and The Smoky Mountain News received no notice of Whatley’s visit. Whatley "seems to be backing away from responsibility as he ramps up his Senate campaign against former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper."

The frustration with Whatley is evident in a petition circulated by WNC residents demanding Whatley’s removal from the FEMA Review Council.

The petition says, “We need a fresh set of eyes to galvanize the recovery and the flow of funding. Whatley’s absence and lack of accountability have become an obstacle rather than a solution.” ...

Whatley’s visit to Fletcher seemed carefully calibrated to minimize political exposure. No public town halls were scheduled, and requests for comment by Smoky Mountain News have gone unanswered for weeks.

The leaked agenda that identified Whatley only as a former party chair reflects his shifting political priorities. As recovery czar, he has not been the face of the recovery, nor has he taken ownership of the slow pace of reimbursements. As a Senate candidate, however, he has every incentive to avoid being tied to unmet promises.

 

Whatley on the Moral Betterment of America

 

Whatley said it was imperative to recruit “moral” people to run for office, because “I’ve never seen someone who became a more moral person after they got elected.”

--Raw Story 

 

Michael Whatley in Gastonia.
Photo Carolina Journal

The intense sinew it must take -- or a total innocence of irony -- for Whatley to keep the negative example of Trump from scrambling his brains while he uttered such sterling religiosity above and just incidentally spread out the truth as it pertains to Trump: the presidency has not improved that man's character. 

July 31st, Michael Whatley, freshly anointed for the Senate race by Hisownself, launched his campaign for the Senate seat that MAGA forced Thom Tillis out of. At the Loray Mill Taproom in Gastonia, the Rev. Shawn Griffith, Whatley’s pastor at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, gave a "nonpartisan invocation," asking for God’s blessing on Whatley and his family.

“We pray that you give Michael wisdom in seeking your will in the decisions he will face,” Griffith said. “We pray that you give him strength and courage to choose and do the right things rather than those that are popular.”

According to Raw Story, Whatley’s 18-minute speech "eschewed religion, but referenced Trump nine times." Meanwhile, the Rev. Griffith was standing aside, listening closely, possibly enjoying his own ironies, for his particular Episcopal Church is woke and proud of it:

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Gastonia describes itself as “a progressive parish” whose members volunteer for programs “to combat hunger, homelessness, racism and other significant issues.” The St. Mark’s website notes that the Episcopal Church embraces “inclusion,” and that “people of all genders and sexual orientations serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church.”

Meanwhile, as Chair of the RNC Michael Whatley got his holy-roller on courting the MAGA evangelicals, acting a part that Episcopalianism did not really prepare him for, preying on the naivete and the seduceability of ardent believers.

In Charlotte in 2022, addressing the Salt & Light Conference — hosted by the Faith & Freedom Coalition, led by longtime political strategist Ralph Reed — Whatley said: “I work hard every day to make sure the North Carolina Republican Party is going to be the party of faith … I pray that I can use this platform that I’ve been given by the voters of North Carolina, and the Republicans of North Carolina to be an instrument of God.”

The Raw Story piece makes hay out of Whatley's religious slumming, puncturing it with all the ways the national Episcopal Church has confronted Trump, which doesn't deter Whatley from being very involved in the governance of his local Episcopal church. He's the treasurer for St. Mark's in Gastonia, and previously served as a senior warden on the vestry. So watching the national Episcopal power structure denounce everything to do with raw trumpism, the very policies that Whatley has so fulsomely embraced -- does that make the St. Mark's Sunday morning coffee hour a tense situation? 

Remember this moment at the National Cathedral one day after Trump's inauguration, with Trump sitting in the pews:

The Rt. Rev. Marian Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop for the Diocese of Washington, D.C. directly pleaded with Trump to “have mercy” on “gay, lesbian and transgender children in both Republican and Democratic families who fear for their lives.”

Budde went on to admonish Trump that while some “may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”

There's show religion and then there's real religion. Seems like Whatley has followed Trump to the showy side. 

Trump's Choice for US Senator

 

MAGA Disdains Trump's Choice for US Senate

 

Michael Whatley,
Trump's choice for US Senate

Brant Clifton, who writes The Daily Haymaker, is about as MAGA as you get. He calls Trump "Boss" without the hint of a shred of irony.

As soon as the Trump-blessed Michael Whatley candidacy for Thom Tillis's seat became known, The Daily Haymaker went feral on Whatley's ass. Clifton wrote that Whatley "can most pleasantly be described as an unaccomplished schlub," and the post went on at great length cataloguing and detailing all the ways Whatley is an unaccomplished schlub. (For which, we thank the author.)

Don't miss the comments at the end.

Michael Whatley Is In, Lara Trump Is Out

 

GOP Party Chair Michael Whatley has announced his candidacy for Thom Tillis's US Senate seat. That means, of course, that Lara Trump ain't running. In the not very distant past, Whatley had been chair of the NCGOP. When Trump forced Ronna McDaniel out as chair of the national Republican Party, he put Whatley in (along with Lara as co-chair). 

Whatley is the round-faced people-pleaser who's previously been most aligned with the country club Republican "establishment" and who, according to Brant Clifton at The Daily Haymaker, plays at being a Trumpist lickspittle while really secretly harboring fear bordering on resistance. "[Whatley] loves to talk about Donald Trump and post pictures of himself with Trump’s plane. But much of what he does and says aligns much more with Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — the two former 'Republican' congressmen who colluded with Democrats on the farcical so-called 'January 6 committee'.”

In other words, Whatley is more in the mold of Thom Tillis, and MAGA doesn't entirely trust him. He's not going to ignite enthusiasm, which he's going to need in extra measure against Roy Cooper.

After taking over the NCGOP in 2019, Whatley oversaw Trump’s win here in 2020, two U.S. Senate victories in 2020 and 2022, recapturing a supermajority in the state Senate and flipping control of the N.C. Supreme Court from 6-1 Democrats to 5-2 Republicans. Despite that sparkling career in North Carolina (Wikipedia sez he's a native of Watauga County), and despite Whatley's signature affability, the most MAGA wing of the Party ran John Kane for party chair against him in 2023. John Kane was and is the number one son of an elder John Kane, a renown Raleigh mega-developer who was actually honored as Tar Heel of the Year in 2016. The elder Kane is also renown for raising big money for Republicans. The younger John Kane emphasized his MAGA bona fides, hitting especially "election integrity," because (check!) the election of 2020 was stolen from Trump. The conservatives who don't trust Whatley remember that he went weak after the "Stop the Steal" tourist romp at the Capitol, and condemned it all as a riot. Like a lot of other Republicans back on January 7th who later developed a twitch and then couldn't remember, Whatley never said another negative word in public about insurrection. Conservatives hate weakness, especially in their servants and allies.

Whatley easily won reelection to the NC chairmanship in 2023, with the endorsement of Trump, incidentally. "Mr. Trump likes Mr. Whatley for one overwhelming reason, according to people who have discussed him with the former president: He is a 'stop the steal guy,' as one of the people described him. He endorses Mr. Trump’s false claims about mass voter fraud and Mr. Trump believes he did a good job delivering North Carolina, a 2020 swing state, to him." [Zachary Roth]

Michael Whatley Selected To Be the Doormat

 

Photo Robert Willett, News & Observer

Last Friday, Trump's hand-picked yes-man Michael Whatley got installed as the new chair of the Republican National Committee, replacing Ronna McDaniel who had ceased to please Trump. During the "Stop the Steal" furor following the 2020 election, McDaniel had been wary of joining Trump's 65 lawsuits aimed at overturning the election, plus she appears to have pushed back about emptying Republican bank accounts to pay Trump's legal bills.

Whatley will be joined as co-chair by Trump's own daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who's made it clear that anyone not sufficiently loyal to her father-in-law will be purged from the party, and she's guaranteed to ensure that Trump will get all the money he wants to pay for his chaos.

Whatley will be handmaiden, pregnant with every Trump whim. And he'd better carry them to term!

Trump has been impressed with Whatley's own PR campaign to convince the boss that he is a true believer that the election was stolen and that the only reason North Carolina didn't go for Biden in 2020 was Whatley's own "election integrity" plan to "guard the vote" against imaginary hoards of illegal immigrants and Black felons and Deep State election officials. Whatley was full of shit then, and it'll fairly squeeze out of him now like toothpaste.

Whatley has no apparent personal integrity beyond pleasing the big man, which makes him singularly suited to lead the GOP in the Trump era and provide a square space for Trump to wipe his shoes.

The Conservative Pushback Against Michael Whatley

 

See the previous item below.

Newsweek has highlighted pushback against Trump's choice of Michael Whatley to replace Ronna McDaniel as chair of the RNC. With more background about what went on in 2023 when Whatley was reelected chair of the NCGOP:

But after Trump issued his statement, conservatives signaled their disapproval on X, formerly Twitter.

One X user, Denise Harrison, said: "These choices are supposed to inspire conservatives to donate money? I wasn't donating before...I sure in hell won't be donating to the RNC now!"

Another X user, Reno Ciccotta, wrote: "Why Michael Whatley?"

Others expressed concerns about the manner by which Whatley was re-elected to his position last year. In September 2023, a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by three North Carolina delegates challenging Whatley's re-election as party chairman. Whatley defeated his challenger, John Kane, but those bringing the case claimed the use of a mobile phone application to vote allowed invalid votes to be cast.

Recounting this issue, the host of The Absolute Truth, a show on the social media platform Frank, Emerald Robinson said: "Whatley is a Koch Bros swamp creature. He's anti-MAGA. Bad choice for RNC chair."

An X user responded: "Emerald is right. I am from NC and Whatley is poison."

 

MAGA Warrior or Bootlicker?

 

In high-level drama at the GOP, Trump is pushing out national Chair Ronna McDaniel, who's abased herself for his sake, and wants North Carolina's GOP Chair Michael Whatley to take over for her. Whatley is the round-faced people-pleaser who's most aligned with the country club Republican "establishment" and who, according to The Daily Haymaker, plays at being a Trumpist lickspittle while really secretly harboring fear bordering on resistance. "[Whatley] loves to talk about Donald Trump and post pictures of himself with Trump’s plane. But much of what he does and says aligns much more with Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — the two former 'Republican' congressmen who colluded with Democrats on the farcical so-called 'January 6 committee'.”

(Brant Clifton actually wrote that. Without a single example of what he does and says.) 

But here's the deal: Whatley also presided over "prodigious success in most state elections. Since taking over in 2019 Whatley oversaw Trump’s win in 2020, two U.S. Senate victories in 2020 and 2022, recapturing a supermajority in the state Senate and flipping control of the N.C. Supreme Court from 6-1 Democrats to 5-2 Republicans."

Despite such a sparkling recent career in North Carolina (Wikipedia sez he's a native of Watauga County), and despite Whatley's signature affability, the most MAGA wing of the Party ran John Kane for party chair against him in 2023. John Kane was and is the number one son of an elder John Kane, a renown Raleigh mega-developer who was actually honored as Tar Heel of the Year in 2016. The elder Kane is also renown for raising big money for Republicans. The younger John Kane emphasized his MAGA bona fides, hitting especially "election integrity," because the election of 2020 was stolen from Trump. The conservatives who don't trust Whatley remember that he went weak after the "Stop the Steal" tourist romp at the Capitol, and condemned it all as a riot. Like a lot of other Republicans back on January 7th who later developed a twitch and then couldn't remember, Whatley never said another negative word in public about insurrection. Conservatives hate weakness, especially in their servants and allies.

Photo Robert Willett, News&Observer

Whatley easily won reelection to the chairmanship in 2023, with the endorsement of Trump, incidentally. "Mr. Trump likes Mr. Whatley for one overwhelming reason, according to people who have discussed him with the former president: He is a 'stop the steal guy,' as one of the people described him. He endorses Mr. Trump’s false claims about mass voter fraud and Mr. Trump believes he did a good job delivering North Carolina, a 2020 swing state, to him." [Zachary Roth]

Whatley walks the straight and narrow on Trump's story of election fraud and mouths the boss's beliefs and serves on all sorts of efforts to develop new voting laws to cut down on fraud while, according to Jim Womack, the ultra-conservative chair of the Lee County GOP and founder of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team (NCEIT) -- semi-professional (!) fraud sniffers who cause as much trouble every election cycle as they possibly can -- Womack said that Whatley kept NCEIT "at arm’s length from the state party." That's the down home knock against Whatley, that he's actually protective of the ancient establishment and therefore weak.

But he knows how to flatter Trump. And act the act that is necessary for prospering. (Warning: When you sup with the devil, use a long spoon.)

UH-OH -- Whatley, About To Get Steamrolled By Nepotism

Feb. 12, 2024: "In a statement, Trump backed Michael Whatley, the chair of the North Carolina GOP, as the new chairman of the party to replace Ronna McDaniel .... But Trump also said he would support Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, as co-chair of the party and Chris LaCivita, a top aide, as the top operating officer." [WashPost]

Party rules mandate male/female co-chairs. Lara Trump will be the stronger with the capo.

Cage Match: NCGOP Establishment vs. Hard Right Activists

 

Michael Whatley

Back on May 30th, we wrote a piece called "Who'll Lead the NCGOP?" about the hard-right insurgency vying with the establishmentarian current chair, Michael Whatley, to lead the state party for the next two years. The insurgent candidate was "MAGA ideologue, John Kane, who comes from an election-denying gene pool of some prominence." Whatley beat the insurgency and won a new term as chair ... with what three convention delegates-for-Kane now allege in a Wake Superior Court was a flawed and/or illegal election process which allowed off-site electronic voting. The office of chair, therefore, must be vacated for a do-over election, the plaintiffs allege.

Unusual lawsuit, in that the three plaintiffs named only "the North Carolina Republican Party" as defendant. How often does the state organization of any major political party get sued?

The delegates' beef with the way Chair Whatley run the convention gets a thorough airing on The Daily Haymaker, which generously reprints much of the complaint. A lot of nit-picking, but then, a lot of nits to pick. The screwed up election -- if it was screwed up to the point of being actually illegal, which the lawsuit alleges -- may have all been accidents or incompetence -- faulty software, poor signal, failure to instruct the delegates -- but the implication behind this lawsuit is that the election was stolen (and Michael Whatley better give it back!).

Oh, Trump-era Republicans. If things don't go your way, it's always election fraud.

They Eat Their Own

 

The Republicans at their state convention yesterday in Greensboro voted to censure senior Senator Thom Tillis because he had not been sufficiently mean to the queers. No, seriously. Delegates -- we don't know how many of the 1,800, because the press was barred -- said "you're not welcome in the Republican Party because you supported gay marriage." (Tillis pushed a bill to codify same-sex and interracial marriage, which President Joe Biden signed into law last year.) Plus some other stuff about not being mean enough to immigrants. 

On a thread started by DemsParty Chair Anderson Clayton, someone tweeted, "When Thom Tillis fails their test for a 'real Republican,' you know their party has gone off a cliff."

Because reporters were barred, the only eye-witness source I have is extreme-MAGA blogger Brant Clifton (unreliable and prone to exaggeration, as he is). Clifton sez that the meeting was raucous and contentious because Party Chair Michael Whatley's lieutenants ran it with an iron fist. Motions of "no confidence" and "vacate the chair" were shouted out from the floor, "but were quickly dispensed with via parliamentary means by Whatley’s convention managers."

Whatley won reelection as party chair, incidently, against a determined faction of extreme-MAGA bullies who considered Whatley as big a weak loser as Thom Tillis. Anger at the convention boiled over mainly among the supporters of the insurgent MAGA candidate John Kane, who also ran and whose bitch against Whatley was that he wasn't a big enough election-denier. Kane boiled everything down to "election integrity," which was his shorthand for "every election that goes against us must be fradulent; therefore, we must crack down on people who are balloting ... to prevent fraud." It's simple logic, invented to cover crimes against democracy.

Michael Whatley

Whatley seemed to play into challenger Kane's hands by devising an electronic method of voting, with no paper trail, which the Kane adherants immediately condemned as potentially fraudulent, and when the electronic system went suddenly dark in the middle of voting, the Kane delegates erupted and chaos ensued. 

In his speech to the convention prior to the voting, Kane said (according to Brant Clifton),

“Everyone in this room knows the cardinal rule of election integrity is there's a PAPER TRAIL. Machines have issues, sometimes unintentional, sometimes intentional [there it is! the suggestion of fraud]. As we get ready to vote for our Party leadership today it will all be done electronically. No paper trail.

This simple election was 100% under the control of Chairman Michael Whatley and he broke the cardinal rule of election integrity. Here today, just like the elections in our State, Michael Whatley doesn’t think we have a voter integrity problem. I do."

Here's what I can't figure out: Why a convention of true-believers would censure the senator and still elect establishmentarian Michael Whatley with 60%-plus of the vote. It must come down to Whatley's term coinciding with Republican dominance at the ballot box: Two successful Senate races, a sweep of the judiciary, total dominance of both houses of the General Assembly, and a trophy party-switcher to put on display. 

Whatever else you say about Whatley, he's totally lacking the trumpist edge of aggressive nastiness. Plus Donald J. Trump re-endorsed him for the chair at the start of the convention, and Mike Pence praised him as the best state party chair in the nation.

DEMOCRATIC REACTION

State Party Chair Anderson Clayton tweeted a thread:

It’s ironic that the NCGOP can get away with criticizing my party on bullying ["bullying" had been Tricia Cotham's big excuse for leaving the Democrats], meanwhile, they just silenced their *senior* United States Senator over his support of a person’s freedom to love who they love. Which party is the party of freedom again? Not the NCGOP —

It’s ridiculous to still have the fight over basic human rights. And yet the NCGOP continues to fight against the LGBTQIA+ community and their existence. Guess what? Queer folks ain’t going anywhere! But we can make sure y’all do come next November. Folks who support attacking and persecuting our own citizens for being gay, trans, bisexual, gender-nonconforming, or don’t fit into the boxes defined by the right wing extremists in our state, do NOT belong in positions of power. We’re here to make sure everyone in North Carolina can call this state home.

We deserve a North Carolina that is diverse, welcoming, & accepting of all who live here, grow up here, or grow old here. But under the extreme NCGOP agenda, our folks continue to be attacked. I refuse to stand for it, & Democrats will always fight for rights for ALL NC’ians.

Former Republican Governor Pat McCrory condemned the convention:

“It’s time also for all NC state and federal elected republicans to stand with Thom and publicly voice their opposition to the action taken at our convention.”

One Republican state senator, Bobby Hanig from the coast, took up McCrory's challenge and emphasized Uncle Thom's practical advantages:

“I believe that a mob mentality doesn’t do us any good. Senator Tillis does a lot for North Carolina, he does a lot for the coastal communities, so why would I want to make him mad?”

The Hill also quoted State Sen. Jim Burgin of Harnett County, who said the vote to censure Tillis "sets a dangerous precedent and does not allow enough flexibility for individual interpretation of party values."

Burgin questioned whether his own vote last month for North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban would similarly put him at risk of being censured because it’s out of line with the Republican platform, which states that life begins at conception.

“I don’t think we need to be attacking our own,” he said. “You don’t shoot your own elephants.”

Who'll Lead the NCGOP?

 

John Kane, insurgent candidate
for NCGOP Chair

There's a contest going on right now that'll be fought out and settled one way or another on the second weekend of June at the Khoury Convention Center in Greensboro ... the state Republican Party Convention, where the biggest question before the delegates will be who's going to be the next Chair of the NCGOP? Behind Door Number One: current chair Michael Whatley, running for reelection with the blessings of the old Republican mainstream; Door Number Two features an extreme-MAGA ideologue, John Kane, who comes from an election-denying gene pool of some prominence.

The Daily Haymaker, a MAGA standard-bearer who knows no end of serious contempt for the rest of the world, makes the savaging of Michael Whatley a long-running and therefore tiresome replay. The most recent Haymaker headline story ("Michael Whatley: A Cheney-Kinzinger Republican") opens like this:

The current NCGOP chairman loves to talk about Donald Trump and post pictures of himself with Trump’s plane. But much of what he does and says aligns much more with Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — the two former “Republican” congressmen who colluded with Democrats on the farcical so-called “January 6 committee.”

It takes great courage and fortitude against sin, doesn't it? to sweep away every piece of evidence, including the ocular proof, as totally and unironically "farcical," but at least we know the mind-set we've waded into. Haymaker hates Michael Whatley (at least in today's blog post) because Whatley supposedly "boasted" that he had been the first Republican state leader to "condemn the mob."

Michael Whatley

But who's John Kane, you ask. John Kane is the number one son of an elder John Kane, a renown Raleigh mega-developer who was actually honored as Tar Heel of the Year in 2016. The elder Kane is also renown for raising big money for Republicans. The younger John Kane (he who would be chairman) emphasized his MAGA bona fides in an interview with Haymaker, hitting especially "election integrity," which is MAGA code for a cascade of conspiracies: "The election was stolen and we have to prevent more theft and all Democrats (and some RINOs) are suspect."

Kane also seems on-board for punishing Sen. Thom Tillis and other RINOs for snubbing MAGA orthodoxy, so if Kane wins, we might expect a purge-night with a lot of screaming.

A blow for the Haymaker crowd: Way back in January, Donald Trump endorsed Michael Whatley for reelection. That was before there was a John Kane campaign, so the Trump endorsement perhaps means only that he didn't have another choice.

Respect His Authoritah

Michael Whatley

So if you're a registered Republican voter in North Carolina who's also not in love with Donald Trump -- I know there are at least six of you! -- your state GOP leadership wants to make sure you won't have choices on your Republican primary ballot in March. They intend to disappear Bill Weld and Joe Walsh. No lie.

News broke yesterday that NCGOP chair Michael Whatley submitted only the name of President Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican Primary ballot, ignoring the other Republicans who've announced -- Weld and Walsh (Mark Sanford already dropped out).

"Parties are required to submit a list of candidates to the State Board of Elections this week, including all 'candidates whose candidacy is generally advocated and recognized in the news media throughout the United States or in North Carolina.' ”

The Democrats submitted 15 names. The Libertarians, 16 (including the evergreen Vermin Supreme). But Mr. Whatley couldn't think of any other Republicans but Trump.

What's a ballot with only one choice when that "choice" is decreed by the bosses?

Yeah. Whatever Trump's got has spread to the little Trumps in states like North Carolina. It appears to be an incurable disease, immune to inoculation and resistant to antibiotics. Evacuation may be the only treatment ... like the three Republican county commissioners in Transylvania County who left the Republican Party en masse yesterday and re-registered as independents. Evacuation like that.

But Whatley actually doesn't have the final word. The State Board of Elections has the power to add names by majority vote of the board. They'll meet in January.

Good Luck With That Project, Brethren

Michael Whatley

CREDIT MICHAEL WHATLEY FACEBOOK PAGE

At the North Carolina Republican state convention last weekend, there was a good deal of public talk about how the NCGOP should and can win back urban areas.

“The first thing is that the party has to get branded as the party of family, faith and fun,” said Jim Womack, who was running to be the next state party chair and who received the most in raw votes but who lost the chairmanship anyway to "weighted voting."

"Family, faith and fun."

"Has to get branded."

diospswwixei ... Sorry. Sudden onset of "HAR-DE-HAR-HAR," and I doubled-over for a minute there.

Fun is funny enough, but it's the faith part that is deeply and offensively funny.

The Christianity of those evangelicals who've been publicly drunk with Trump-love doesn't resemble any Christianity I recognize from actually growing up on the Bible and going to church three blessed times a week. Is it not the essence of idolatry, their winking at and excuses for a shameless liar, a deeply cruel and immoral man, "a pagan who embodies the seven deadly sins"? One Watauga County Republican even claimed that he actually heard the voice of God when Trump came down the escalator, informing him personally that Trump was the future savior of both Christianity and the nation. God chose a man of those values and that behavior to save Christlikeness on earth? 

By "urban" we assume Womack meant black, and let me tell you something. Black Christians are the best Christians, and they tend to recognize hypocrisy when they see it.

But back to the Republican state convention and their discussion of re-branding themselves for the urban audience. Jim Womack, the candidate for state party chair who got snaked out of winning it, promised that if elected to leadership he would start running "ads on radio stations that cater to African-Americans." Boy! Wouldn't you like to get the contract to produce those radio spots!

Michael Whatley, the man who actually won the chairmanship, said the party needs "a permanent presence in urban communities. And it has to remind voters of Republican economic policies he said have benefited those communities." “It’s messaging but it’s also presence,” he said.

Maybe the NCGOP should open a chain of second-hand stores.

The NCGOP Elected a New Chair Yesterday

He's called "businessman Michael Whatley." He's from Gaston County. Here's how he describes himself: "Since volunteering for Jesse Helms in his 1984 race against Jim Hunt as a sophomore at Watauga High School, Michael has knocked on doors, worked on phone banks, put out yard signs and raised money for Republicans in Local, Legislative, Congressional, Senatorial and Presidential races from one end of North Carolina to the other." Republican conservative activist Brant Clifton rebuts that: "Thirty days ago, NO ONE had heard of Michael Whatley. He has no record of recruiting candidates, promoting the party platform, running campaigns, or raising money for party organizations."

The Tea Party conservatives were backing Jim Womack, currently the chair of the Lee County Republican Party and a harder edged conservative. Womack actually won the raw vote at the convention yesterday, but then something magical -- called "weighted voting" -- intervened, and presto-chango, Michael Whatley came out on top.

So the conservatives are pissed. The establishment (Dallas Woodhouse) is still in control, and a Republican primary against Senator Thom Tillis, the establishment's boy, is looming next March.

Good times!