Tom Fetzer Has Left the UNC Board of Governors

Not to put too fine a point on it, UNC BOG member Tom Fetzer got knifed yesterday by his fellow Republicans on the board. And not without cause.

Fetzer resigned his seat on the Board of Governors rather suddenly because he was probably going to be removed.

Fetzer, former mayor of Raleigh and former chair of the NCGOP, had been involved in every major rumble in the University of North Carolina system since Phil Berger and the Republicans in the NC Senate appointed him to the board. He was a prime mover in ditching system President Margaret Spellings. He proved himself a neo-Confederate over the Silent Sam controversy. He obtained and made public the video surveillance that led directly to the resignation of Chancellor Dan Gerlach at East Carolina University. He inserted himself into the chancellor search at Western Carolina Univ. and reportedly sought the job himself.

Joe Killian for NC Policy Watch got some of the scoop in this post by Rob Schofield.

The UNC Board of Governors Meeting in Boone Just Got More Interesting

UNC BOG member Steve Long

Reference: BOG member Steve Long, who had the courage to call for BOG Chair Harry Smith's replacement, based on Smith's bullying yet another university chancellor into premature retirement -- ECU's Chancellor Cecil Staton.

Fellow BOG member Tom Fetzer, former chair of the NCGOP and one of Chair Smith's strongest lieutenants, has reportedly been lining up votes to formally censure Steve Long for his criticism of Chair Smith, such censure resolution to be sprung during Day Two of the BOG's meeting on the campus of AppState -- in other words, tomorrow.

Since that plan to censure Steve Long has been outed publicly, will it happen anyway, in the full glare of press coverage?

ADDENDUM
Said Thomas Harnisch, Director of State Relations and Policy Analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, “The stories coming out of North Carolina have garnered national attention. People are seeing heavy turnover in key leadership spots. That can lead to top talent not applying for those positions. Higher education is a community. People certainly talk to each other. All these transitions are piling up and taking a toll on the state’s reputation. North Carolina has gained a reputation where its Board of Governors is very political. There’s a lot of instability emanating from that board. All of the stories about in-fighting on the board, firings and resignations over the last several years, top talent sees that and may decide they don’t want to be a part of it.” (Thanks to Joe Killian, NC Policy Watch, for getting the interview with Harnisch)

Crazy No More?

The other day Tom Fetzer, a longtime GOP consultant, fundraiser-turned-lobbyist, and former chair of the NC GOP, commented that he thought that 2015 in the NC General Assembly could generate "perhaps a more normal agenda for the legislature on more traditional issues," like jobs and the economy.

"More normal." More normal, as in not abnormal? More normal, as in not warped by too much power and too little humanity? As in, "we knocked down the building. Now it's time to neatly stack the bricks"?

So are we to understand that the new Republican majority in the General Assembly did all the damage they ever intended between 2011 and 2014 -- got that out of their system -- and are now ready to make a thousand flowers bloom? Nothing else to dismantle, strangle, deprive of oxygen? Just the reaping of the blessings now, letting the new conservative utopia grow great, with the benevolent rich teaching us peons the beauty of austerity and giving us occasional part-time work waxing their Mercedes?

That would be "more normal," right?

Or is it the new normal, sort of like the extremes of weather that have become routine because of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Certainly, the Raleigh Republicans have spewed tons of pollution into our political atmosphere during the last four years. They've breathed their own emanations and convinced themselves that the poor will accept whatever they dish out, that the unemployed will accept being treated like cur dogs, that teachers will accept crumbs, that voters will accept every attempt to make voting more difficult.

We're not about to believe that the clown college has removed its make-up, retired its fright-wigs. Unless, of course, they really are nervous about another election cycle coming in 2016, with their patsy governor threatened and a turn-out that may overwhelm them.

The Enduring Hard-On of Tim D'Annunzio

Machine-gun Tim D'Annunzio, the man publicly repudiated by the Republican state party chair back during the 2010 primary in the NC-8, has launched a tea party insurgency against the selection of Robin Hayes as the presumptive heir to the chairmanship of the NC Republican Party.

D'Annunzio favors Tim Johnson, about which there is perhaps slightly less trailing baggage than there is for D'Annunzio himself, but still plenty of baggage.

D'Annunzio does NOT favor Robin Hayes, the plush teddy bear evidently favored by Dick Burr and other country-club Republicans. "Stop the RINO establishment from controlling the NC GOP," reads a banner ad that D'Annunzio paid for on the Drudge Report. (Can't seem to catch the ad. Drudge's banners rotate, but if D'Annunzio's dyspepsia is still evident, we haven't been able to see it.)

FOOTNOTE
AP's Gary D. Robertson posted an extensive profile of the chairman's race.

Some Choice!

A young conservative turk in the NC Republican Party considers the three men who've declared their candidacies for chair of the state party, to replace Tom Fetzer in January, and assesses them thusly:

Robin Hayes ... the former congressman defeated in 2008 by Larry Kissell, who appears to have the backing of both Fetzer and other big wigs in the party: "No. A front for the establishment and some nebulous puppet masters no one is certain of."

Tim Johnson ... former Buncombe County party chair and a bit of a fictionalist, but he also happens to be one of a handful of active conservative black Republicans in the state. Sez our young turk: "...Maybe too driven. I like Johnson. They say he has been beating the pavement for the last two years as vice chair. I tell you what concerns me. He seems wayward. He was Buncombe chair and then moved to Durham when he became state vice chair. We Tar Heels pride ourselves on our homes and our heritage. At least we use to. I know more and more people like calling North Carolina home, but I am left to wonder why Johnson left Buncombe for Durham of all places if not solely for to further a political career."

Marcus Kindley ... a flame thrower and chair of the Guilford County party: "If I had a vote and was asked to cast it right now I would vote for Kindley. I would do so with many concerns because I have seen Kindley play the role of bull in a china shop."

Soucek Sez Some Ads Favoring Him Went "Over the Line"

Read Dan Soucek's deer-in-the-headlights defense of the nastiness and the money expended by his millionaire friends down-state to help him defeat Sen. Steve Goss ... in the Wilkes Journal-Patriot.

Tom Fetzer, chair of the NC GOP, already apologized to another member of the General Assembly who was attacked by the same untrue and racist mailing about the black rapist moving in next door to granny ... a mailing which Soucek deems to be "subject to interpretation," which is about as weak a defense of the indefensible as we've seen since the head-stomping Rand Paul supporter demanded that the woman whose head he stomped apologize to him for the attack.

The kind of people the Tea (Republican) Party and their millionaire puppet-masters want to put into office!

Oh, Shut Up

Republican state party chair Tom Fetzer, who sent out the same mailer used against Cullie Tarleton in at least five other state House districts, has apologized to another of those targeted Democrats, Rep. Hugh Holliman of Davidson County. As with the mailers sent out in Watauga and Ashe counties, the Holliman mailer suggested that the representative wanted convicted death-row murderers released from prison and that those released felons were very likely to move in next door to YOU.

Holliman's 16-year-old daughter was raped and murdered in 1985, and Holliman witnessed the execution of his daughter's killer. Plus he has repeatedly said he supports the death penalty.

Fetzer, who learned his racial politics at the knees of his mentor Jesse Helms, said he is looking into the possibility of a retraction. A retraction. Yeah, like you can unring that bell.

"I am responsible for everything that goes out under the party's name," Fetzer said. "But I did not see the mailer before yesterday. We send out hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail. I don't see everything but I am responsible for it. I will look into it. If it turns out to be less than accurate we will take corrective action."

We're holding our breath and expect to turn blue.

Quite the brave dodge there, Mr. Fetzer. "I never saw it. Someone working for me did it. We'll likely find someone to fire, maybe, if the sea catches fire."

And not a word about the others you libeled.

How to Avoid Awkward Social Situations

Don't show up.

Buried deep, deep in the article about Nat'l GOP Chair Michael Steele's visit to North Carolina GOP headquarters yesterday in Raleigh is this line:

"State GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer was not on hand for Steele's visit."

Previously.

Dear Tom Fetzer: A Lesson in How to Air-Kiss

In the interests of better social relations, we offer this tiny piece of instruction to NC GOP Chair Tom Fetzer.

Fetzer will have to make nice with Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele on Thursday this week when Steele schlumps into the Tar Heel State to promote his "Fire Pelosi Bus Tour." In April Fetzer publicly told Michael Steele to RESIGN OR DIE for the sake of the Party, which Steele decided not to do.

"I believe that the best service you can render to your party at this critical juncture is to graciously step aside and allow the party to move on from this current quagmire," Fetzer wrote Steele (and immediately leaked the letter to the press). The "quagmire" he was referring to involved (take your pick) a $2,000 charge at a sex-themed nightclub in Los Angeles featuring simulated lesbian sex acts or the $1,000 purchase from jeweler Tiffany & Co. for "major donor" swag or the $18,361 paid to the Tiny Jewel Box, a Washington, D.C., jewelry store, for "office supplies" or any one of several thousand bone-head public utterances that Steele graced the airwaves with over several months of truly breath-taking ineptitude.

So on Thursday, will it all be kiss-kiss or will the grinding of teeth be heard in the land?

D'Annunzio Going Down, Flailing

Republican Congressional candidate Tim D'Annunzio in the NC-8 has sued. Not Tom Fetzer, chair of the NC GOP, who said recently that Tim was unfit for any office at any level. No, D'Annunzio sued his rival in the June 22 run-off, Harold Johnson.

For defamation.

Defaming a defamer. Now there's a trick.

Fetzer Scalded

Tea partiers picketed state Republican Party HDQs in Raleigh yesterday, protesting Chair Tom Fetzer's intervention in the 2nd primary run-off between Machine Gun Tim D'Annunzio and Blown Dry Harold Johnson.

Angry voters with signs, marching up and down outside the dignified corporate offices of a major political faction? That's a scene we might expect more at Democratic Party HDQs!

The Teapot Boileth Over

Tim D'Annunzio, called "unfit for public office at any level" by the chair of his party, has now demanded that the chair of his party resign his position for violating the plan of organization of the North Carolina Republicans.

That throwing down of the gauntlet was accomplished at a press conference yesterday in Concord that resembled nothing so much as the Ukraine parliament on one of their vodka-and-rotten-eggs theme day.

D'Annunzio cussed out Tom Fetzer, chair of the NC GOP, who was not there. D'Annunzio refused repeatedly to answer reporter's questions, a somewhat innovative tack to take at a press conference. He ordered a reporter to leave, and when the reporter didn't, D'Annunzio said he'd leave, but didn't. D'Annunzio and his supporters got into a shouting match with Rowan County Republican Larry Lancaster, who evidently does not support D'Annunzio. Another non-supporter, Cabarrus GOP Chair Justin Thibault, got a Bible poked in his face and was called a coward. "That's you. I'm talking about you and the Republican Party that you represent!"

A poster on Justin Thibault's Facebook wall included this insight about D'Annunzio's posse at the press conference:

What was interesting to me was who was attending the press conference as D'Annunzio supporters -- the core of the We The People PAC, formerly known as the Cabarrus Conservative Coalition, formerly known as the Republican Men's Club, formerly known as the Cabarrus Taxpayers Association -- Their treasurer -- Mr. Coy C Privette. If you thought he retired, guess again. If you are a member of We the People in Cabarrus County, and didn't know this little fact -- now you know the rest of the story.

Coy Privette is his own study in high-profile train wrecks.

Oh so little time, so many volatile Republican personalities.

Tim D'Annunzio: "Unfit for Public Office at Any Level"

They're ganging up on poor Tim "Machine Gun" D'Annunzio, who is locked in a primary run-off for the privilege of being the Republican nominee who will take on NC-8 Dem Larry Kissell in November.

D'Annunzio is mainly just a blunter version of Rand Paul, but he's so alarmed the state Republican establishment that NC GOP Chair Tom Fetzer came out on Friday and said, "By my personal observation of his behavior, and by acquaintance with his record and background, I consider Mr. D'Annunzio unfit for public office at any level. What he could do to the party as our nominee is secondary in my view to what he could do to the country if he got elected. If he got elected, for crying out loud, that would be a disaster."

We confess to a certain fondness for any major party spokesman who uses the phrase "for crying out loud" in 2010! It's more than just quaint. It's positively endearing.

But poor Tom Fetzer! To have to say such things about the man who took more votes (some 36.85% of the total) than the five other Republicans in the first primary on May 4th!

Fetzer loses either way, whether he succeeds in destroying D'Annunzio's candidacy or not, because he's earned himself and his state Republican Party several thousand potential enemies among the Tea Party and libertopian elements on the right.

The country club Republicans, of which Tom Fetzer is a shining avatar (for crying out loud), want blow-dried Harold Johnson to win the run-off, but Fetzer just knee-capped that campaign too by insuring that many of the D'Annunzio voters will stay home on November 2nd.

Winner ... Larry Kissell!

Fetzer to Steele: I'm Praying for You (To Drop Dead)

This news broke late yesterday p.m., while we were on the road in Stokes County (thunder, lightning, missing bridges), so we're catching up:

Tom Fetzer, chair of the N.C.G.O.P. and hence a voting member of the Republican National Committee, which has the power of life or unemployment over national Chair Michael Steele, is the first such Prominent Republican to call for the resignation of Mr. Steele. You know you're in trouble among Republican pooh-bahs when the letter opens like this: "Dear Michael, I have prayed for you...."

Oh, dear.

That's pulling rank as only the self-righteous can pull it.

Hearing the news about Fetzer's letter, North Carolina Committeewoman Ada Fisher, who had previously made her disdain for Mr. Steele perfectly clear, piled on with her own call for resignation.

Can a full crackup at the RNC be far behind?

The New Poster Child of the NCGOP

Apparently they couldn't get Michelle Bachmann nor Sarah Palin, so Tom Fetzer and the NCGOP will use under-informed and under-performing poor Doug Hoffman, fresh off his loss in the NY-23, as the headliner for a Raleigh fundraiser (Hall of Fame Dinner on November 21). Oh goody.

What were we predicting a couple of days ago about Hoffman's becoming the new face of the GOP?

ADDENDUM
Tom Jensen, reacting to this news over at Public Policy Polling, sez, don't underestimate the North Carolina Republican Party's ability to defeat themselves in an environment that might otherwise conventionally favor their electoral chances:

If the Hoffman model is what [Fetzer & Co.] want to emulate they may just find a way to screw it up in a political climate that appears to be very favorable for them. Democrats have kept power in recent years despite one corruption scandal after another because voters in North Carolina think the Republicans are just too extreme and incompetent. You'd think they'd try to learn from those lessons and put a different face forward that could actually appeal to voters in the center but I may have overestimated them.

Fetzer's Grip on Reality

"Under the Dome" allowed NC GOP Chair Tom Fetzer to go on about how Tuesday's elections are good omens for North Carolina Republicans without bothering to ask him how he explained the virtual sweep of municipal elections by not only Democrats but by progressive Democrats and what that might portend for next year's races.

It's like Fetzer is chair of the Virginia Republican Party, since looking north for inspiration was all he wanted to do. Understandable, since North Carolina cities (except for Greensboro) turned down Republicans flat in Tuesday's elections. Hell, we hear that even North Wilkesboro went progressive.

We don't know enough about Greensboro politics to understand what went down there, but it was bad for Democratic incumbents. For what it's worth, you can read the Republican interpretation of the meaning of that city election here ... by a Greensboro blogger.

The New Face of the Republican Party?

Meet Doug Hoffman, losing candidate for the U.S. Congress in the NY-23. Hoffman did NOT run and lose as a Republican. He ran and lost as a tea-bagging conservative. The GOP did NOT initially pick Hoffman as its candidate. No, it was worse than that. It picked a "moderate" Republican woman, Dede Scozzafava, who does not hate gay marriage and is pro-choice on abortion rights. Which led (as we're sure you know) to a major uprising within Republican and tea-bagger ranks. Ended up that every major Republican presidential hopeful in 2012, along with many other prominent national Republican spokespeople, bailed on Scozzafava and started endorsing Mr. Creepy Man Hoffman. Got so bad that Scozzafava pulled out of the race and endorsed the Democrat, the Unknown Man, Bill Owens, who won last night ... the first Democrat to be elected from the NY-23 since before the Civil War. Put that in your tea bag and steep it!

If this is what the conservative movement brings to the Republican Party, GOP operatives have very little to be strutting about this a.m. Exit polling in both Virginia and New Jersey strongly suggest that the voters in those states were not lashing out at President Obama. They were lashing out at Corzine in New Jersey (good riddance to all such present and former Goldman Sachs bankers, sez I). In Virginia, the 2008 Obama voters stayed home and demonstrated that Virginia definitely ain't for lovers. It's for old people.

Certainly, in North Carolina Tom Fetzer and the state GOP have precious little to crow about (from what we've been able to see so far this a.m.). But more on that in a subsequent post.

The elections in New Jersey and Virginia WERE about Obama in one way: those states went for him a year ago because he promised change, he promised an up-ending of "business as usual," he promised visionary leadership and progressive ideals. He has not delivered. He surrounded himself with the wrong people, and instead of dynamic leadership, we've gotten maddening caution and Rahm Emanuel. I might have sat at home myself in New Jersey or Virginia yesterday.

We keep hoping that the other Barack Obama, the one who won that huge election a year ago and told us things were going to be different, is eventually going to actually inhabit the Oval Office.

If he doesn't, 2010 will indeed be awful.

Holy Association

Photos of Boone mover-and-shaker Franklin Graham, posing with new NCGOP Chair Tom Fetzer and Franklin's father Billy Graham, were used by Fetzer at the Republican State Convention on Saturday to convey the unmistakable impression that he was endorsed by the Graham family.

The Undead Elect the Ungay to Lead Them

It's Tom Fetzer for chair of the Republican Party of North Carolina.

According to Katy's Conservative Corner:

Party unity has been achieved. A big relief has filled the room and your blogger is especially happy. Not necessarily at the outcome, though that did go in her favor, but over the fact that this long, often dirty, race is over. We've all said things we've regretted and its thankfully time to move forward and get on with the job of electing Republicans!

Then immediately noting that many of the supporters of Fetzer's chief rival, Pope Foundation minion Chad Adams, were taking their defeat hard:

Sadly, many Adams delegates are filing out.

Perhaps they weren't quite as sad for saying things they regretted. We dunno.

Tom Fetzer Can Chew the Leg Off an Oak Table

Former Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer and current candidate to take over the NC GOP (who is, incidentally, still not gay) decided to prove to delegates to the Republican state convention next weekend that he can produce attack ads better'n any other candidate up for chair of the state party.

He's got the formula down: ignore current real problems and go the Republicans-are-morally-superior route.