Vernon Robinson Watch

Remember Vernon Robinson? "The black Jesse Helms," he liked to call himself. He was the Winston-Salem city councilman who famously ran against Virginia Foxx in her first congressional race in the 2004 Republican Primary, warning everyone that Foxx was a very dangerous liberal femi-Nazi who was a soft-on-gayness Trojan Horse.

Well, he got the horse part right.

Robinson actually came in first in that primary, with Foxx in second place, but he failed to get his 40%. In the 2nd primary that year, Foxx prevailed.

Robinson ran one of the nastiest campaigns imaginable against Foxx, which included a now-famous racist attack on Hispanic immigrants. You could hardly imagine anything nastier, that is, until Robinson ran in the 13th Congressional District in  2006 against incumbent Democrat Brad Miller. Robinson repeatedly intimated that Brad Miller was probably homosexual.

After losing to Foxx in 2004, Robinson subsequently lost his seat on the Winston-Salem City Council, ran again unsuccessfully against Brad Miller, ran unsuccessfully for State Superintendent of Public Education, and ran unsuccessfully for chairmanship of the state GOP. Quite the political record!

Which is why it's more than just interesting that Robinson was present and vocal when Hasan Harnett won the NC GOP chairmanship yesterday. Evidently, Robinson sees Harnett as doubling down on the Robinson Recipe for Winning Hearts and Minds in North Carolina.

Robinson is also the instigator and manager of the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee, because, while Robinson personally tends to drive voters away, he also tends to collect big bucks from the well-heeled who are motivated primarily by hatred/fear. The National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee is a super-PAC that has raised $12.2 million, which makes Robinson a player, y'all.

Steven Greene, a state politics expert at North Carolina State University, is quoted as suggesting that Robinson is a "strategic loser"—"so extreme in his positions that he'd never have a serious shot at office, but an appealing target for the fundraising dollars of ideologues."

"Strategic loser" or "Angel of Death"?

Those blessed with the Robinson imprimatur seem not to prosper. Have you noticed the Ben Carson for President campaign lately? Carson has recently lost his campaign chairman, his national finance chairman, his deputy campaign manager, and his general counsel: "The four senior advisers all quit the campaign, which has fallen into disarray due to dysfunctional leadership, a lack of professionalism and frequent in-fighting" (PoliticusUSA). Was the Robinson personality involved in driving those people away? Dunno. Could be.

According to the Mother Jones investigative piece on Robinson, Vernon "has quietly turned his quixotic Draft Ben Carson effort into a lucrative enterprise for himself. FEC filings show that the PAC paid out over $250,000 to a consulting firm called Tzu Mahan. Buzzfeed reported in November that Tzu Mahan—its name a mashup of ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu and 19th century Navy admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan—is a one-man company, run by Robinson."

We can only hope that Mr. Robinson has the ear -- exclusively -- of new NC GOP Chair Hasan Harnett!

New Leadership for the NC GOP

Meet Hasan Harnett, the insurgent Tea Partier elected yesterday as chair of the North Carolina Republican Party. Hasan beat lawyer Craig Collins, who had been anointed as the "chosen one" by the entire state Republican Party leadership, including Gov. McCrory, Sen. Thom Tillis, Senate President Phil Berger, and NC House Speaker Tim Moore.

Nope, said 700 delegates at the state GOP convention, decisively beating the 562 delegates who followed the establishment in voting for Collins. Make no mistake: this was a palace coup, and a fairly bloody one, according to Tea Party commentator Brant Clifton. And, also according to Clifton, moves are already underway to undermine and neuter Mr. Harnett by the GOP establishment.

The N&O describes Harnett as "a businessman and author from Concord." He previously served as campaign manager for GOP congressional candidate Vince Coakley, who lost his race for Congress against Alma Adams last year.

As Mr. Clifton has noted, this upset election of a far-right political novice to lead the NC GOP is a major set-back for Gov. McCrory, who is busily trying to reclaim the middle ground in the state, and it's a major set-back for the handful of political allies McCrory may have in the General Assembly, who may also be tacking back to the center.

Harnett and his Tea Party choir may make it much harder to tack back center-ward.

ATTN NC Women: Your Lady Parts Are Now Considered More Dangerous Than Hand Guns

Republicans in the General Assembly are currently moving a bill that would allow private sales of hand guns without any sort of background check on the purchaser. Current North Carolina law requires a pistol purchase permit obtained through a county sheriff for the private purchase of a hand gun.

This comes hard on the heels of new harassment of women seeking an abortion, an extended waiting period that Governor Squishy now says he'll sign, his promise to the contrary in 2012 notwithstanding.

This is the legacy of the contemporary Republican Party in North Carolina. This is what they think of women. This is how they care about the public safety.

More to the point: This is the legacy that will come to roost on McCrory's puzzle-brained head in next year's elections.

Gov. Pat McCrory: Ineffectual and Dishonest

Took no time whatsoever for both houses of the NC General Assembly to override their own Republican governor and pass "Ag-Gag," which will penalize corporate whistle-blowers. Gov. McCrory can't even find a handful from his own party to back him up. If he's not the very model of a paper tiger, he'll do until a better one comes along.

Now we fully expect the General Assembly Republicans to override that other McCrory veto of the "magistrate recusal" law, aimed at shielding duly sworn public servants from doing their jobs if it might mean getting The Gay on themselves.

So ... ineffectual. But dishonest too?

Yes. McCrory promised during his campaign for governor in 2012 that he would do nothing to further block access to abortion, and yet he's announced that he will sign the bill now on his desk that will not only increase the waiting period for an abortion but will also triple that waiting time. He wants to claim that tripling the waiting period is not in any way blocking access.

Why is this man chortling?

NC Court of Appeals Rules Another Republican Law Unconstitutional

In 2013, Republicans in the NC General Assembly enacted a repeal of "Career Status" (tenure) for public school teachers, just another of their attacks on public education in this state. Their intent was to eliminate teacher tenure entirely by 2018, starting with teachers who had not reached career status by August 2013. Their law revoked career status for all teachers by July 2018.

According to the Progressive Pulse, "as an enticement for already-tenured teachers to act sooner, lawmakers also required local school boards to offer 25 percent of them temporary 4-year contracts with annual raises of $500 in exchange for giving up their tenure rights early."

In May 2014, Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood ruled the new law unconstitutional, including the "25 percent plan," and his ruling was until this morning under appeal to the NC Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals just upheld Hobgood's ruling, saying that the repeal of the teacher tenure law amounted to an unconstitutional taking of contract and property rights as to those teachers who’d already attained that status.

McCrory Trying To Save His Governorship with Vetoes

Gov. Pat McCrory issued a second veto in just two days, saying no to the "Ag-Gag" bill. Good for him. Either he really does find the law against whistle-blowing objectionable on moral grounds, or else he's reading the polls and has decided to fight for reelection. Either way, good on him.

According to the N&O, McCrory "told a group of business representatives that more vetoes are coming."

The "Ag-Gag" bill, H405, passed both houses of the General Assembly easily, which means that an override of the veto is not only possible but likely ... unless public pressure turns around the Democrats who voted for it (!) and a few Republicans too.

If the General Assembly overrides the Guv's veto on Ag-Gag and on the magistrate's "opt-out from icky gay marriage" law, that will further marginalize the General Assembly's majority from voting independents, who already regard Phil Berger et al. as the political equivalent of prickly heat.

Gov. McCrory Has Decided To Lead for a Change

Perhaps because he already knows that Speaker of the NC House Tim Moore will make sure that the House will uphold his veto, Governor McCrory announced earlier this afternoon that he will in fact veto the "magistrate opt-out" law just passed by both houses of the NC General Assembly which would allow magistrates and Register of Deeds employees to refuse to marry same-sex couples.

The measure did pass the House but with only a 67-43 majority, not enough to overturn McCrory's promised veto.

McCrory's statement: "I recognize that, for many North Carolinians, including myself, opinions on same-sex marriage come from sincerely held religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman. However, we are a nation and a state of laws. Whether it is the president, governor, mayor, a law enforcement officer or magistrate, no public official who voluntarily swears to support and defend the Constitution and to discharge all duties of their office should be exempt from upholding that oath."

That's solid legal ground for a veto of legislation that was clearly intended to discriminate against one class of citizens, just as the now overturned Amendment One did.

Oh, there was great parading of pharisaical holiness yesterday as the NC House debated the bill. One of the holiest members of the House, Rep. Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus, said the measure protects government officials from being forced to be "traitors against the kingdom of God" by taking part in same-sex marriage, which he described as "perverted and morally unconscionable."

"God created and defined marriage as between a man and a woman, and no country and no government, no court, no government entity, I believe, has the right to change it or to coerce anyone to disobey God in regard to it," Pittman said. "We need to stop worrying about what other nations or corporations think of us or where we stand and what our reputation is with them, and get back to caring what our reputation is in the sight of God."

One of the Republican talking points was that a "magistrate opt-out" law was analogous to conscientious objection status for soldiers. Democratic Rep. Grier Martin countered that "to qualify as a conscientious objector, a person must object to all warfare, not to a particular conflict, and that must be determined through an in-depth investigation by military officers."

"You do not get to pick and choose who you serve, you do not get to pick and choose your wars, and we should not allow our magistrates to pick and choose which citizens they are and are not going to marry," he said. "That magistrate's salary is being paid by all North Carolinians equally."

Said Rep. Larry Hall, D-Durham, "We’re creating a situation where people can discriminate against other members of our society at their discretion and not be disciplined. Certain people have full rights that they vote for and pay for, and other people don’t have those same full rights to treatment on an equal basis."

Haven't gotten a list of those Republicans in the House who voted against this travesty, but they need to be recognized for statesmanship.

Jabba the Putz

Dwane Powell, N&O, 22 May 2015

To appreciate fully this Dwane Powell cartoon, you must understand that Sen. Bob Rucho chairs the NC Senate Finance Committee and

...that last Wednesday Sen. Rucho abruptly cut off debate on whether North Carolina should continue encouraging solar energy projects through a provision in law that makes large energy corporations (Duke Energy, we're looking at you) buy a certain (tiny) percentage of their electricity from renewable sources and

...that the bill under debate in Rucho's Finance Committee would freeze North Carolina’s “Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard” (or “REPS”) – a law that requires a growing percentage of the state’s electricity load to be provided by renewable sources. Current law places the REPS requirement at 6%, but it is scheduled to grow to 10% in 2018 and 12.5% in 2021. And

...that the Republican senators on Rucho's committee are far from unified in wanting to scuttle renewable energy initiatives. In fact, observers say the majority in that committee last Wednesday wanted to vote negatively on that particular bill. And

...that Rucho, after cutting off debate, called for a voice vote on the bill and then declared it had passed even though it sounded like it had failed loudly, and

...that Sen. Josh Stein, a Democrat from Raleigh who is on the Finance Committee, told Under the Dome on Thursday he doesn’t mind losing, but if he wins and still loses, that’s not fair.

Making Animal Abuse a Constitutional Right in North Carolina

In 2011, a worker at a Butterball turkey processing plant in Hoke County secretly videotaped other workers abusing the turkeys, which led to a raid by Hoke County deputies and convictions of workers and a state veterinarian, who tipped off Butterball about the raid.

In 2013, toadies in the NC Senate of the state's poultry industry -- which ain't small nor without power -- introduced a bill to make the worker who did the videotaping subject to prosecution, a kind of "Stopping Whistleblowers" act. At the time of its introduction (and hilariously), Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, said the provision was aimed at "protecting intellectual property," when it was clearly aimed at protecting the cruelty of factory-farming.

That bill never became law, but there's a whole new iteration of this "ag-gag" movement which is currently sitting on Governor Squishy's desk ... H405, benignly titled the "Property Protection Act." The bill would allow a business or property owner to seek damages against any employee who intentionally entered an unauthorized area of that business or property to record video or sound. Whistleblowers take warning. That factory-farmer will sue your ass into oblivion if you try to blow the whistle on animal cruelty, nasty working conditions, or unsafe food production.

Although opponents of the bill are calling it the "ag-gag" bill because of the Hoke County raid in 2011, the final version of the legislation isn't limited to agriculture. It would apply to any employee in any place of business.

Any employee in any place of business.

Gov. Squishy has only until Saturday to make up his mind whether to sign this pile of turkey droppings or veto it ... or more likely, given The Guv's track-record, allow it to become law without his signature.

He's probably none too pleased to have his pending decision become a national rallying cry, but it has. He's in the public spotlight on this, and on the hot-seat.