When a Resignation Comes in Close Proximity to a Scandal

Lee Roberts has been Governor Pat McCrory's budget director for only 16 months, but he announced his resignation on Thursday very soon after he was implicated in paving the way for the pay-to-play prison maintenance contract that has been dogging and besmirching the already besmirched McCrory administration.

According to the News&Observer,

After Thursday’s announcement, Roberts said that neither the prison contract issue nor the high-pressure politics of the job prompted him to resign.

You can buy that (along with the large stone bridge I have stored in my garage) if you want to, and welcome to your credulity.

Mecklenburg Board of Elections Breaks Ranks

The significant news below comes to us from Gerry Cohen, former director of Legislative Drafting for the North Carolina General Assembly (for 31 years). (He is also former special counsel to the North Carolina General Assembly, where he provided legal and research services to the Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and majority and minority leaders. He has experience and knowledge in local government and election law, legislative processes, and constitutional law, so we pay attention to his insights. He retired in 2014.)

It comes as something of a surprise that the Mecklenburg Board of Elections, going decidedly against Republican voting-access habits and practices, has changed directions for the 2016 primary. Cohen wrote:

Mecklenburg INCREASED early voting from 723 hours in the 2012 primary to 1,224 for this March, expanded from 9 to 17 sites, and added Sunday voting which they did NOT have in the 2012 presidential primary.

Why, we wonder. Possibly because it's more convenient for Republican voters, who'll have a hot presidential primary this March in North Carolina. The fact that Democratic voters will also benefit was perhaps wholly unintended but nevertheless appreciated.

Watauga County Republican Party Chair Anne Marie Yates must forward to the state BOE two nominees as replacements for the gone boy Luke Eggers, though we don't anticipate that any possible new Watauga BOE member will be allowed to think for her/himself and vote for expanded Early Voting opportunities, like on the campus of Appalachian State University.

One could always pray.

Pat McCrory Is the Poster Child for Conflicts of Interest

The meeting stands out as unique among nearly a year of entries on van der Vaart's calendar, and a spokesman for McCrory could not furnish examples of similar mealtime sit-downs with other large companies.

--"Governor, Top Duke Energy Officials Met Privately, Won't Say Why," WRAL news

So last June 1, Governor Squishy invited the top brass of Duke Energy to his house, to sit down and sup at his table with his top environmental regulators, all the while publicly he was growling menacingly about making Duke Energy clean up its messes (plural) across the state, not least of which was the monstrous coal ash spill into the Dan River.

What he was really doing at that secret dinner was promising Duke Energy a sweetheart deal, which he and his administration proceeded to deliver, like a fruity cocktail on a silver platter:

State regulators reduced Duke Energy’s fine from $25 million to $7 million:

“There seems little doubt that the country’s largest electric utility certainly bested the state in this case. Going from $25 million to $7 million doesn’t seem the shrewdest negotiating on the state’s part. And the coal ash problem is an ongoing threat.” (News & Observer editorial, 10/4/15

Duke Energy didn’t even admit the final settlement was a fine:

“Duke called it a payment and didn’t even seem to concede it was a fine.” (News & Observer editorial, 10/4/15)

Duke Energy declared cleanup efforts on Dan River over after cleaning up only 3,000 of approximately 39,000 tons of coal ash:

“Last February, around 39,000 tons of toxic coal slurry gushed into a major North Carolina river. Now, having cleaned up around 3,000 tons worth, the company behind the spill and state regulators say their work is done. With 92 percent of the original heavy metal-laden and possibly radioactive coal ash still coating 70 miles of river bottom, river advocates are frustrated.” (Newsweek, 7/21/14)

McCrory was elected the Governor of North Carolina, but he has continued to behave like the Prize Sow of Duke Energy. It ain't funny.

Virginia Foxx, Champion of the Instant Press Release

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx issued a press release following President Obama's executive order calling for background checks on gun purchases:

What She Said

“Today, in yet another attempt to erode our basic liberties, President Obama announced plans to undermine the will of Congress and challenge the Second Amendment rights of all Americans."

What She Meant

See this shiny object? Look at how shiny it is! Look at it! Look at it now, you pathetic sheep!

……….

What She Said

“Just like his unilateral actions on immigration, this proposal is an overreach of the president’s Constitutionally-granted executive authority. It is also an attempt to distract from his failed policies to combat terrorism and improve the economy – issues I’m hearing about from my constituents every day."

What She Meant

I have lots of shiny objects in my bag (which is Louis Vuitton, by the way, but don't touch it!). I can pull these trinkets out all day, and I think I will.

……….

What She Said

"Congressional refusal to pass bad policy does not transfer legislative authority to the president, and I will fight against this attempt to diminish our constitutional rights."

What She Meant

If you think I'm going to pass anything the black man wants -- I don't care that 88% of you say you want background checks -- I don't believe those polls anyway. Some polls are okay, I guess, but not that one. And where does it say in the Constitution that crazy people can't own guns? Or Louis Vuitton handbags?

……….

What She Said

“Guns are one of many tools that people use to commit horrific crimes, but the problem of evil cannot be legislated away."

What She Meant

Like the "evil of abortion." You can't legislate that away either. Oh, wait!

State Board of Elections Gets More Partisan

Former Chair of the Mecklenburg Republican Party, Grant Whitney Jr., takes Josh Howard's place on the State Board of Elections.

Just in case you thought things wouldn't get more partisan.

Tomorrow Belongs To Trump?

We're indebted to Scott Huler for reminding us of the "beer garden scene" in Cabaret (below), for what it suggests about this current moment in our American politics.

Watching Trump recently taunt a CNN cameraman at a Mississippi rally, demanding that he "turn the camera around" to show Trump's adoring hoard of supporters -- Trump kept hounding the cameraman, and his adoring hoard of supporters kept upping the cheers and joining in the demand to "turn the camera around.... 

At any point -- the taunting and the bullying went on for more than a minute -- Trump could have said "sic 'im, boys," and that cameraman would have been beaten to a pulp, his camera smashed, the whole hated media given its violent comeuppance by the jingoism that Trump has unleashed and which the Republican establishment can't now control. Trumpism is now the Republican brand.

Perilous times.

The unreason and the hatred are on full display -- as if we needed more evidence -- at the bottom of the Scott Huler essay linked above.

What the Boone Town Council Has Been Finding Acceptable

More of Boone's new "planned development" moving forward.

This one across from the Holmes Convocation Center ... on slightly over 1/2 acre, some 24 efficiency apartments with only 22 allotted parking places for those residents, plus commercial space with only six allotted parking places.

Does that make sense to you?

What commercial business would rent where there is no parking for potential customers? Renters in 24 apartments are going to take more than those 22 spaces. That's guaranteed. Workers in the businesses -- if there are businesses willing to rent there -- will take whatever is left over. There is no across-the-street or down-the-street parking.

The Town Council's "cover" for this development nonsense is pushing for a "walkable town." Not sure how we get there by allowing mega-developments get away without providing parking spaces. The reality: everybody (and his/her dog) has a car, and they're gonna park it somewhere.

The Mixed Message of Franklin Graham

Franklin Graham says he now hates the Republican Party as much as he hates the Democratic Party. That's a fib, of course, but he recently announced on Facebook that he was leaving the Republican Party over the Paul Ryan budget deal just passed in Congress and signed by the president.

But he's also just announced that he'll be leading a 50-state "Get Right With God" tour to rally conservative Christians to vote for ... for whom? "Godly leaders," Graham says. He won't exactly say who fits that bill for him. In fact, he was quoted as vowing to let no candidates of whatever stripe speak at his rallies. Let's take a wild stab at nailing this down and suggest that no Democrats need apply for "godly." His rallies are meant to favor certain Republicans ... those despised Republicans who so recently failed to live up to Franklin Graham's exacting standards.

May we now call Franklin Graham a "RIEBN" -- "Republican in Everything But Name"?

So very soon in Iowa, on the steps of the state capitol in Des Moines, Franklin Graham will invite all the good Christians to come rally for godly candidates just prior to attending caucus meetings in which everyone is supposed to vote for "Candidate To Be Named ... Never."

Good plan!

Whoa! Woke Up, It's 2016, and Tim Moore's Castle Is Burning

You got to hand it to WBTV investigative reporter Nick Ochsner. He was first at discovering that NC House Speaker Tim Moore had been in apparent violation since at least 2007 of NC campaign finance reporting law.

In 2006, the General Assembly voted to make itemized reports of credit card charges mandatory for all members. Tim Moore was a member of the NC House at the time. He co-sponsored the legislation and voted for it during all three readings of the bill. Yet he has consistently violated that law by failing to itemize his credit card charges, which are extensive (and see below).

[Footnote: Sen. Dan Soucek -- among others -- was also called out for failing to itemize.]

Reporter Nick Ochsner, who was at the time working in Raleigh (and before he joined the WBTV news team), was approached by Tim Moore's "people" about becoming the new House Speaker's communications director. Ochsner wanted to relocate to Charlotte, and a specific job offer never materialized.

Once Ochsner joined WBTV and started reporting on Tim Moore's opaque finances, the young reporter was attacked, very pointedly, by the entire state Republican scaffolding. The new Exec Dir of the NC Republican Party, Dallas Woodhouse, wrote Ochsner's WBTV boss and called for his firing, while totally misrepresenting Ochsner's past history with the Tim Moore operation. WBTV brass were not moved.

Then Representative Charles Jeter (R-Mecklenburg), who is the House Republican Conference Chair, emailed all Republican representatives, instructing them not to talk with Ochsner.

Ochsner pressed on. His confrontation with Tim Moore was captured on video (transcript here). Is it any wonder that Tim Moore hates Nick Ochsner?

Now look what leaked on New Year's Eve: FBI is poking around about the campaign finances of Tim Moore and other member(s) of the NC House.

Ochsner's investigation had burrowed in on thousands of dollars in rent payments Moore’s campaign has made to a company solely owned by the lawmaker and, most recently, a contribution he accepted from a state contractor who donated $1,000 during session. 

Moore has been obviously practicing the old "pay-to-play" political corruption of "You contribute to my campaign, and we'll see what slosh of gravy you can lap up." Moore's been so obvious with it that fellow Republican House member Justin Burr (R-Albemarle) recently warned fellow Republicans that the Party was harboring another Jim Black, the disgraced Democratic ex-House Speaker who went to jail for his corruption.

Tim Moore has shown himself as wholly self-interested, with his pork barrel shenanigans in Cleveland County, and with the fairly egregious acceptance of a sinecure as Cleveland County attorney, along with a hefty salary, even though other lawyers would have to be paid to handle county work while Moore was in session in Raleigh -- which was months and months in 2015.

So being the subject of an FBI investigation isn't exactly a good look for the Speaker, going into an election year, nor for the Party that he's a certified pooh-bah of.