Sine D'oh

Published August 2, 2014

by Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, August 1, 2014.

It may still be unclear what this legislature did, but it’s very clear how they did it: with remarkable bile, bitterness and backstabbing among the forces of McCrory, Tillis and Berger.

 

Oddly, there wasn’t the usual simultaneous adjournment, with members from both houses sharing smiles and handshakes at the end. The Senate passed its budget and left town. The House was left to clean up. (And the state was left with no plan to clean up coal ash.)

 

The once-united troika of Governor, House and Senate fell apart this year. One Republican even said the Senate pushed for the so-called 7 percent pay raise just to put up a number that McCrory had said he would veto, challenging him to put up or back down.

 

Then there was the Governor comparing Berger to Marc Basnight, Tony Rand and even Harry Reid. Plus the obvious glee that McCrory and Tillis allies took in the defeat of Berger Jr.’s congressional race – and their possible involvement in that defeat.

 

In return, there was the Senate’s very public and pointed killing of the puppy-mill bill that was a pet project (so to speak) of the Governor and First Lady.

 

Certainly Democrats fought with each other when they held those positions. Jim Hunt had Jimmy Green, for Pete’s sake. But Republicans took it to a new level this year.

 

Democrats can’t be happy with what the session did. But they can learn to like the political damage it did to Tillis’ Senate candidacy, the issues they now have for the 2014 and 2016 elections and the prospect of more GOP division ahead.

 http://www.talkingaboutpolitics.com

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August 2, 2014 at 1:09 pm
Norm Kelly says:

Yup, that's right. The Republicans took it to a new level. Demons will run wild with stories like this. There could be the smallest of all disagreements amongst Republicans and libs blow it into the biggest event since World War 2. Demons can actually become unglued with each other, disagreeing on major items, and not a single lib will even recognize it. According to libs, harmony lives in the land of demon.

And whatever the lib allies in the media can do to stir up their base to come out to vote in the midterms, the more they will blow things out of proportion. Agreement among libs is at an all time high. Never has such a diverse group of people been so cohesive. Would be scary if it were true.

Since libs tend to stay home in greater numbers during mid-terms, we can expect more stories like this in the media. Partially to attempt to discourage Republican voters, partly to encourage lib voters. There's nothing to the argument that VIVA (voting law changes) is racist and full of hatred for certain protected groups, but libs are going to run with it for all they are worth. There's virtually nothing to the claim that the rich were given unfair tax breaks while penalizing the poor, but since the poor tend to vote for libs, the libs are going to run with this story also.

Libs are very predictable. Pretty shallow. Easily fooled. And hopefully traditionally lazy at midterm election time. Perhaps we could schedule the election for a rainy day.