Friday, 9 December 2016

Rob Christensen on the fall of McCrory

The GOP Legislature's contempt for Pat didn't help:

One small episode in 2013 seemed to illustrate the legislature’s lack of respect for McCrory. One of the first lady’s projects was to regulate puppy mills. The legislature not only didn’t pass her bill but went out of its way to embarrass the governor.

During the House debate in 2013 – with the first lady in the visitor’s gallery looking on – Rep. Michael Speciale of New Bern ridiculed the bill for requiring breeders of a certain size to adhere to standards such as exercising dogs and humane euthanasia. “Exercise on a daily basis – if I kick him across the floor, is that daily exercise?” Speciale asked. “‘Euthanasia performed humanely’ – so I should choose the ax or the baseball bat?”

Although Michael is a Speciale kind of asshole, this was just a symptom of a wider problem for McCrory. The GOP leaders in the General Assembly didn't want McCrory to be anything other than a rubber stamp Governor. They had their own plans (to destroy NC), and they didn't need some big-city mayor, however incompetent, sticking his nose in. And as I mentioned (a few times) last year, that contempt was never more evident than when they casually removed all transportation funding from McCroy's Connect NC Bond "baby." All his previous talking points, including a fancy promotional video, were flushed down the pipes. But instead of standing up to them and demanding they put it back in, he did a Patty Hearst and cheered on his oppressors. Granted, that probably flew under the voters' radar and didn't lose him the votes that HB2 and continual ethics problems did, but it surely drained Governor McEnergy's batteries.


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