It happened last night: a summary of the Jan. 5th GOP debacle

Here is a summary of what happened last night, originally posted at Progress NC. It is intended for people unfamiliar with legislative goings-on. Please make sure people not paying attention to politics read it so they understand what is going on in Raleigh using taxpayer dollars:

What happened in Raleigh last night proves that the leadership of the NC House is unworthy of serving the people of North Carolina.

January 5, 2012 will go down as a sad day for North Carolina -- it will be remembered as the day that leaders of our state government met in the dark of the night to elude public scrutiny and then shut down debate by their opposition in an attempt to ram their extremist agenda through our state house with as few people participating or watching as possible.

This is not democracy and it is not conduct becoming of our leaders. This is proof that they are unworthy to serve the people of North Carolina.

What happened is this: state lawmakers were called back to Raleigh by law to consider Gov. Perdue's recent veto of a bill that would have repealed the Racial Justice Act. But instead of addressing that act, as the law intended, GOP leaders in the NC House subverted the law by instructing their members to sit around and wait for the day to technically expire (some chose to watch football on the taxpayers' dime). Meanwhile, they crunched their numbers and waited for a newly-appointed Republican representative to take her seat. When the clock struck midnight, they saw their chance to try for their version of the Holy Grail -- with one Democrat in a near-coma, another coping with a family tragedy, and two Democrats too ill to attend this session, fate had finally swung their way. They had enough votes in the NC House to override any or all of Gov. Perdue's 2011 vetoes of bills that had been demanded by their far right base.

Rejecting an agenda and declaring that the bills to be considered would be decided "by the will of the majority," they cut off debate on the wisdom of a post-midnight special session and called for it to begin at 12:45 AM. Their goal: to override as many of Gov. Perdue's vetoes as possible before their opposition or the public could react.

Fortunately, perhaps sensing the damage such a move would do to their careers, cooler GOP heads in the NC Senate prevailed and they declined to jump on the veto override train. In the end, the NC House called for only one veto override vote -- to resurrect a bill that targeted their favorite whipping target, North Carolina's public school teachers. They successfully overrode the Governor's veto of a bill that will now go into law and makes it illegal for teachers to pay their dues to their professional association with automatic payroll deductions. This bill is now likely headed for the courts, as it is seen as unconstitutional by many legal scholars. It is also a bill that accomplishes nothing except to target one of the hardest working and underpaid groups in our state -- public school teachers. Why go after teachers? One month ago, teachers called for an educational boycott against Art Pope, ultra-conservative financial backer of the far right in North Carolina, including many members of the GOP voting last night. This bill was payback in more ways than one.

At least $50,000 of taxpayer money was spent on this episode. By the time it ended, a crowd of protesters had started to gather outside the General Assembly with members of Occupy Raleigh and various mainstream political groups sending representatives to let state leaders know that, dead of night or not, the people of North Carolina were watching.

Nine bills will now go back into what NC House GOP leadership gleefully calls its "veto garage" in hopes that fate will once again disable enough Democrats to allow them to revive these bills one day. Yes, instead of discussing ways to repair North Carolina's economy, help out in struggling communities or lower unemployment, GOP leadership will be plotting and strategizing on how they can stage another veto override extravaganza and get their way.

North Carolina deserves better than this. A government that must meet in the dark of the night is a government to be feared. A government that cuts off debate by its opposition is a government to be condemned. And elected officials who not only condone, but lead, the charge to behave in this manner are unworthy of holding public office. They need to pack their bags and go home. It doesn't matter what political party you belong to. It doesn't matter who has behaved in this manner before you. It doesn't matter whether you were successful in your attempt or not. If your moral compass is so broken that you think this kind of behavior is acceptable, then you need to pack your bags and go home.