NCGOP

I'll give the N&O credit for covering the 527 story we reported a week ago, but it's too bad they missed the main point.

Three of the paper's top political minds, Kane, Curliss and Christensen, teamed up Under the Dome and they still didn't get to the heart of North Carolina's open market for buying and selling elections.

  

It'll be a big day down in Kinston tomorrow when Pope Puppet Willie Ray Starling goes head-to-head with wingnut Steven LaRoque in a rematch that will be the first test of the Puppetmaster's imperial staying power. As you may know, a "do-over" was ordered by the SBOE after voting irregularities threw the integrity of the election into doubt. (This particular do-over has nothing to do with Art Pope's alleged electioneering, except for the fact that Willie Ray would have been burnt, crumbly toast if the Puppetmaster hadn't been pulling his strings.)

Imagine you're the Puppetmaster, sitting high up on your throne, watching the Little People scurring around, doing your bidding, carrying your water, licking your boots.

You raise your pinkie and presto, 4999 hate-filled mailings fly into Kinston, magically "educating" voters about the evils of compromise and common ground. You raise an eyebrow and POW, your pack of hungry lawyers slaps a lawsuit on some little guy who dared to question your infinite wisdom and awesome power.

You sit back and smile, your beady little eyes shifting in search of more rabble-rousers. You are on a mission to purify the planet, to restore the aristocracy, to celebrate the joys of having more money than sense. Life is good. You close your eyes. You rest.

UPDATE: Link to WRAL coverage

Lawyers, journalists and all manner of Puppets will be descending on Raleigh today for what could be one of the most important hearings ever conducted by the State Board of Elections (SBOE). At issue is whether North Carolina will be a state in which elections are contaminated by the free flow of corporate money.

Rob Christensen in today's N&O does a decent job covering some of the issues that will be aired over the next two or three days.

THE ACCUSER: [Richard] Morgan is charging that he and his allies were picked off by a Raleigh millionaire who illegally used corporate contributions to oust Republican legislators with whom he disagrees.

THE ACCUSED: Several groups connected to former state Rep. Art Pope, a Raleigh retail executive, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars criticizing Republican House members who allied themselves on some issues with Democrats. Pope says his company's donations were legal.

People who are actively involved in North Carolina politics often find themselves in the Twilight Zone of wacko mailing lists. My significant other, who used to be chair of the faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill, is one such person. Which might explain why she’s lucky enough to receive her very own copy of Conservative Citizen, published several times a year by the John William Pope Civitas Institute.

  

This week marks the passing of Mr. John Pope, patriarch of the Pope dynasty and father of Art Pope. The N&O has the story.

RALEIGH - During a career spanning more than 50 years, John William Pope built a family business into a regional retailing empire. Pope, head of one of the wealthiest, most politically influential and most charitable families in the Triangle, died of cancer Saturday at his home in Raleigh. He was 81.

Yesterday's Friday Follies at NC Policy Watch put the smackdown on one of the oft-repeated lies of tax reformers here in North Carolina. Take a look, and put these talking points in y our pocket for the next time a free-marketeer starts blabbering about the economic costs of taxes.

The rabid right wing folks over at Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist’s group, will have some explaining to do the next they complain about tax rates in North Carolina.

ATR recently released a report on state tax policy across the nation and among the conclusions drawn from the report by a national conservative group was that “states with high tax burdens continually lose residents and their income to lower tax states.”

Norquist and his misguided disciples in North Carolina constantly claim that North Carolina is a high tax state and that tax rates are hurting economic development. Neither is true and now we have proof of that from their own report. The U. S. Census says that from 1990-2000, North Carolina grew faster than every other Southeastern state, except Georgia. From 1995-2000, it was the fifth fastest growing state in the nation and forecasters predict that growth will continue at even higher levels.

Slogging through some Republican swamps this morning, I came across the defunct blog, Carolina Pundit, the musings of a self-professed member of a dying breed, a conservative Christian Republican. If you have time, it's worth a brief tour, if only to get some early takes on the NC GOP meltdown, the emergence of the Puppetmaster, and the story behind the story behind the slimeball that is Michael Decker. Here's what the Pundit had to say.

The Times They Are A-Changin’ in the NCGOP

As a follow up to my first commentary, I want to say thank you to all who commented and participated in the discussion. A few took issue with what I had to write and there were some apologists or “spin doctors” who wanted to get in on the act. This development is a great place for Republicans, particularly Conservatives, to begin the formulation of a possible New Republican Majority in North Carolina.

to slowly consume on a lazy, rainy Saturday:

(got this in an email and thought I'd share)

THINGS YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE TO BE A REPUBLICAN

(Or be a member of the NCGOP/NRCC/NRSC/RNC)

*Jesus loves you and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton

*Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

*The United States should get out of the United Nations, but our highest national priority is inforcing U.N. resolutins against Iraq

*A Woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all humankind without regulation

Today's discussions about Lamont's victory and the question of extremism got me to thinking ... and hunting for insight. My search took me to this commentary about the new world we live in.

In this new era, partisanship is a virtue. The conservatives rise to power, and their utter failure to govern responsibly or effectively, requires a new progressive politics of confrontation, not accommodation. This new politics may be uncomfortable to those used to an America governed by Democrats and progressive values, but for our politics and values to triumph progressives must and are learning how to resist “cutting deals,” working to “get things done” on terms set by an irresponsible governing majority.