A slap in the face

fingaIt was a lot like what you’d expect from a Third World banana republic junta — with a little bit of Jerry Springer or Maury thrown in. 

Yes, the alleged leadership of the NCGOP met today and gave the middle finger to ethics, transparency, common decency, and the thousands upon thousands of suckers they count on for stuffing envelopes, staffing polling places, and casting votes each election.

The travails of state Rep. David Lewis and NCGOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse have been I-Am-Weasel-i-am-weasel-477958_262_200well-documented on this site.   For months, grassroots activists have battled entrenched establishment operatives to bring some kind of judgement against these two.

Finally, today, the Woodhouse and Lewis matters were to get a hearing.  Establishment forces — led by Zann Bunn, Joyce Cotten (and her daughter Kim) — had spent weeks twisting arms and rallying legislators and other establishment figures to ride to the aid of Lewis and Woodhouse today.  Was this a dismissal of the ethical / professional transgressions committed by Lewis and Woodhouse? More likely,  this trio of ladies acted out of fear that the outside-the-beltline Tea Party crazies might actually knock out a couple members of their clique.  thom-smoking

Pro-Lewis forces had set up a hospitality suite prior to the today’s meetings for attendees — who would be later voting on Lewis’s future — to enjoy refreshments and get in a little networking and relaxation before business commenced.

Once the meeting got started, all sorts of parliamentary hijinks were put into place in order to delay consideration of the Woodhouse and Lewis measures.  Michele Nix, the party vice chairman, was removed — thanks to a motion by Lewis — from the earlier in the day central committee meeting.  In the later, larger executive committee session, the hijinks continued — resulting in the dismissal and replacement of three different meeting chairmen.

While the Lewis matter was being debated, House speaker Tim Moore strutted around the room like a bantam rooster while audience members chanted “Da-vid! Da-vid! Da-vid!”

Remember — this is a guy who is the subject of two ethics complaints filed by fellow Republicans and two shameful pay-to-play allegations published in the driveby media.  And these imbeciles are cheering him like he’s a war hero or something. 

Sources in the room tell me that the presence of so many House members was crucial to Lewis’s victory.  (Be sure to thank Cotten, Cotten-West, and Bunn the next time you see them. They were responsible for making it happen.) lewis

The total vote went 2-1 in favor of Lewis.  Sensing that Lewis owned the room, ol’ Dallas was ready for his vote.   Never mind that his fundraising is lagging far behind what he promised when he got hired.  Never mind that he has subjected the party to some really embarrassing publicity. Never mind that he’s been caught in a number of party rules violations, and may very well end up in an IRS probe related to his most-recent former employer.  None of that mattered.  Dallas is part of the clique.  He’s “family.”  (*Can’t let the “crazies” win.*)

2nd-Joyce-CottenWoodhouse won by a similar margin to Lewis’s.

And I’m suuuuuuuuuure it was just a coincidence that the solar crowd dumped a whole lot of campaign checks on some GOP “honorables” while this was going on.

Today was a travesty.  The GOP stood for decades as the people’s voice in opposing corruption and sleaze in Raleigh.  Now in charge, they’ve become what they spent decades protesting.

We have an opportunity to teach these people a lesson in the March primaries.  The arrogance of this crowd is out of control.  The ONLY thing they will understand — learn from — is unemployment.  Knock them out of their Raleigh gigs so they have to get off our dime and go get a real job.  As long as they believe you will applaud them and chant their names — regardless of what they do — nothing is going to change. war

The two parties now have the same business model as The Mafia.  Look out for the interests of the inner circle at the expense of everyone else.  Take control of everything not nailed down. Stomp on any perceived “competition.”

It’s not about platforms and ideas. It’s not about improving the overall quality of life.  It’s about getting rich and gaining more power.  You can keep following them like sheep — mindlessly marking the name on the ballot with the R next to it, or the name you keep hearing on those TV ads — or you can get educated on the issues, wake up, smell the coffee,  and say “HELL, NO. NO MORE.”