American Legion: Speaker Timmy is a, um, Role Model.

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(*Stop Laughing.*) That’s the official word from the overall, highly-respected nationwide civic organization:

[…] The American Legion presented its Patriot Award Tuesday at the 104th National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. Speaker of the House Tim Moore.

The award was presented to Moore for his dedication in promoting the values of The American Legion, and his support of the American Legion World Series in Shelby.

In part, his Patriot Award reads, “Your support for the youth of America and the nation’s largest veterans organization epitomizes The American Legion’s ideals of public service.”

“Thank you for this incredible award. It means a great deal,” Moore said to convention attendees. “On behalf of the people of North Carolina I want to, of course, thank you for the award but more importantly thank you for your service, thank you for your confidence and trust in our state, and thanks for what you’re doing around the country to help veterans and to help youth.” […]

Hmm. Funneling $500K of OUR MONEY to someone’s baseball tournament. *Quite patriotic.*

I wonder if this award had anything at all to do with THIS from 2018:

[…] This year’s budget is a textbook example.

Of the roughly $35 million of discretionary “pork” spending outlined in the GOP budget, the vast majority goes either to rural GOP stronghold areas or to conservative-leaning organizations like anti-abortion groups and Christian hunting and fishing clubs.

Cleveland County, home to House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cumberland) did particularly well in this year’s budget. The small county, which has fewer than 100,000 residents, got more than a million dollars in grants and funding. That includes $500,000 to host the American Legion Baseball World Series, an amateur baseball event that has been held there since 2011.[…]

Cleveland County, which has fewer than 100,000 residents, got $500K to cover the cost of hosting the Legion’s World Series event — which had been in the county since 2011.

That’s a helluva bit of “support.”

You have to wonder if the Legion award was one of those “favor(s) to be named  later.”

 (By the way, shortly after becoming speaker of the House, Moore got named Cleveland’s county attorney.)

It’s pretty clear that Timmy has his eyes on another political job.  Dan Bishop is surrendering a safe Republican district in the US House.  (Redistricting is coming up soon. There may be more to follow.). The Patriot Award is a much-needed Band-Aid for a curriculum vitae already loaded with a lot of back-stabbing, scandal, and general mealy-mouthedness.  

While we’re looking back at Timmy’s record – let’s look at what he promised his caucus when he first ran for speaker in 2014:

[…] Even with those accomplishments, it is time we move toward a different phase in our leadership of North Carolina. To govern in the future, I believe we must use and grow our collective wisdom and participation. That means we must use the vast resources of the membership of our caucus to solve problems.We must encourage fruitful debate and respect opposing viewpoints and each other. Regardless of the outcome, we stand as one caucus.[…]

*Respect?*  Tell us, honorables, does any of that sound like what happens if you dare to balk at the game plan being pushed by Messrs. Moore, Bell, and Saine?   Does it sounds like how the on-going casino and weed shenanigans are being conducted? 

Oh, speaking of casinos: