Blueprinting Mr. Stone: ”McClatchy Rob” has no shame

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Mike_Stone_North_CarolinaDemocrats have been working hard to take out state Rep. Mike Stone (R-Sanford).  Stone’s 2012 race was a little too close for comfort.  In 2013,  the Blueprint crowd has ordered the creative writing crowd at McClatchy-Raleigh to sharpen their crayons and finish Mr. Stone off.

Rob Christensen is widely celebrated as Mr. Politics in North Carolina.  I used to cover politics within the mainstream media in North Carolina.  Rob and I frequently crossed paths while doing business.  From all I saw, it was pretty clear that Christensen is little more than a sycophant suck-up butt-kisser to the Raleigh political establishment (Read: DEMOCRATS).

Rob followed John Edwards around for MONTHS and never bothered to mention the blonde in John-Boy’s entourage with the video camera. Rob and I were part of a media gaggle at a Democrat Party dinner in Lumberton, where then-Lt. Governor Dennis Wicker,  was giving a speech.  Ol’ Rob was apparently the only one in the room who didn’t notice that Wicker had a Domino’s Pizza delivered to the podium while he was speaking.   It’s funny — not ha-ha funny — how Rob starts getting a WHOLE LOT more observant when Republicans take over the show in Raleigh.  

This past weekend, Rob submitted a column so laden with half-truths, convenient omissions and LIES that  Joseph Goebbels and the Soviet-era Pravda editors must be grinning with pride while roasting in HELL:

I was sitting in a state House committee meeting the other day when the mayor of Sanford, a polite soft-spoken lady named Cornelia Olive, appeared hat in hand with a humble request.

The town of Sanford – and the Lee County school board – had been running their community pretty well for decades, without a lot of fuss or nasty political fighting, she said. But a bill had been introduced to turn town council and school board elections into partisan affairs. None of the local elected officials had asked for it, she said. None had been consulted before hand. Nobody had even been given a chance to study it.

Did Sanford really have to go to partisan elections?

Yes, mayor, partisan elections you must have, the lawmakers replied.

Well, if that was the case, Mayor Olive said, could you at least put it to a referendum of local residents?

No, mayor. Such things were impossible. Case closed. The measure passed the Republican-controlled House in a party-line Republican vote.

Rob neglects to tell you about Ms. Olive’s résumé:

Now serving her second term as mayor, Cornelia Olive became well known locally through her work withThe Sanford Herald, including a five-year term as editor. She later moved from Sanford to the Outer Banks, where she edited the Outer Banks Sentinel before returning to Lee County.During her long career in journalism, Olive also spent four years at Durham Morning Herald; served as campaign press secretary for Rep. Ike Andrews (D), who represented North Carolina’s fourth congressional district from 1973 to 1985; and was press secretary for North Carolina attorney general Rufus Edmiston.She was named 1994 Citizen of the Year by the Sanford Civitan Club and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Central Carolina Community College. Before being elected mayor in 2005, she represented Sanford’s second ward on the city council.

OK.  Former member of the drive-by media.  Check.  Press Secretary for former congressman Ike Andrews (D).   Check. Press Secretary for former NC Attorney General Rufus Edmisten (D).   Check.   Sorry, Rob.  She’s a wee bit more than just a “polite, soft spoken lady” with “hat in hand.”

So, Rob starts off with hiding his primary source’s political background.  *Gotta make the Republican look like he’s beating up on some sweet little old lady.  NOT a veteran journalist and Democrat Party hack.*

Now that the GOP is competitive in North Carolina, Dems and lefties are not so hot about party affiliation being listed on ballots.  In judicial races, for instance,  Democrat candidates are associated with weak sentencing, coddling criminals and tying cops’ hands.   It’s tough to run as a Democrat in North Carolina these days.  I’d hate to have to run with the “D” next to my name, too. 

Now, after all of these years of silently watching the reign of terror orchestrated from Jones Street by Liston Ramsey, Jimmy Green, Richard Morgan, and Jim Black — McClatchy Rob is concerned about “big government:

For years we heard conservatives say that the government closest to the people governs best. But they were talking about Washington. When it comes to Raleigh, the new Republican majority has not hesitated to use state power to advance their own agenda – even if it means disregarding local sentiment.

Most people still believe in local community control. A recent national poll conducted by Mason-Dixon found that 37 percent of those interviewed put the most trust in their local governments, as opposed to 22 percent in their state government and 12 percent in the federal government. Among Republicans, the local lean was even more pronounced.

Never mind that the “examples” he cites are pieces of legislation (requested by local groups in the affected districts) which really, really, really happen to piss off the state’s professional left.

The column’s coup de grâce  is a glowing tribute to the “journalism” of NC PolicyWatch — a leftist site edited by Chris Fitzsimon, the panelist on NC Spin who blinks, in Morse Code, the words “John Hood Sucks” repeatedly throughout each episode:

If someone questions the power of Raleigh over a local community, there is often blowback. As Sarah Ovaska of N.C. Policy Watch reported, Republican Rep. Mike Stone of Sanford became irritated when a local radio talk show criticized his effort to turn Sanford elections partisan.

The show aired on an FM radio station affiliated with Central Carolina Community College. Stone’s office sent an email questioning the station’s radio programming, budget and source of funding. The radio program was pulled.

It just won’t do to have anyone criticizing the wisdom of the central government. After all, Raleigh knows best.

Wow.  It’s getting deep in here.   According to the emails I saw, Stone’s aide simply asked for details about the show’s schedule, whether it was affiliated with the college, and whether the college radio station was adhering to FCC guidelines.  I saw no evidence of  the legislator getting “irritated.”  Stone did not ask for the show to be cancelled — as far as I can tell.   It looked like legislative oversight to me.  The college president pulled the show. 

 Rob neglects to mention that the two on-air personalities were former Sanford Herald newsroom staffers as well as local Democrat Party operatives.  To the credit of Sarah Ovaska with NC Policy Watch — she did ID the two hosts and note their backgrounds.  However, she quoted CCCC board of trustees member Tony Lett lashing out at Rep. Stone.  Lett was a donor to the campaign of Stone’s 2012 Democrat opponent. 

So, Rob devoted a whole column to Democrat hacks and lefty activists blasting a Lee County Republican legislator.   This looks like the modus operandi for the BluePrintNC hostile takedown of  the GOP majority in state government.  Get  bunch of biased negative stories into the mainstream media, so you can THEN get Public Policy Polling to take polls that lead to stories like THIS.