Drive-by branch of Crybaby Caucus melting down over thought of Berger-less Raleigh
I’ve given up hope for some sanity and truthfulness out of these guys. 
Exhibit One: I’m old enough to remember Mitch Kokai as a newsreader syndicated out to AM radio stations across North Carolina. Apparently – NOW – he is a respected credible expert-on-everything political analyst.
Check out this headline on his latest:
Example of WHAT, exactly?
Wait. There’s more:
Weeks before North Carolina’s primary election, pundits were murmuring about Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger’s future.
Could the Rockingham County Republican actually lose an election to the local sheriff? […]
Wow. Could *we* be a bit more snide and arrogant ???
As I’ve said before, sheriffs are typically the most popular leaders in a county. It’s usually a good thing to make friends with the sheriff. Sam Page had – after all – won six, count ’em, SIX countywide elections.
Most of these clowns on Jones Street don’t realize how close they are to meeting a fate similar to that of Phil Berger. All of you guys have your jobs because NO ONE ELSE wants them. NO ONE. (Who would want to hang with those people and deal with that crap every day – so far away from home, for so little pay?)
If someone credible were to step forward, quite a few incumbents in our General Assembly would be what the kids on the playground call *finito.*
Just because the kids at John Locke and WRAL find you glamorous and important, it doesn’t mean you really are.
Phil Berger, his family, and his cronies thumbed their noses at the taxpayers and the folks back home just a little too often. They F.A.ed and F.O.ed.
MORE:
[…] If so, would he fight the result? Would he leave his leadership post? Resign from the Senate? If he stuck around, how would he approach his final year in office?
All questions but the last one have been answered by now. And signs point toward Berger operating much as he has during his previous 15 years at the Senate’s helm. […]
Finding government employment for family members and cronies. Applying kid-gloves treatment to legislation pushed by well-paying lobbyists. Killing off bills with no (or not enough) cash tied to them. That kind of thing.
MORE:
[…] To recap, Berger lost by 23 votes last month to Rockingham Sheriff Sam Page. He asked for recounts available under state law. He also filed a handful of election protests but abandoned them when the recounts confirmed Page’s win.
Berger chose not to fight the result in court. “While this was a close race, the voters have spoken,” he acknowledged in a March 24 concession. He confirmed plans to return to Raleigh “to ensure North Carolina continues to be the best state in the nation in which to live, work, raise a family, and retire.”[…]
That’s right. *Saint Phillip.*
MORE:
[…] The Senate leader no doubt recalls the circumstances surrounding his own rise to power.
Berger and fellow Republicans shocked observers across the state when they took control of the General Assembly in 2011. Berger replaced Democrat Marc Basnight, who had led the Senate for a record-setting 18 years.
Contemporary reports suggested that Basnight was gracious and ordered his staff to cooperate with new Republican leaders during the transition. In contrast, the outgoing Democratic state House speaker blocked transition efforts. He haggled with his successor for a major increase in the minority party’s staffing budget.
Berger is unlikely to focus on dropping political bombs on his way out. […]
Really? Why do you say that? The Berger Warroom is STILL firing away at Sam Page more than two months after the vote. Berger supporters – and Berger himself – are still out there claiming Sam Page was a Trojan Horse put up by the Democrats. Anyone familiar with Page will recognize what a joke that assertion is. Democrats are more likely to get something out of Berger than from Page. They got Medicaid expansion (TWICE) , The Green New Deal, and dudes in the ladies restroom.
They ran an ad in the primary alleging Page impregnated an inmate at the county jail. (There’s been no apology. Defamation suit is likely soon to follow.) Berger’s son Kevin -chairman of the county commissioners – has been attacking Page, the county sheriff, non-stop since he announced his intentions to primary Daddy. Requests for SBI probe after SBI probe. There’s not one bit of evidence suggesting gracious losing and helping his successor continue to help the people of Rockingham and Guilford counties.
The Berger crowd likes to insinuate Page is a tool of the Democrats. But look who’s out there praising Berger on his way out the door:
[…] “Phil Berger is an institutionalist,” former state Sen. Mike Woodard told the Raleigh News and Observer this month. A Democrat from Durham, Woodard opposed many of Berger’s priorities for more than a decade in the Senate.
Berger “is going to continue to support the institution that has been a part of his life for a quarter-century,” Woodard said. “He’s not going to do anything crazy that would go against the quarter-century of work that he’s built up. So he’s going to continue to be that steady, institutional leader that he’s always been, and he’ll continue doing that through December.”[…]
“Supporting the instution” is code for lobbying the hell out of it. Berger and his political team recruited just about every GOP senator still in the chamber. They owe him and he’s not going to let them forget it.
MORE:
[…] Few people have opposed Berger more often in recent years than Gov. Josh Stein, another Democrat. The two political figures have battled over legislation and lawsuits.
Yet the governor offered the News and Observer a respectful assessment of his political adversary. Stein and Berger have “very different perspectives on what’s the best way to serve the interest of North Carolina, what’s going to position us for long-term success — but I respect the fact that he believes deeply what he does, and it comes from a place of affection for North Carolina,” the governor said.[…]
Right there is an example of how to sound polite and respectful about someone you really can’t stand. (You see it all the time in politics.)
Now let’s move over to Mitch’s drive-by colleague Colin Campbell of UNC Radio. Back in the days of debating the HB2 “Bathroom Bill,” Campbell was at the N&O obsessing feverishly over the goings-on in the state’s public restrooms. Some readers of our site noticed this and jokingly changed Campbell’s first name — in response to the aforementioned obsession — from “Colin” to “COLON.”
Campbell recently published a story featuring a lot of teeth-gnashing over “mysterious” PACs that went after. Berger in the election and helped Page. According to Campbell, the groups spent a total of about $700,000 in the race.
Buried at the bottom of Campbell’s story is an aside about how “mysterious” groups spent about $9 million promoting Berger and trashing Page. (The total is actually closer to about $12 million.) What makes all that money extra seedy? Berger has control over whether legislation lives or dies in the NC General Assembly. Spending money to help Berger’s political fate could be seen as an investment in your pet legislation’s livelihood.
Each campaign’s call for volunteers spoke volumes. Page got average Joes and Janes from the neighborhoods of Rockingham and Guilford counties. Berger had to import poll workers from the General Assembly staff and from the lobbyists working the legislature.
Why is 80 percent of Campbell’s story fretting about the $700K spent for Page, while the $10 to 12 million for Berger gets glossed over and buried?
Berger losing his home county 2-to-1 while outspending his opponent more than 12-to-1 is a hell of a political story. It’s the real story here.
