McCrory “pleased” with Thom Tillis
Yep. You read that right. The Charlotte Observer has the details:
The response by House Speaker Thom Tillis to the indictment of a fellow Republican lawmaker drew praise Friday from GOP gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory.
But his opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, said the indictment of Rep. Stephen LaRoque makes it harder for McCrory to criticize a Democratic “culture of corruption.”
“It’s harder for (McCrory) to say that with a straight face given what’s going on,” Dalton told reporters. “There are examples in both parties … that neither side should continue.”
The question came up after both candidates spoke to the North Carolina Trucking Association in Ballantyne.
Dalton was asked by a reporter about GOP efforts to brandish a “culture of corruption” label against Democrats in light of recent incidents involving legislative staffers and LaRoque. Laroque, of Kinston, was indicted on federal charges of theft and money laundering involving his management of more than $7 million in federal funds.
Tillis, a Cornelius Republican, has urged him to resign.
“I’m very pleased with Thom Tillis,” McCrory said. “That’s the type of leadership I will demand as governor.”
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Pleased with Thom Tillis ???? Leadership? It took MONTHS of browbeating from Joe Hackney, bloggers AND grassroots activists to get Thom to finally move. The indictment from the federal grand jury made it harder to continue the stall technique. How much leadership — or courage — was involved to wait until the session was over, and the primaries were done, to ask for LaRoque’s resignation?
Holy Cow. THIS is an example of the kind of stuff that makes Barbara Howe’s poll numbers go up. I feel like I’m reliving that godawful 2008 election between Elizabeth Dole and Kay Hagan. (Makes sense. Pat has basically THE SAME TEAM working for him that ran THAT masterpiece.)
You know you’ve screwed up when you’ve got me agreeing with Walter Dalton. The sleaze issue is not a Democrat or Republican problem. It is a RULING CLASS, ESTABLISHMENT problem. We have people in both parties who REALLY ENJOY being called “Mr. Chairman” and/or “the honorable gentleman”, being fawned over by lobbyists, and spending other people’s money. McCrory and Dalton are both part of this problematic ruling class.
If WE THE PEOPLE want to straighten out our economic mess we’ve got to weed these people out. Get rid of the people who ENJOY political life in Raleigh and DC and replace them with people who actually care about restoring some sanity to this country’s operations.
I agree that Tillis crapped in his mess kit by not dealing with the LaRocque problem months ago, and that he has hurt the GOP by sitting on his hands. Further, that has been the Tillis way of doing things and he has scrwed up on lots of things that gave us a black eye, from his staff raises to his town hall meetings to Zippergate to LaRoque. He needs to be replaced as Speaker and he does not need to run for US Senate in 2014.
However, from a campaign PR standpoint, taking Tillis to task for his past incompetence on this issue was probably too complex a message for a candidate in McCrory’s position to jump into with the media. The key thing to get across in the media is that McCrory also wants LaRoque to resign. Sometimes in campaigns, messages have to be kept simple. While we conservative activists might appreciate McCrory jumping all over Tillis for his mishandling this situation for months, that probably isn’t the best approach for messaging to Joe Sixpack who has not followed the ins and outs of what Tillis has and hasn’t done. I just hope that McCrory’s team internally now fully comprehend that Tillis is a total screw up.