#ncga: Pouring water on a grease fire
The anti-HB2 hysteria was flaming out. The concert boycott announcements were dwindling down to nothing. All the NCGOPe had to do was keep sticking to its guns and stay focused on November. But, no, John Hood, Art Pope and the uptown Charlotte crowd had to breathe new life into this charlie foxtrot.
We already told you about the insiders huddling to water down HB2 — on behalf of the National Basketball Association. The water-down included supposed tougher penalties for trespassing in the wrong locker room or restroom, and something called a ”certificate of gender reassignment.”
Gov. McCrory huddled with the Republican legislators this week to try and sell them on the watering-down. The House leadership showed some interest. From what we’re told, the governor was received in a rather lukewarm fashion by the Senate leadership. 
THAT likely explains what all of those Senate Democrats were doing at the governor’s mansion today. It’s straight out of the McCrory playbook to work around Republican opposition by wheeling-and-dealing with Democrats. Charlotte conservatives have told me stories about being burned by then-mayor McCrory on tax increases and new regulations he pushed through with the enthusiastic support of Democrats.
Apparently, the McCrory reelection campaign is going all-in on “compromise” with HB2:
[…]And Republicans are ready to blame anybody who doesn’t support a compromise.
“Any Democrat standing with the Human Rights Campaign and other out-of-state liberal interest groups by refusing any compromise is attempting to drive the NBA All-Star Game from North Carolina,” said GOP spokesman Ricky Diaz.[…]
McCrory won in 2012 by aggressively going after Democrat base voters. He won a lot of precincts in 2008 that were also won by Hagan and Obama, and in 2012 in a lot of places won by Obama.
Team McCrory has bent over backwards to raise money from Democrat sources. They’ve even worked to appoint said Democrats, or have looked to them for advice on who to appoint.
To add some O. Henry-style irony to this story, the NBA has strongly denounced the proposed watered-down HB2. Remember those guys? The ones the GOPe has bent over and grabbed their ankles to please?
We survived George Shinn moving the original Hornets to New Orleans. We survived Bob Johnson and Michael Jordan’s awful Bobcats. If they want to yank the all-star game and move the Hornets, I say knock themselves out. (Give me the ACC’s Big Four any day of the week over that pro nonsense. )
The NBA All-Star game doesn’t mean diddly to the average person in North Carolina. (Me? I won’t even watch it on TV.) Ol’ Pat’s uptown friends and the Charlotte Chamber care deeply about it. Is ONE game worth ticking off the conservative base, dramatically changing our state’s culture, and sacrificing the privacy of our mothers, wives, and daughters?
Defeat the Republicans … elect Americans to office this November.
McCrory has no political savvy. He is going to end up with both the Gaystapo with their corporate bully sidekicks and the Christian conservatives hating him. Why is he determined to commit political suicide? North Carolina does not need that.
If McCrory had done this before the primary, we would have a different GOP gubenatorial nominee right now.
Where IS Dan Forest? He seems to be MIA. This is an issue where he will show his true colors. Is he real or a phony?
On issue after issue, Little Timmy Moore has proven himself nothing but a go-fer for the left, as has most of his ”leadership team”. They are doing it again, and it is totally disgusting to the GOP base. Moore is truly the John Boehner of North Carolina and needs to get the treatment Boehner received. Talk to your local GOP House members and tell them they are going to have to commit to dumping Moore as a condition of your vote and support.
Call your Senators. They are the only hope of conservatives. Help them keep their backbone to stand up to this foolishness.
John Hood? He is an intellectual who may be okay talking generically about policy issues, but his political prescriptions invariablly help the left and screw conservatives. He is either totally clueless in practical politics or deliberately working as a mole for the left. Art Pope needs to wake up. It looks like John Hood is the one pulling him in the wrong direction.
Since Art Pope elevated John Hood to be his consigliore earlier this year there has been a decided Hood-ification of the Pope political machine. …. Is Art paying attention?…. is Hood carrying out Art’s orders?…. Don’t know.
Under Hood’s pompous little thumb the Pope “Think Tanks” have become irrelevant. More NC voters read Haymaker than read Carolina Journal. Keep giving them Hell, Haymaker.
We cannot ask people to vote for real conservatives this November if there are none on the ballot. Ross vs Burr, McCrory vs Cooper, etal. NC needs an independent “conservative” group to recruit and support such candidates, wherever they are found.
This debacle has McCrory’s fingerprints all over it.
Playing to Pat’s Charlotte insiders? Check.
Trying to play the issue down the middle, but pleasing no one? Check.
Playing up the All Star Game drama narrative without even bothering to check if they’re ok with the changes? Check.
I’ve leaving the ballot for governor blank in November. McCrory is just completely and utterly incompetent.
Lets look at what is actually wrong with this bill.
First, the sex reassignment certificate is not that big of a deal. It is the rest of it that stinks.
Instead of using the specific classifications of NC law on what are protected classes for discrimination purposes, this bill adopts federal law. NC needs to keep control of that subject, not hand it over to the feds. This is a VERY anti-states rights and ANTI- local control provision. That by itself should make any conservative vote against the bill. Under this bill, any group that was considered protected for federal purposes, would also be for state purposes, and that is particularly dangerous at a time that the progressives are really pushing the envelope in this area of policy. NC badly needs to keep its own control in this area.
Then there is the Anti-discrimination task force it creates, which opens the door to expanding protected classes for anti-discrimination purposes. This is a door that does not need to be opened.
Finally, there is the litigation target this paints on the backs of NC small businesses by allowing anti-discrimination suits in state court. After all the attacks by the homosexual activists on Christian bakers, photographers, and florists around the country for refusing to participate in homosexual ”marriages”, this provision is an absolute abomination. Big business is almost always sued in federal court, so it is small business that is the target of this provision. This provision creates a field day for homosexual activists to harass our NC small businesses, and the defense costs alone may sink many of those businesses that would be attacked. The homosexual activists should be told to get stuffed. We should leave the protection for our small business from harassment litigation from homosexual activists as it is.
This bill is a monstrosity, and any politician who votes for it or signs it should lose the vote in November from all conservative and Christian voters because they would have seriously betrayed us.
John Hood ought to consult Civitas’ own poll, which shows that North Carolina voters overwhlemingly understand that the media is totally mischaracterizing this issue. We are winning. We hold the high ground. Why snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory?
You will note RIcky Diaz cheerleading for the NBA cave in on behalf of the NCGOPe. You see, we at HQ have decided to pander to the LGBT vote because we think that the Christian conservatives are so dense they will support us anyway.
We are now in control of your party. We have kicked out your conservative chairman. We screwed you on a fictitious vote for National Committeewoman. Now we are doing what we want on policy and issues, and it is all for the moderate side of things.
Screwing you little people on the National Committeewoman’s election was not the only reason we played stall ball at the convention. It also meant no platform or resolutions, giving us a free hand on issues. We even ditched the executive committee meeting after the convention so those things could not be passed there, either.
Ha HA. We have won and you get none. Enjoy your liberal NCGOPe.