#ncga: PTSDed House leaders relent under pressure from ‘silly fringe websites’
I got word yesterday from a House mole that we’re STILL living rent-free in the brains of state House leadership: 
“A directive was sent out in the Republican caucus. We were not to visit Plott Hound or The Haymaker. We were not to pay attention to silly fringe websites like that which nobody, we were told, reads. Well, after about a week of you guys beating the snot out of them on this Millis bill, leadership is ready to play Let’s Make A Deal. Apparently, those websites are not so silly after all. You guys sure got their attention. Put some heat on them.”
The “Millis bill” we’re talking about is HB 681 — aimed at ending the state’s alternative energy mandates and lowering consumer power bills — that had been killed in committee thanks to FIVE Republican defectors.
Well, Tuesday night, the powers-that-be in the House huddled with Rep. Chris Millis and other supporters of the bill SOME components of the bill — watered down, though — were going to be inserted as amendments in a “Regulatory Reform” bill to be debated Wednesday night. Instead of a sunset on the mandates, the House approved a six percent cap on them. (You can almost feel Laura Leslie’s anger and resentment in this piece.)
Next stop: The North Carolina Senate. My House source had this prediction:
”Mr. Apodaca and Mr. Rucho in the upper chamber appear to take great pleasure in upsetting the applecart in the House. I can see the Senate taking this legislation, making it more conservative, wiping out the mandates altogether, and tossing it back to the House. I think things are just getting started. This is going to be fun.”
This time, Rep. Kelly Hastings voted YES. He took to social media to crow about his support for this version, and to take a shot at people who had criticized him for helping to kill HB681 in committee:
Stood firm? Millis’s initial bill phased out the mandates altogether. Hastings voted against it, calling it too liberal. This legislation, which Hastings voted for, only caps them at six percent. Hastings voted FOR the more liberal version — much closer to what the green crowd wanted — of the bill.
I could dismiss this is as the ramblings of a mealy-mouthed politician. But then, he has presented evidence that he is sometimes not all that clear about what’s going on in the House. 
This guy was taking heat from conservatives across the state AND in his district. Voting AGAINST this bill would have earned him a rough primary in 2016. (He may still get one.)
One House member emailed me after seeing the above comments from Hastings on Facebook:
Here’s the thing about this whole solar situation that is so frustrating for members.There was NO need for this to be a knock down drag out fight in the GOP Caucus. (And it was!)
It should have been a slam dunk, easy lay-up for the GOP majority.The only reason the caucus “stood together” is because the blogs, Haymaker, Civitas, AFP and Plott Hound and random people on Facebook, held feet to the fire!!They proved to be stronger then the Big Solar lobby because the solar lobby was WRONG and everyone knows it.They did not attack Kelly “too soon”. They attacked him just in the nick of time.
It is sad that people have to fight to get “conservatives” to act like conservatives. Thank you, Haymaker, for keeping us informed on this slithery bunch!
I wonder if the ”leadership” also send out a directive to not pay attention to the official Platform of the silly fringe North Carolina Republican Party, when that silly fringe North Carolina Republican Party is the ticket they got elected on?
There is an old saying in politics that the ”leadership” seems not to comprehend – ”ya dance with who brung ya”.
What legislators really need to do is not pay attention to the silly leftwing fringe ”leadership”.
This is why the delgates to the state convention need to elect someone for chairman that is not in debt to our elected officials for their endosements but someone that will have the guts to hold them accountable to the party platform
It is really sad when we have people who are supposed to be leaders of the Republican delegation in the NC General Assembly calling the official positions of the NC Republican Party ”silly” and ”fringe”.
To me, it is the positions of Obama, Gore, Soros, and Steyer which these ”leaders” seem to advocate that are ”silly” and ”fringe”.
“not to pay attention to silly fringe websites like that which nobody, we were told, reads”
Definitely credit where it is due. I follow politics around the world (US politics and its one party system bore me, what can I say?) and what you’re doing here definitely reminds me of the beginnings of order-order.com in UK politics. Congratulations for all you’ve done this far. One of the first pages I visit every morning to get the facts of what’s going on in the GA.
Telling elected officials not to read conservative media is also an indication of the hostility toward conservatism. I’ll bet they did not instruct them not to read leftwing media like BlueNC or the News and Observer.
It also strikes me as a bit like the old Soviet regime instructing people not to listen to Radio Free Europe. All that did was make people more determined to listen to Radio Free Europe.
I really wish someone could investigate and determine just why so many Republican squishes in the House are married to renewable energy subsidies. It really borders on obsession. Are their large donations to their campaigns/PACs? Were these guys employed by Duke or some other energy company prior to their elections? What’s the connection?
The answer to that question could be in the governors mansion
In my case, Kelly Hastings might be correct about blog readership. My blog audience in Greater Cherryville is not all that great. I need to work on that. 🙂
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Listen, if we don’t take care of our Green Friends, then they won’t take care of US by giving us more of our green friends, you know our GREEN FRIENDS like Benjamin ($100 bill), Grover C. ($1,000), our buddy Madison ($10,000 and who could forget our old pal W’Drow Wilson ($100,000 bill) Got to get you some of that Woodie action. There’s alot in it for us by going green, lots of friend$. Then we get to look like big shot dumbasses sitting around smoking fat cee-gars.
Of course, Republican opposition to renewable energy is ”silly” and ”fringe”, excepting the Al Gore Republicans who love polar bears and want the greater glory of the hard core environmental movement, however.
This is a bigger issue that most imagine. It is part of President Obama’s strategy for a green America. As President Obama said, this strategy will ”cause electric rates to necessarily skyrocket”. So don’t whine about the peon electric ratepayers whose bills will skyrocket. It is all about the greater glory of the Obama plan for a green America. President Obama got lots of money for projects like Solyndra, and now our Al Gore Republican friends in the legislature are making sure the same concept takes root in North Carolina.
Our green Republican friends like Speaker Timmy are not only good Al Gore Republicans, but they are good Obama Republicans as well. They will help President Obama make the electric bills of the average American skyrocket, as they should. Those stick in the mud Republicans who want to talk about their party principles and protecting the electric ratepayers are not only silly and fringe, but they are also racist, since anyone who opposes President Obama has to be a racist.
When this article talks about ”leadership” it should be more specific. Speaker Timmy is clearly a good Al Gore Republican and an Obama Republican, but some others in the formal leadership are not. Majority Leader Hager successfully offered an amendment to another bill that would have completely ended the Renewable Energy Mandate. He is not an Al Gore Republican or an Obama Republican. Speaker Pro Tem Skip Stam spoke against the renewable energies subsidies and voted against them. He is not worthy of the praise that should go to Speaker Timmy.
So who is this leadership that deserves our praise? It is what some call the Three Amigos, but who for me the old Soviet term Troika fits best. The Troika is Speaker Timmy and his two left hand men, Lewis and Dollar. The Troika makes all the real decisions in the legislature anyway, and they are good Al Gore Republicans and Obama Republicans. They love polar bears and want the greater good of the hard core environmental movement.
I wonder if these House ”Republican” leaders would call the Republican US Congressmen who are working in Washington to end the federal subsidies of renewable energy ”silly” and ”fringe”?
http://www.redstate.com/diary/dukefergus/2015/04/22/marchant-steps-end-crony-corporate-wind-power-giveaway/