#ncpol: Throwing stones in glass houses

Posted on by

BriberyIn 2010 and 2012, Republicans took over in Washington and Raleigh promising to be better than the other bunch that had been running the place.  How have they done?  Let’s see:

  • A state senator sits under state and federal indictment for using his lobbyist-supplied campaign fund as a personal piggy bank.
  • Numerous members of the state House leadership have been caught dead-to-rights paying for “international travel,” “salaries” for themselves and family, and thousands of dollars in clothes with campaign funds.  (No one has been indicted.  No one has been asked to resign.)
  • There is an, um. amazing correlation between high-dollar donations to the McCrory reelection campaign and appointments to administration posts.
  • There have been serious allegations of pay-to-play in the state House  — bills following a path determined by who cut the biggest check.  Complaints have been made.  No one has been investigated. No one has been asked to resign.
  • We had a duly elected state party chairman run out of office on a rail amidst a flurry of unsubstantiated allegations that suggested criminal activity.  He’s gone, a stooge is in his place, and we’ve heard no more about an investigation of the former chairman on those allegations that drew so much, um., “outrage.”
  • We have a US senator running for reelection whose campaign makes payments to his brother-in-law who just happens to lobby the federal government.  Said lobbyist’s wife is the treasurer of said senator’s “leadership PAC” — aka “shakedown fund.”   No one appears to have a problem with that.
  • We have a sitting member of Congress representing this state who can’t seem to tell the truth about what he did for a living prior to running for office.
  • Now comes congressman Robert Pittenger, under investigation by the FBI and IRS, with details that appear to indicate an improper — arguably illegal — raid on his personal business bank accounts to finance his 2012 campaign.     We knew about the probe prior to his contested primary in July, but state party leaders said nothing.  Now, we’re headed into a general election with the chance that one of the state GOP’s top leaders may get dragged off the campaign trail by federal agents.

You look at all that and then you hear of all the smug hypocrite politicos condemning Donald Trump about that 11 year old tape of two guys talking.  The bullet points above bribe-5indicate possible violations of the law — some with more meat or evidence than others.  Apparently, some serious thumbing of the nose at the law.   And Trump used crude language.

Granted, the use of crude language should be condemned.  But I really don’t want to hear it from (a) the same folks who tell us to ‘get over it’ when we complain about how filthy and crude pop culture has become, or (b) folks who have a serious track record of mealy-mouthedness and very dark ethical — potentially criminal — clouds hanging over their heads.

(REPUBLICAN isn’t much good without strong ties to ETHICS and CONSERVATISM.)

How do you change it?  The Democrats want you to hand things over to them.  Remember Jim Black? Remember Frank Ballance?  It didn’t work so well under them.  We do this with a change of culture in DC and Raleigh.  We do it with new blood from outside the political mafia that doesn’t have designs on the contents of your wallet.  We do it by getting educated on the issues, staying informed, and letting these miscreants know, like Roger Daltrey said, We Won’t Get Fooled Again.