Thom wants a hug.

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He was injected into North Carolina politics by a cabal of Charlotte money-men irritated with the presence of an actual conservative incumbent legislator. They got him through the primary, and then introduced him — in the wake of the 2010 GOP takeover of Raleigh — to the rest of the GOP caucus as their new speaker.

As speaker, Thom Tillis oversaw primaries against conservatives.  Legislative priorities were determined according to how much $$$$ an interest’s supporters coughed up. He ran for US Senate while concurrently serving as speaker.  (*That made fundraising a WHOLE lot easier.*)

Tillis is in his second six-year term in DC — having never won 50 percent of the vote.  The conservative vote in the primary got split in 2014.  (He even struggled to beat severely-politically-wounded incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan that November.)  In 2020, a credible conservative challenger was muscled out of the primary.

Tillis got to Washington and glommed on to Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOPe.  His voting record regularly earned him a ranking awfully close to the most liberal wing of the GOP caucus — or awfully close to the most conservative Democrats, which ever way you want to look at it. 

Tillis tries to paint himself as heroic for going along with the legalization of gay marriage.  I knew he was going to make the move as soon as I heard about the BIG GAY DC fundraiser being held in his honor.  *When $$$$ talks, Thom comes a-running.*

Thom devoted a good chunk of his time during the Trump years stabbing The Don in the back.  I’ll never forget him going on Tucker’s Fox show claiming that we don’t need a border wall — everything is fine as-is.

Now here we are.  The Don is on his way back to four more years in DC.  Surely, The Don and his team are aware of how badly Thom screwed them the first go-around.

I am hearing from credible sources that a credible primary challenger to Tillis has been identified.  The challenger has North Carolina ties but has been off the in-state political radar.  I am told the money and infrastructure will be in place, ready to roll against Thom, once the matter of 2024 is settled.  People, I hear, can only take soooo much back-stabbing.  

If the primary does not materialize, or if Thom somehow survives it, he’ll likely have Roy Cooper — if he’s not VPOTUS — waiting in the wings.

Here’s Thom running his  mouth to The N&O in Milwaukee:

Sen. Thom Tillis was censured by the North Carolina Republican Party last year for supporting same-sex marriage.[…]

Nope.  It was for over-all party disloyalty.  Just look at his voting record as compiled by the various conservative ranking services.  Thom has regularly been the most — or one of the most — liberal Republicans from North Carolina in DC.

MORE:

[…] But Tillis set aside his differences with the state party in a show of unity to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He made the decision to come after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday during Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I had it on the calendar to try and be here for a day,” Tillis told reporters in a conference room at a Hilton in Milwaukee. “But I thought, the events of last Saturday, the president’s focus on unity, that it was very important for me to be here.” Other Republicans who weren’t planning on attending were also on their way to the RNC, including Sen. Ted Budd and congressional candidate Brad Knott. […] 

Milwaukee was where all the drive-bys were.  We’ve all heard about the peril and danger involved in standing between a politician and a camera.

Tillis “set[ting] aside his differences” ????  WTH?

The only politician who has reached out to Tillis for campaign help was DPI superintendent Catherine Truitt — and she lost her primary.  

Thom and his buddy Paul Shumaker tried to use Bill Graham to take out Mark Robinson in March’s gubernatorial primary.  Did everyone see how well that worked? 

Republicans who have to woo voters realize that Thom Tillis is poison to their political livelihoods.  There’s a reason Thom’s cell doesn’t ring often during campaign season.  It ain’t broke.  No one wants him.  Behave like a weasel and a sleaze and you shouldn’t be surprised that no one — except, maybe, Dallas — wants to hang with you. 

MORE:

[…] Tillis arrived in Milwaukee Tuesday and plans to stay through Friday, allowing him to witness Trump’s acceptance of the party’s nomination. And so far, the North Carolina Republican Party has welcomed Tillis with open arms.

“I’ve got a great relationship with the chair of the GOP, the district chair, the folks that are really serious about keeping the majorities that I helped gain in 2010,” Tillis said. “I can have a disagreement with anyone, but where you’re going to have problems with me, is when you engage in discourse that threatens the work that we’ve done since 2010, to turn the state around and maintain Republican majorities.” […] 

Translation: If you’re in office, or running for office, and espousing conservative stuff, Thom and his boys will be all over you.  To those guys, conservative stuff is poison.

MORE:

[…] PARTY PLATFORM AND CHOICE OF JD VANCE

He added that the new party platform — a narrowly focused 16-page document cut from 66 pages — no longer includes “the very plank that was used as a basis for censure.” This year’s national Republican platform is silent on the question of same-sex marriage.[…]

Again, Thom was censured for trashing and ignoring every plank in the party platform. Why should he care what the platform actually says? Cash is his ideology. 

MORE:

[…] Tillis said it’s been under-reported how moderate the new platform is. “I do think that the president has done a good job of also sending a very clear message on issues that I think divide Republicans and also alienate potential voters for a Republican base, and people ought to read the 16 pages of our platform,” Tillis said. “I’m very happy with it, and I know the president’s fingerprints are literally all over the document.”

Tillis said he is also supportive of Trump’s pick of Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio, as his running mate and said he considers Vance a friend. “I think he’s a great pick,” Tillis said. He added that he considers Vance a friend, and despite some public disagreements, they share many policy priorities in common.[…]

Vance certainly hasn’t been overseas with Thom groveling and kowtowing before the Ukrainian president.

MORE:

[…] “I think he’s a great pick,” Tillis said. “I think he improves our chances of winning in Ohio. We’re going to win in Ohio, but I think it improves our chances of winning the Senate race there.”

PERSONAL ATTACKS

Tillis said he’s hoping Vance, in a speech to the convention Wednesday, continues Trump’s calls for unity. “I hope that we set an optimistic tone,” Tillis said. “We show respect for our political adversaries, our political opponents, but also not dehumanize them because that’s, I think, a part of the problem and political discourse today at either end of the spectrum.”

Would an example of that include your PAC – financed with embezzled bitcoin cash — that eviscerated Madison Cawthorn?   (*Just checking.*)

MORE:

[…] And Tillis said he believes that political discourse is what led to the violence over the weekend. […]

There’s absolutely no proof of that.  But it’s being repeated at light-speed by Democrats and other Trump foes trying to head off any up-coming criticism of the ongoing Biden-Harris catastrophe.

MORE:

[…] Trump was speaking on stage Saturday night when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a nearby rooftop, law enforcement officials say. A bullet struck Trump in the ear, barely missing his skull. But a person attending the rally, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, died in the shooting and two others were seriously injured.

“Our rhetoric is actually mirrored sometimes in deadly ways,” Tillis said, “by, like, the shooter on Monday. It matters. It puts people at risk and it also takes us away from the things that people really want to hear, about what’s our future, what’s our priorities for America, what’s our priorities for North Carolina. “But nobody should be surprised that it happened.” The current session of Congress has gone down in history as one of the least productive. […]

So, there is no sense of responsibility or accountability or shame for people like Thom Tillis who perpetually lie and backstab and prevaricate?  So, we’re simply supposed to sit back, smile, and just accept his crap and other similar fecal matter?

I’m not responsible for what happened in Pennsylvania.  It’s my right and responsibility to stand up to and call out sleazy politicians who are harming our country and not doing what I elected them to do.  We all have that responsibility.

Stuff like this spin from Tillis is meant to shut up potential critics so he and the rest of his ilk can go on with business as usual.  Business-as-usual has been flushing our country and our economy down the drain.  Somebody has to say something.

Washington will be a better place once Thom Tillis is no longer on our payroll.