ThommyT : having it BOTH WAYS

The alphabet crowd (LGBTQRSUVW…) calls it “gender-fluid.”  Our senior senator is also “fluid,” in a way.

Thom Tillis has signed on to Ted Budd’s recent “restart the border wall” legislation.  This is the same guy — by the way — who went on Tucker Carlson’s show a few years back to tell us “we don’t need no steenkin’ wall.”   Everything is FINE as-is, he said.

Tillis hauled in a bunch of campaign money from some really rich DC gays who wanted action on same-sex marriage.  Our senior senator gave them what they wanted. The folks back home in North Carolina threw a fit.  His aides tried to soft-pedal it all, telling us that their guy REALLY did not cave in to the radical gays on marriage.

Thom Tillis has jumped on board just about every gun control measure that has passed through Congress during his time there.  He gave speeches that included the word “bipartisan” somewhere in every sentence.

Now, he’s pushing legislation to allow for reciprocity on concealed carry permits between states. (Dee Stewart recently authored a column in The Charlotte Observer praising this effort by Tillis.  The Observer, amazingly, IDed Dee as “president of Americans for a Balanced Budget.”  It would have been much more honest to identify Mr. Stewart as what he really is: a top political strategist to Tillis.)

To the experienced political eye, Team Tillis appears to be working overtime to remake their guy as much more conservative than he really is.  This might fool a lot of the low-information crowd back home.  But not those of us who have actually been paying attention.  

My theory for a while has been that Tillis was using this “bipartisan” crap to sell himself as a great investment for the lobbying offices on K Street at the end of his Senate career.

But my sources in Raleigh tell me that Tillis is still inordinately interested in the goings-on in his former stomping grounds: Raleigh.  We’ve got a governor’s race coming up in 2024.  It looks like we have three candidates in it so far: Mark Robinson, Mark Walker, and Dale Folwell.  Tillis and all his special-interest shake-down cash could jump in at the last minute and steal the nomination.  Remember, it only takes 30 percent to escape the primary.  He could do that in a four-way competition.

Could he be eyeing the presidency in 2024?  His ego is so HUGE, it’s very likely. (Maybe he could talk the eventual nominee into the #2 spot on the ticket.)  

ThommyT is not having a change of heart.  The guy has little to no moral foundation.  He is motivated completely by cash and self-interest.  There is a deeper, murkier motive behind this rightward shuffle.

Be wary. Very wary.