Why lead when you can hide behind a B.S. commission or even SUE ???
Governor Pat McCrory is ratcheting up his efforts to bring the same GOP base infuriation and screwing-over tactics he perfected in Charlotte to a much larger statewide audience. The legislature set up a commission for dealing with Duke Energy’s coal ash spill in the Dan River. Instead of talking policy specifics, Gov. Pat has decided to initiate a fight over who gets HOW MANY appointments to said commission. To hammer home his point, McCrory has teamed up with Jim Hunt — *EVERY Republican’s friend* — and Jim Martin to sue senate president pro tem Phil Berger (R) and speaker senator-elect Thom Tillis. (Jim Hunt. Really? *Was Beezlebub, himself, unavailable?*)
*Sigh*. We elected McCrory to LEAD the state government and make it more efficient and consumer-friendly. We elected a GOP majority to shrink go
vernment and introduce some freakin’ common sense to the state bureaucracy. We’re not getting ANY of that. Both sides in this fight are WRONG. Gov. Pat allowing that snake oil salesman Jim Hunt into this makes his bumbling quadruply egregious and atrocious.
NC DENR has four divisions — Water Resources, Waste Management, Ecosystem Enhancement, and Water Quality — that seem, on the face of it, quite appropriate for dealing with the coal ash spill. There have got to be all kinds of regulations and rules on the books. Instead of fixating on a nonsense commission, why not dispatch DENR to DO ITS JOB ????
If there are some conflicts or ambiguities in terms of policy, why not have members of the administration sit down with the appropriate legislative committees to firm up or clarify the guidelines? A bunch of folks with Rs next to their names RUN state government. I thought they were all on the same team.
Send that weasel Jim Hunt on his way. Kill this stupid commission. Have the folks at DENR sit down with appropriate Jones Street personnel to figure out a game plan. AND GET ‘ER DONE.
It’s unbelievable to see the alleged party of smaller government creating yet another layer of bureacracy when we already have this monstrous environmental regulation machine in the budget. Stop pussy-footing around and get to work. DO YOUR JOBS.
Give me a break. Same people complaining about this are the same people who rush to defend McCrory/Forrester everytime.
The only state GOP officeholder worth a damn is Senator Berger. Who defends him?
And don’t defend Forrester to me. If he isn’t willing to stand up to McCrory WHY would he be a good governor or senator for that matter?
McCrory and his administration are no more conservative than the Perdue or Easley administrations.
I hope you mean Forest. Senator Forrester passed away, didn’t he?
Dan Forest HAS stood up to the governor on a number of important issues.
Still waiting on those examples of when Forest stood up to McCrory about ANYTHING.
Without McCrory people involved McCrory has less ability to protect his pals in Duke Energy while screwing the rate payers.
The biggest screw job on the ratepayers is the Renewable Energy Mandate, which needs to be repealed. Tillis was the one stopping the repeal effort and now he is gone.
Hopefully, McCrory’s lawsuit will get the Senate in gear to be sure the entire cost of the ash cleanup falls on the stockholders of Duke Power, not the ratepayers. This was a management screwup, and ratepayers should not be held accountable for that. Stockholders through their votes control their BOD and therefore management. Ratepayers have no say in who is in management.
Brant, thank you for catching that. I did, in fact, mean Forest.
Raphael, so glad to know that Forest has stood up to McCrory. Would you please provide the links or information regarding these? I have no recollection of him doing anything except getting tea party types to support McCrory.
Of course, I don’t know him myself. The only times I have received communications from him was one time when he wrote to thank me for giving to a different GOP candidate and then another time when he wrote me to tell me he was so happy to have met me at a reception for a GOP House member. Of course, he didn’t actually meet me but he copied my name from the host committee invitation and got my address from the state board of elections so he could write me. I always thought it was against the law to use those filings to solicit support. He didn’t meet me because I didn’t attend, just sponsored the event.
The one time I DID meet him, I remember someone saying to him that he should consider running for governor in 2012. If looks could kill, Forest would have murdered that woman.
Forest is McCrory’s lapdog. That’s it.
There is no hope for McCrory. Phil Berger is exactly right on this one.