Out of His Depth

by | Mar 28, 2016 | LGBT Rights, NC Politics, NCGov | 31 comments

After reading about McCrory’s post-HB2 presser, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But I was tempted to choose laughter. Colin Campbell’s report is a veritable Encyclopedia of Hapless Pat.

First there’s the persecution complex:

“‘…Gov. Pat McCrory said Monday that the outcry from dozens of major corporations is due to news reports that are ‘distorting the truth’ and ‘smearing our state.'”

Of course the media is out to get him. And his policies. And the state he represents. A malevolent force they are, those reporters. As an aside, his claim that the backlash stems from misinformation is actually a major insult to the business community. Corporate PR teams get paid lots of money to work with the news media, and it would be a damning failure on their part to get duped by “liberal journalists.”

Moving on, we see McCrory is ignorant of his own bill. Asserts the governor:

“We have not taken any rights away that existed in any city in North Carolina, from Raleigh to Durham to Chapel Hill to Charlotte.”

Anyone who’s followed this debate even peripherally knows that HB2 nullifies existing rules. To override LGBTQ protections was the intent of the when McCrory called his “Starve the Beast” tax cut package revenue-neutral. Like Charles Barkley not reading his own autobiography, Pat McCrory knows little about the bills he signs. Take it from the guv:

“I’ve been travelling all day, so you’re telling me something I’m not aware of.” Right.

And finally, the meltdown:

“I’m doing my job and communicating not only with the employees of the state, but also with the employers of the state who are getting a lot of information–sadly, even through your newspaper–that aren’t clarifying facts in a correct way. I’ve got to do it, especially with your editorial pages that are definitely misleading the public on many items.”

Thus appears his signature, semi-delirious run-on sentence. It cries out: Help me! I’m out of my depth!

31 Comments

  1. Russell Scott Day

    I was caused to remember the first bill that made NC a laughing stock. That one is HB 819 otherwise portrayed as the Climate Denial Bill. It is spoken of as part of the horror in the recent book The Collapse of Western Civilization. That ends with people huddled on high ground in China.
    Looking around a little bit further I found that there had been a move to alter significant portions of HB 819. Those had failed really. Some bits had been sort of altered.
    Then there was an agreement that was meant to call for revisiting HB 819, March 2016.
    So far I have not heard of that happening.
    Keeping the populace riled up over gender and race is a great way to distract them all from focus on issues of greater significance with further reaching consequences.
    Little of the bill that works at making sure no pressure is allowed by municipalities to raise the minimum wage.
    It is disturbing that 25 percent of those who call NC home, live in poverty. It is disturbing that so many businesses point at the minimum wage, and plea we can’t pay any more than what the law forces us to pay.

  2. A. D. Reed

    It’s amazing to me how dimwitted the governor is. I know that in his 30 years working for Duke Power and 14 as Charlotte’s mayor he was the “handshake guy”: not the one who closed the deal, never the one who negotiated it, and generally the one who didn’t even know what was in it; but, rather, the friendly, well-spoken, easy-going empty suit who shook hands at the end of the negotiations and said, “Hey, we did it!”

    Apparently that’s exactly how he approaches the governorship. Just as he always had bosses who walked him through and told him what to do and whose hands to shake in what order, he now does what the legislature tells him, just blithely assuming that it’s a deal worth celebrating.

    Dim, dumb, and dense as a London fog.

    • Norma Munn

      The last sentence is perfect!!!

  3. Out west

    Boy on the runaway horse.

  4. Ebrun

    Can you provide specific examples where HB2 nullifies existing local ordinances?

    • Alex Jones

      The article mentions several.

      • Alex Jones

        I.e., the N&O article.

        • Ebrun

          The article mentions Raleigh and Carrboro ordinances preventing LGBT discrimination in contracting. I don’t believe that was the intent of the bill. If, in fact, it is determined that HB2 revokes those nondiscrimination ordinances, the law needs to be amended in the short legislative session to correct that problem.

          • JC Honeycutt

            Ebrun, are you serious? Revoking those nondiscrimination ordinances–and especially the one recently passed for Charlotte–was the sole & only purpose of HB2. According to my alleged representative in the GA, Robert “Bob” Steinberg, no municipality in NC has the right to pass any local ordinances with the GA’s permission. In response to my expression of outrage at the passage of HB2, he states, “North Carolina is a ‘Dillon’s Rule’ state, which basically means that the state has unlimited power, except for restrictions under the state and/or federal constitution, however, municipalities have only the powers that are expressly granted to them.” (I’m assuming he means “expressly granted to them by the NC General Assembly”, as that seems to be his general drift.) In other words, aside from, say, the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights, the NC General Assembly has total control over its citizens and the towns/cities/counties where they dwell.

            Now, I don’t know if this statement is accurate (never having heard or been told that the state of NC was an all-powerful dictatorship during my 70-plus years of living here, and not having sworn an oath to believe whatever Rep. “Bob” chooses to state as fact); and had I believed this was the case, I would have either moved elsewhere or spent a LOT much time making sure that candidates for the GA were actually certified as sane–not to mention “fair and balanced”.

          • Ebrun

            JC , you’re state rep is correct. NC, along with 37 others, is not a “home rule” state. All authority and powers exercised by local governments are expressly granted by the state, meaning the General Assembly with the Governor’s sign off, unless it is a strictly “local bill” in which case the it does not require the Governor’s signature. If you’re really that interested in this issue, check out the state constitution. It’s available on the net.

        • Ebrun

          The Governor’s latest statement on HB2:

          “The non-discrimination policies in place today in cities like Raleigh, Greensboro and Asheville and in every business in North Carolina are the same as they were last month and last year.”

          Do you think the N&O’s legal analysis is correct? I suspect the Governor has good legal advisors. I would trust their legal opinion before I would the N&O’s.

          • Jay

            Do you trust the government’s attorneys more than you trust the attorneys who represent some of the country’s largest and most successful corporations? The corporate attorneys charge a great deal more than the government’s attorneys. They have no reason to attack state government other than their concern for a safe work environment.

          • Ebrun

            Corporate attorneys’ first priority is to their corporations, whose first priority is corporate profits. I sincerely doubt attorneys from out-of-state corporations who are based in other states are as familiar with the NC Constitution and NC law as state lawyers who provide legal advice to the NCGA and the Governor.

            Of course, anyone is free to believe whomever they think is right.. I would put my money on legal analysis from NC attorneys who are familiar with state law and the state Constitution.

          • Jay

            One of the concerned employers was Duke University. Certainly, Duke University with a School of Law consistently rated in the top 10 in the country also an employer located in the North Carolina, would have some credibility. Duke aligned itself with the other employers like American Airlines who oppose the new legislation. Duke’s lawyers are not out-of-state, nor are they representing a profit-driven corporation. The lawyers for the state are not just biased. They represent a single political party’s point of view.

          • Ebrun

            Liberal universities usually line up with liberal interest groups like LGBT advocacy organizations. They are just as biased as attorneys who represent a political party. The difference is that HB2 is now state law. Whether it was a good idea or not is a political issue on which there are major differences of opinion. What is does and does not prohibit is a legal question to be decided, in the near term, by state officials and ultimately by NC state courts.

          • ty

            the Governor doe snot even read bills before he signs them and he admits this more than once ..he is the GOP ;legislatures bitch and does what they say. legality is not his ensconce..doing as he is told and his hopes to save his career is all that matters to him. the religious right law teams were also sure that gay marriage would not be legal and guess how that tuned out? thissi all about extreme right wing ” christians” wanting to impose thier views on us all and suing the GOP tea party types to pander to them// it is illegal and will be proven to be so.book and bet on that. hate , ignorance and prejudice have been renamed “religious freedom” and echos the bs religions on the right gave to interracial marriage and civil rights in the 60s..

    • ty

      oh really?? just read the bill and then inform the governor. i can not give a direct quot eof the language but it says essential: no local municipality can pass an ordinance or law that gives more rights ot any group or changes the ones already in place set by the state. since the state has ZERO ordinances to protect the LGBT community. that means any local law that exists to protect the LGBT community exceeds those of the state ( which do not exist and therefor are null an void) additionally;you should know that the GOP wa sworkign on a law like this after gay marriage became legal but the feedback was very severe and they dropped it..but the extreme right christian group continued to pressure the legislature and in less than 12 hours the GOP pushed through a bill they wanted a while back using Charlotte as an excuse..welcome to christian sharia law brought us by the GOP

    • A. D. Reed

      Asheville passed an ordinance a year or so ago requiring that those contracting with the city pay a living wage to their employees. That law is now null and void.
      Asheville passed an ordinance 20 years ago that required the city not to discriminate on the basis of any characteristic that is not directly related to a person’s qualifications for and ability to do a job.” That grew out of the city’s wrestling with adding sexual orientation to a nondiscrimination ordinance that already covered age, race, and gender.
      Several cities have passed ordinances giving preferences in hiring and contracting to veterans; those ordinances are all now null and void.

      You asked for specific examples.

      • Ebrun

        I doubt anyone will challenge Asheville’s living wage ordinance, nor do I think a court will nullify it. Same with the prohibition on employment discrimination. The veterans’ preference ordinances could conceivably be challenged. Be interesting to see how the courts handle that one. The NCGA might be wise to amend HB2 to support veterans’ preferences.

    • Jay

      And while the Republicans continue to embarrass the state and blame the media, millions of dollars in the form of conventions, conferences, tourism and discretionary expenditures are going elsewhere. McCrory failed to learn the lesson Indiana Gov. Mike Pence learned when he signed The Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law which permitted discrimination of the same kind. When called to task for it, Pence, like McCrory, claimed he did not read or understand the bill he signed. To paraphrase Dean Wormer from “Animal House”: Racist and stupid is no way to govern North Carolina.

      If he didn’t know, he should have known, because that’s his job.

      • Ebrun

        Specifically, what groups, organizations and/or businesses have altered their plans to hold conventions and conferences in NC due to HB2?

        • Jay

          Since you do not believe the “liberal media,” the “liberal universities” or anyone who reports from outside the state, there isn’t really a source I could cite that you would believe. You should do your own research.

          • Ebrun

            Suspicions confirmed!

        • Ebrun

          Wow. Liberals endorsing and supporting blackmail by big, out-of-state corporations. I sure hope the Governor stands tall against this smear campaign.

        • Ebrun

          Wow, liberals are supporting economic blackmail of NC by big, out-of-state corporations. I sure hope the Governor stands tall against these outrageous threats.

        • Ebrun

          The NC Values Coalition lists 300 individual North Carolinians and 17 NC businesses that support HB2. I’ve seen liberal blogs dismiss the list of 300 because it included individuals, not companies. It probably hasn’t occurred to most liberals that these NC individuals are probably small businessmen, entrepreneurs and business leaders. They are wise enough not to list their businesses by name and subject their companies to a vicious defamation campaign by national groups pushing the LGBT political agenda.

          It seems ironic that liberals in NC are willing to praise economic blackmail of the state by large, out-of-state corporations, but belittle the views and opinions of over 300 NC business men and women. That’s the height of hypocrisy.

          • Jay

            Blackmail involves some sort of threat or intimidation to someone unless the blackmailer’s demand is met. It is not blackmail when a person, business or organization writes you off forever because they want to avoid your racism or bigotry. What you call blackmail might resemble a boycott, which is not illegal, but a boycott is usually a reminder that the free market involves choice and a boycott usually ends at some point in time.

            McCrory and the Republicans in the legislature have done permanent damage to the state’s reputation over the past several years. Organizations choosing not to relocate to North Carolina or to do business in North Carolina have written off the state as a hopeless moral wasteland. That’s not blackmail; that’s revulsion. The world has chosen to vacation, hold conventions or relocate elsewhere. They do not want anything from you, ever. They have looked at what you have to offer, and they have rejected it. In a free market economy, no one is forced to choose the most vile business option.

          • Ebrun

            Call it what you will, it’s a coercive threat. And me thinks you exaggerate a tad re the state of the NC economy. Last time I checked, we were among the top states in job creation and personal income growth since 2013. Several national business publications have ranked NC at the top of their lists for business location and development.

            No doubt the left is roiled and vexed by the state’s economic growth under GOP leadership. So far, their negative propaganda campaign has had little impact. Seems like that “free market economy” is working like Adam Smith envisioned.

        • Jay

          Have you found any groups or organizations that have altered their plans to do business in NC yet? It’s in the news pretty much all over the country. Even if you don’t like liberal media, surely some right wing outlets have mentioned it.

          • Ebrun

            I’ve seen 2 or 3 companies cancel expansion plans or change their site locations to another state, but have seen no notice of cancelled meetings/conferences. Not claiming there haven’t been any cancellations, just haven’t seen or heard of any. So give us some specifics if you know of any.

  5. Jay

    Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but the governor’s failure to understand a statute the he signed into law is inexcusable.

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!