North Carolina was once referred to as “A valley of humility between two mountains of conceit.” The mountains were the aristocratic states of South Carolina and Virginia. Well, this week, we can say that there’s valley of verbosity between mountains of deceit. Pat McCrory is spending time with the Heritage Foundation, led by former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, and Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli, a right-wing zealot who is about to lose.
If a man is known by the company he keeps, McCrory is keeping a couple of doozies here. DeMint is the Tea Party favorite who left the Senate to drag Heritage off the right side of the earth. Cuccinelli is the Virginia Attorney General who is so far to the right that he’s handed the governor’s mansion to Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a guy who is almost a parody of the sleazy pol.
McCrory, who ran as a moderate, is cozying up to the extremists. Heritage orchestrated the recent government shutdown and DeMint is leading the once-prominent think tank down the road of ruin. He’s drunk too much of the Tea and has probably done more damage to the GOP than any Democrat could possibly do. It can be argued that DeMint cost Republicans the Senate with his support of nutty GOP primary candidates (think Christine “Witch” O’Donnell) who actually won the nomination only to get crushed in the general election.
Cuccinelli, for his part, is a hard core social conservative who is obsessed with sodomy. He’s been endorsed by Rick Santorum and questions whether climate change is real. The guy is a poster child for why the GOP is failing.
But McCrory? He’s wading right in. Going to hang out with the wayward think tank on Monday. Then heading over to Virginia to see if he can salvage a deck chair or two from the Titanic.
I guess the folks at Heritage are a bit more hospitable than the local reporters. Heritage didn’t ask him about Aldona Wos or hiring campaign cronies at inflated salaries. They just teed up a couple of questions, including giving him the opportunity to hint at expanding Medicaid. And as for Cuccinelli, his career is soon to be over. McCrory can see if he regain some his credibility with Virginians since he’s squandered it all with North Carolinians.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Thomas,
Can you not leave off complimenting Heritage, it is a rightwing, kooks nest, funded by corporations as a major propaganda mill – putting out tripe, lies, innuendos on behalf of the wealthy and corporations. Locke sprang from Heritage 25 years ago, and has not told one truth since. Heritage is slime, pond scum, a roach motel for discredited rightwing pols and their friends.
There’s tone deaf, and there’s just plain dumb. Siddling up to the Cooch appears a loser’s move. Cucinelli has the taint of failure on him, and it really doesn’t look like a salvageable campaign at this point. So why would McCrony bother to cozy up? Two things spring to mind:
1) Access to fundraisers. Is Pat going for some big DC bucks from the wingers in DC? He’s been good to the far right, signing (nearly) everything they brought him. Is it time to collect on that?
2) Conservative cred. Maybe Pat thinks that being highly visible with the very conservative Cucinelli might burnish his cred with the right? Success seems doubtful on this one, since the True Conservatives don’t like him or respect him much. It kind of reeks of desperation, as in, he’s given up on reaching the middle, or cluelessness, as in, he thinks he can have it both ways, reaching out to arch conservatives and independents at the same time.
Just when we had started to go numb, his arrogance rises to a new level of outrageousness. McCrory’s administration is coming apart at the seams, and so he goes to DC to brag about it. Governor Hunt never showed such narcissism, even when he was on top of the world. The sooner we can send this vapid jerk back home, the better.
Don’t leave off wingnut Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin. That’s Pat’s idol! I’m waiting for Palin to show up to defend his policies for him. Her words are as hollow as an empty rain barrel, but people line up to hear it. Removes the doubt about what’s in their minds or isn’t, as the case may be.