Boss Hoggs

While Boss Hogg chased bootleggers, Brenden Jones is chasing the ABC commission.

North Carolina Republican House Majority Leader Brenden Jones reminds me of Dukes of Hazzard County Commissioner Boss Hogg. They look alike. They control rural counties. They’re both buffoons. And they’re both grifters. But one’s an actor and one’s a Republican leader.

Boss Hogg was a parody of the old Southern political bosses of the 20th century. Jones is a parody of Boss Hogg.

In the Dukes of Hazzard, Boss Hogg controlled Hazzard County, Georgia, often through grift and ill-conceived schemes. He saw political power as a means to increasing his personal wealth. Brenden Jones is following his lead.

It seems Jones has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He’s using his influence to steer business to his cronies. And while Boss Hogg was concerned with illegal liquor, Brenden Jones is trying to take advantage of the legal booze business.

Jones is using his legislative power to steer business to developer buddies to give them a windfall at taxpayers’ expense. Jones has told the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission that they must use a developer that has given massive amounts of money to the GOP to build a new “high-tech warehouse.”

According to good government champion Bob Hall, Jones told his legislative colleagues that the ABC Commission approved his scheme when, in fact, the ABC chair actually opposed it, calling it a “horrible” plan. Jones’s plan “would cost $589 million in lease payments over 25 years, and the developer would still own the warehouse.” Commission Chair Hank Bauer “wants approval for the commission to borrow $310 million to build the warehouse, which it would repay with ABC sales and permits.”

Here’s the kicker: donors tied to the developer Jones is pushing gave more than $500,000 to North Carolina Republicans, including more than $50,000 to Jones’s campaign committee. That sure looks like a pay-to-play scheme to me.

Of course, Jones fits firmly in the grifter wing of the GOP. Don’t look for Republicans to hold their own accountable. Graft has become one of the party’s core values. They believe that getting elected should lead to getting rich. While that’s a time-honored tradition in politics, the Trump-led GOP has taken it to new levels.