One of the early lines in Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger’s acceptance speech this morning after his re-election to the top post in the Senate seemed especially ironic given the week’s events. Here’s what Berger told his colleagues.

Senators, as we make tough decisions, think of the families out there struggling to make ends meet, sitting around their kitchen tables, balancing their check books, saving for retirement or a college education for their children. Think of them as we craft bills and cast votes.

That’s what Berger said Wednesday morning. Just 24 hours before,  a committee of leaders of the House and Senate approved a plan that would make the harshest cuts in the country to benefits for unemployed workers.  (Read more about the draconian proposal in Tuesday’s Fitzsimon File and today’s Weekly Briefing)

Maybe what Berger really meant is that Senators should  think about families struggling to make ends meet, and then vote to make their lives even harder by catering to the wishes of the well-connected lobbyists from the N.C. Chamber whose plan would rip new holes in the state’s tattered safety net.

In case you needed another one, here’s your Monday morning reason to be a little cynical about things in Washington. It comes from Sunday’s column by Gretchen Morgenson in the New York Times. The whole piece is worth your time, but the first paragraph sums things up.

If you were hoping that things might be different in 2013 — you know, that bankers would be held responsible for bad behavior or that the government might actually assist troubled homeowners — you can forget it. A settlement reportedly in the works with big banks will soon end a review into foreclosure abuses, and it means more of the same: no accountability for financial institutions and little help for borrowers

The more things change…..

AP is reporting that Gov-elect Pat McCrory is turning to a wide variety of people to help with transition efforts and to look at the operations of state government. But apparently none of the names are public yet.

The AP report says the team includes CEOs, current and former legislators, and high level ex-government officials.

We deserve to know who is advising McCrory, especially since he continues to be paid by a law and lobbying firm in Charlotte and his campaign officials are soliciting money for a new political organization at the same time.

This does not bode well for a candidate who constantly promised transparency if he was elected.

Governor Perdue will be presiding over the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Capitol tonight.  Later this morning look  for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger to issue a statement attacking Perdue and demanding that she postpone the tree lighting until January so Gov-elect McCrory and the General Assembly can do the honors.

North Carolina Senator Richard Burr sure must be proud today. Burr was one of 38 Republican senators who blocked Senate approval of the U.N. Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Tuesday, a treaty that was negotiated by the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Steven Benen had a good summary of the story yesterday afternoon.

The treaty would not require the United States to do anything. It would require other countries to improve the way they treat people with disabilities to the level that is currently the law in our own country, “to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities.”

The vote came after former North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole helped her husband, former senator and Republican icon Bob Dole, make his way on to the Senate floor in a wheelchair to support the treaty that Senator John McCain and seven other Republicans voted for.

Burr however sided with the lunatic fringe who claimed there was a vast conspiracy at play. The headline of the New York Times Editorial Page Editor’s Lawrence Downes’ blog sums the vote up pretty well—”From Republicans, a Parting Slap at Bob Dole and Disabled Americans.”

Here’s how Downes saw it.

The vote was a triumph for Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum and others on the hard-right loon fringe, who have been feverishly denouncing the treaty as a United Nations world-government conspiracy to kill disabled children (you can look it up).

Nice job Senator Burr.