Fair process and common decency dealt another blow in the House
July 3, 2012 at 2:14 pmCategory:Uncategorized
As I wrote earlier this morning, Rep. Becky Carney deserves a big raspberry for her inexplicable and accidental vote to pass the fracking veto override last night. Progressivees are slapping their foreheads all over the state at the gaffe.
But here’s the thing, it should never have been an issue. Votes in the General Assembly are changed literally dozens of times per day after the fact by lawmakers who were not paying attention during votes and/ or, truth be told, by people who change their minds after the fact.
That Speaker Thom Tillis employed a kind of “gotcha” tactic to seize upon Carney’s error and deny her the chance to change her vote because it would “change the outcome of the vote” — even when she called his attention to it almost immediately – is but the latest example of his ongoing effort to bring the mean-spirited, cutthroat politics of Congress to North Carolina. He simply did not have to do it and could have allowed her to make the change.
The bottom line: The victory for fracking proponents occurred even though the proposal did not and does not actually enjoy the support of the constitutionally-required majority of the General Assembly. Like an athlete who knows he failed to comply with the rules of a sport (or their spirit) and “wins” on an official’s incorrect call, Speaker Tillis took North Carolina yet another step away from cordiality and common decency in governing.
