Berger Admits He Has Cooties

Phil Berger, President Pro Tempore of the NC Senate

1. So Gov. Bev Perdue takes the gutsy action of calling on the NC General Assembly to raise sales taxes three-quarters of a penny to restore some of the teaching jobs lost under the budget rammed through by the new Republican majority, a budget which included letting a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase expire.

2. Republican Senate Pooh-bah Phil Berger has a conniption, partly, we suspect, over the fact that The Guv was gutsy. Who saw that coming? He challenges Perdue to a debate. Which she declined.

But here's the funny part, the seemingly unconscious acknowledgement on Berger's part that the politics that he and his boyz in the General Assembly have created are not working to the benefit of Republicans. Via Laura Leslie:

Asked how much of this is about election-year politics, Berger said he’d been told by consultants that “The governor’s path to re-election is most likely going to be successful if she can pick a fight with the legislature. In my opinion, I think what you’re seeing, particularly over the last week or so, is her picking that fight."

Let that sink in. Republican consultants have been telling Berger (and Thom Tillis, we would guess) that their long-awaited assumption of power in the state has made them very unpopular. More than just telling Berger, they were apparently warning him that The Guv could put herself on a track to reelection if she "picks a fight" with the unpopular Republican-dominated General Assembly.

She does it, and Berger spills the beans. There are some Republican consultants experiencing face-palm time right now in Raleigh.

Kudos for Boone

Boone makes the Forbes list of fastest growing small towns in America.

Yep. Those dern librul Democrats have ruined everything!

Photo credit: Lonnie Webster. Photographed at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, Little Rock, Ark.

Apparently, that "problem" in the Republican Party started turning around decisively in South Carolina. A GOP "operative" named Mike Green posted this knee-slapper on Twitter:

JUST HEARD OBAMA IS GOING TO IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN BECAUSE IT'S WHITE AND IT WORKS.

The following aphorism has been popping up frequently on Twitter and elsewhere. I've seen it attributed to Robert E. Lee, Mark Twain, and Maureen Dowd, and I'll tell you right now, I don't believe any of those attributions. I'm thinking ... H.L. Mencken:

South Carolina ... too small to be a nation, too large to be an insane asylum.

Got Our First Pope-Machine Mailer!

The Pope Boyz have somehow decided that Yours Truly is a good candidate for marching on the Right Side into "Battleground North Carolina." The Pope Civitas Institute has invited Little Ole Me to a two-day boot camp at the Crabtree Marriott in Raleigh to learn how to strip the paint off the hide of any liberal. But let the mailer speak for itself:

"The liberals will do whatever it takes to win in 2012, but North Carolina conservative can stop them.

"North Carolina will be a battleground state like never before -- you owe it to yourself and your state to be organized and ready to win.

"Battleground North Carolina is designed to energize, train, and equip citizens in our state to defeat liberal policies and liberal 'community organizers.' "

Yeah, when you're organizing, there's nothing more demon-izable than community organizers!

Participating in the training will be pooh-bahs from Americans for the Prosperous, The Heritage Foundation, and the many tentacles of Art Pope's empire. A good hyperbolic immersion will be had by all.

Mitt Romney, Street-Smart

We're blessed this year, O my brethren, with Republican candidates for President who have become their own self-parodies, and I'm not actually talking about Newt's high-dudgeon at the indency of questioning his morals, which are obviously impeccable and beyond mere mortal inspection.

Not, I'm talking about Mittens' claim last night in South Carolina that he’s the “perfect example of why we need to send to Washington someone who has not lived in Washington, but someone who has lived in the real streets of America.”

Mitt Romney, channeling Arnold Stang pretending to be The Fonz. We nearly died laughing!

Wanting To Please Caesar, Lusting To Be Caesar

David Neff in Christianity Today flays the pharisees who gathered in Texas last Saturday -- with sheriff's deputies as dutiful gate-keepers, no less:

By conspiring to throw their weight behind a single evangelical-friendly candidate, they fed the widespread perception that evangelicalism's main identifying feature is right-wing political activism focused on abortion and homosexuality....

Seems that Mr. Neff is fed up with evangelicals' being the Republicans' lapdogs.

The Texas-ranch pharisees, who think they're almighty king-makers ordering their followers to bow down to Ole Frothy, are actually, "to use the old Soviet phrase, serving as 'useful idiots.' Christianity Today founder Billy Graham discovered this had happened to him. Out of an abundance of enthusiasm and good will, he tried to aid Richard Nixon in his campaign. Later, when Watergate transcripts revealed the true Nixon, Graham realized he had been used...."

To which there were many posted responses, though this one was fairly typical:

...Our cry in the wilderness will only be heard when we look more like Jesus and less like political activists................it is time to repent! The God of righteousness is at the door and He is demanding our souls!

Supreme Court Slams Door on Forsyth County

The U.S. Supremes refused to accept the Forsyth County Commission's appeal of a U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the "in Jesus' name" prayers at the beginning of commission meetings violated the separation of church/state provision in the U.S. Constitution.