NCGA: "Um, this is YOUR monster, Drs. Berger & Moore." | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton turns his attention back toward th eNC General Assembly in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    Politicians never cease to amaze me. A few sessions back, I was treated to a barrage of b*tching from various Republican legislators about Skip Stam and Thom Tillis. From all I was hearing, those two were getting knocked down a few pegs and booted out of leadership. (Of course, they both got reelected to their posts the next go around.)

    When I continued to hear moaning about Stam and Tillis, I stopped these complainers and asked: "Who voted them into their leadership posts? WHO?"

    I am having similar thoughts, and asking similar questions, about this latest hubbub over the UNC Board of Governors. Apparently, the board of governors is thumbing its nose at the legislature, and the laws it passes, by meeting today on the hiring of a new president of the UNC system. Of course, Moore and Berger are expressing a bunch of outrage. But, in response, to that, I have to ask the same question I asked the aforementioned whiners: "Who voted them in?"

    The board of governors for the university system is voted on and approved by the legislators themselves. Very little consideration is given to what the candidates for cm1the board actually bring to the table. It usually is - as is the case with most political appointments - all about how big a check you wrote to the right politician.

    Harken back with me to a past House session where board of governors candidates were being voted on. By all accounts, then-Speaker Thom Tillis was trying to ram through certain candidates the GOP caucus was balking at. Tillis was so determined that he made them vote over and over again. His argument on behalf of these BOG candidates? They had written really big checks to his campaign and the caucus. (At least one of the Tillis-approved candidates was a Democrat.)

    That's been a problem during Raleigh's 'conservative revolution.' Influence-peddlers with little to no party loyalty or ideological mooring write big checks and get big rewards from the so-called conservative revolutionaries. So, we get a lot of conservative talk but not-so-conservative action.

    Conservatives had a great opportunity to remake the UNC system for decades to come. To rip it out of the clutches of the far-left Chapel Hill-Carrboro crowd and get it back to actual educating. To get more conservative-leaning faculty in the doors. To restore an appreciation on those campuses for things like, oh, capitalism and patriotism. That kind of thing.

    Yet, here we are trying to replace the departed lefty Tom Ross with George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind-loving education secretary. Again, we're not looking for any kind of principles or ideological moorings. We're all excited about the R next to her name.

    Well, Lanier Cansler had an R next to his name. And HE went to work for Bev Perdue. Chuck McGrady - *AHEM* - has an R next to his name. (Need I say more?)

    I, like so many other North Carolinians, don't give a hoot about finding a Republican for this job as much as I care about finding someone who is all for academic freedom and replacing liberal brain-washing with serious exploration, inquiry and debate.