Of puppies and politicians - the anatomy of a political smear | Eastern North Carolina Now

Distortions, half truths, and outright lies appear too often in politics and thus give politics a bad name.  A recent attack piece postcard against a respected eastern NC conservative that wrongly portrayed him a mean to dogs and puppies is a prime example.  First, it is important to learn what really happened, then how it was distorted, and finally by whom and why it was done.

The attack post card was entitled "Michael Speciale. Unfit to Lead" and purported to show his attitude toward dogs based on a "puppy mill bill" before the legislature.  The bill was a pet project of Governor McCrory's wife and rushed to the floor before its wording could be written as well as it should have been.  That was particularly true of the weak and poorly worded definitions in the bill.  Solid definitions in a bill are critically important because if they are too ambiguous, courts will often strike down the law as "void for vagueness".

Representative Mike Speciale (R-Craven) pushed to strengthen the bill by sharpening the definitions so it would pass muster in the courts.  Since the bill was directed at bad actors running puppy mills, Speciale gave examples on the House floor he thought such bad actors might take using weak definitions of the bill.  If one read his entire comments in context that would be clear, but that is not how it is presented.

Unfortunately, hard left WRAL saw an opportunity to attack a conservative legislator and first took the comments out of context right after they happened. Now the liberal Republican establishment in Raleigh is trying to use the same smear against the genuine conservative in our state senate race to try to get their guy the nomination instead.

The nasty postcard was mailed by a political committee associated with liberal Republican Senate boss Phil Berger, who has repeatedly pushed liberal Democrat Governor Roy Cooper's key liberal agenda items through the legislature. The Berger-associated committee is called "Restore NC, Inc" and is based in Raleigh.  It is run by Berger's political operative Roger Knight, who was formerly a political operative for Mitch McConnell.  To give the false appearance of being a more local group, they rented a box at a private mail box office in Morehead City for their return address on this and other postcards backing Bob Brinson, Speciale's opponent.

Berger and his allies have been twisting arms of state senators and special interests for money to back Brinson.  They know Speciale has a record as a effective conservative who has been successful in pushing back against the smoke filled room Raleigh establishment and not letting them get their way.  That want Brinson going to Raleigh and in their debt instead.  This smear shows they will sink to whatever depth they think they have to in orider to accomplish that goal.

Brinson, at a political meeting was confronted with the smear postcard and asked to repudiate it.  He refused to do so.  He is thus right down there in the gutter with his backers Berger and Knight.