Phil Berger

In case you missed it.

For those, myself included, who are trying to match the words coming out of the mouths of the new Pope/McCrory administration with their actions, here is a brief list of words and catch phrases that might help.

Deputy Assistant Governor McCrory is having second thoughts about his short leash, resulting in a bizarre kabuki dance that looks more and more like a good-old-fashioned shell game.

As you'll recall from last week, Governor Pope gave Phil Berger permission to say the General Assembly would put an end to income and corporate taxes in favor of raising sales taxes, including a tax on food. Right on cue this week, Pope told reporters in Chapel Hill that he didn't think that was a good idea. Then yesterday, Deputy Assistant Governor McCrory told reporters that he didn't really agree with Governor Pope, and that he'd continue to push the ALEC agenda of drowning government in Grover Nordquist's bathtub.

In case you're having trouble following this, here's the real story. Governor Pope and his Deputy are embarrassed that so many people have seen through their charade. Despite the fact that Pope is not a controversial figure, he needs to find a way out of the spotlight and let Deputy Assistant Governor McCrory look like he's in charge. What better way to do that than to have a public spat, let McCrory win, and then slide back into running his slum-retailing empire, leaving a gang of Lockers behind to do his absentee bidding.

What's even more remarkable is the fact that these guys know North Carolina voters will fall for their smoke-and-mirrors scam, and that all this tap-dancing will distract people from seeing the harsh reality of their regressive agenda.

It's no secret that the Republican party in North Carolina is fundamentally racist and misogynist. This inescapable conclusion can be drawn not by looking into their hearts and minds, but by examining their actions and choices. Christianists like Skip Stam and Phil Berger have spent their political careers trying to subvert the rights of black people and women to receive equal treatment before the law.

Is the polite facade crumbling?

“There are winners and losers in every election, but just because you don’t like the results or how the results were achieved doesn’t warrant what’s going on right now,” said Jeanette Doran, the executive director of the conservative N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law. “There used to be this measure of Southern gentility. ... But when things get hardball, it sort of shocks the gentility.”

And very often that Southern gentility masked a deep undercurrent of bigotry, injustice, and undue influence being wielded by shadowy business interests that were anything but genteel. I'd rather have a public brawl, which just may reveal deeper motives, than a backroom deal that goes virtually unnoticed, any day of the week.

Plus ... bonus trailer for tomorrow's big release.

But first, a dose of reality:

Interestingly, a number of the team members (including Stith) happen to be connected to another teammate, Art Pope, the businessman and former legislator who’s funded several conservative organizations and been a mentor of sorts for elected officials from the Wake County school board to the General Assembly to now a governor.

If they were realists, the editorial board would have ended it there. Art Pope has positioned his pieces all across the state government gameboard, and there will be no movement from one square to another without his approval. Which makes this observation:

These two assholes have built their careers badmouthing the business climate in North Carolina, wringing their hands during countless photo-ops about the oppressive burdens facing our states entrepreneurs and major employers. Things are terrible, they say. We need to change directions.

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.

North Carolina's combination of work-force availability and skill sets of interest to employers, proactive business-development agencies, logistics assets and higher education infrastructure helped it reclaim Site Selection's Top Business Climate spot from rival Texas — which wrestled the title from the Tar Heel State in 2011.

Koch Industries, the Kansas-based oil and chemical conglomerate whose owners Charles and David Koch have played a leading role in financing the fight against government regulation, is stepping up its investment in North Carolina politics at a critical moment for the state's energy future.