Easley talks about Black
Update: Here's the AP's story on yesterday's chat with Easley.
Earlier this week I had asked for questions that you might want to ask Gov. Mike Easley. While I didn't use any of the questions verbatim, I think we may have gotten at the spirit of a few of them.
So as I sit and ponder what to do with 100 minutes worth of notes and recording from Easley's end-of-year chat with members of the press corps, you can ponder Easley's answers when asked about the Jim Black saga. (If you need background, here. If not:
Click here for a real audio file. It's just shy of six minutes.
The first question you'll hear is whether Easley thinks legislative leaders have too much power. There's a short, somewhat silly interlude after the answer to that question when Easley talks about being the only right-handed male in his family. Then he gets two questions about Speaker Black, including whether he thinks Black should step down.
"At some point ... people are going to want to know what the explanation here, and how did this happen and what are your going to do to fix it," Easley said, but didn't get close to saying that Black should step down.