News-Record.com

Others (like Miss Laura over at the Tavern) can better explained the complex and winding road of misdeeds alleged against Rep. Thomas Wright.

But Speaker Joe Hackney did give an update today on the legislative process that could see the General Assembly expel a member for the first time since the late 1800s.

Already, a Joint Ethics Committee, comprised of House and Senate members is working on the Wright case. In a letter akin to a probably cause finding, they've said that the things Wright is alleged to have done under the Wake County indictment (obtaining loans under false pretenses, etc...) are indeed unethical and "warrant such action as the House of Representatives may determine."

But there's a hitch ... you knew there was a hitch, right?

You see, Wright did (or didn't) do what he did (or didn't) before the rewrite of the state ethics laws at a time when the Joint Ethics Committee only had jurisdiction over cases involving abuse of power. So all the stuff involving the fabrication or tax ID numbers and obtaining questionable loans that the State Board of Elections got into is outside its jurisdiction.

So Hackney will appoint a "select committee" to hear about all the other stuff. Both committees, he said, could make recommendations to the House and should start meeting in early February. (Update:: I should say, start meeting in public. They joint ethics committee has already been meeting. The two groups will hold public hearings that start in February. I told you this stuff got thorny.) The two-month wait has to do with due-precess rights and evidence gathering that has to be done. (Unlike we scruffy media types and bloggers, when the House of Representatives castigates someone it has to be done all legal like.)

Then things at the newser this afternoon started to go down the rabbit hole a little bit, since the "select" committee will probably just be made up of the six House members who serve on the "joint" committee and they would likely meet at the same time. At one point it seemed chairman Rick Glazier was going to have to get into a spaceship and slingshot himself around the sun and into a parallel universe to pull all this off.

But the simple version seems to be this:

• * The "joint" committee will handle the allegation that Wright used his office to bully a public official into giving him a letter that made it look like some state funding might be in the offing for a project when, in fact, no such funding was a remote possibility.

• * The "select" committee will handle everything else.

Glad that's straightened out.

Hackney, by the way, didn't look happy to be talking about this for the second day straight. (Heck, he kind of looked like he was about two shots of whiskey away from saddling up with Doc Holliday and the Earp boys, riding down to Wilmington City to handle matters.)

On a related note, Gov. Mike Easley has been doing his annual end-of-year interviews with us scruffy media types this week. He said today that he'd be happy to call a special session of the legislature to boot Wright from office if that's what's called for.