State Republicans should reach out to the governor
Phil Berger, Republican leader in the N.C. Senate, sent this statement yesterday:
“Now is the time for a bipartisan effort to remake North Carolina’s government from the ground up.
"Democrat Senator Marc Basnight’s speech, accepting his nomination to an eighth term as President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate, shows he is aware of the litany of problems facing North Carolina’s citizens.
“The Democrats did not support any of the Senate Republican’s good government proposals to reform and open the operation of the Senate. Unfortunately, this failure indicates a continuation of past practices in which Democrat leaders dictate the operations of an extremely partisan Senate from behind closed doors. Senate Democrats still refuse to accept the lessons to be learned from the embarrassing tenure of Democrat Speaker of the House Jim Black; those lessons include a need for open debate and transparency in management of the state’s business.
“Senate Republicans are encouraged by the efforts of Governor Perdue and Lieutenant Governor Dalton to reach across the aisle. Senate Republicans will reach out to Governor Perdue and Lieutenant Governor Dalton to seek new, innovative, and bipartisan solutions to the problems facing our state. It is our hope that the Senate Democrats will heed Barack Obama’s call in his inaugural address to end, ‘…the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.’”
I believe Berger is wise to reach out to Gov. Perdue, who 1) is so far acting in a very reasonable and professional manner in dealing with tough problems; and 2) knows if she does build good rapport with Republicans, her re-election campaign might be a little easier.
Berger seems to be realistic about Senate Democrats. They won't change their ways. Marc Basnight is their leader for life, the state's most powerful politician elected by the fewest people. He may as well be a majority of one in the Senate.
So, if Senate Republicans have useful ideas for meeting the many challenges facing the state, they should pitch them straight to the governor. Hopefully, she'll listen, incorporate promising suggestions ... and won't be ignored by the Senate majority.
Comments (6)
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If you have ever witness this sham, you would have noticed that republican can sit for hours with his hand up, and be completely ignored.
NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
Basnight 8 terms of good ole boy politics. Wonder if he ever noticed these problems before? The media never has, are forgot to twell the folks of NC.
Perdue, solving problems, wonder why she wants to cut everything but, PORK?
Like Tony Rand said pork is important.
I think everyone should sit in on this BS, called government,
.
Posted on January 29, 2009 11:44 AM
knows if she does build good rapport with Republicans, her re-election campaign might be a little easier.* Doug
What makes you think that the State Of North Carolina will exsist in 2012 at the present rate of the massive budget deficits this State has with no sound funded solutions at hand.
Posted on January 29, 2009 10:19 PM
Doug & Doug, a few months ago I took the time to look at the votes of Republicans in the GA, and I actually counted all of Robert Pittenger's. The latter voted with the majority over 90% of the time, and I didn't detect much difference with the others I glanced at.
What does that mean? To me, it means one of two things: either Republicans are mostly satisfied with the way the majority operates, or the Republicans are being taken care of (back scratched) in other ways.
Whatever the case, methinks they doth protest too much.
Posted on January 30, 2009 3:49 PM
The senate must be a chummy place.
Posted on January 30, 2009 3:57 PM
A little too chummy. They need to jazz it up a bit, like the UK Parliament's Prime Minister Questions. Now that's some juicy stuff, although I have trouble figuring out if the background grumbling is pro or con.
Posted on January 30, 2009 4:37 PM
I believe drinking is encouraged in the House of Commons and expected in the House of Lords.
If that were the case here, we would see better debates.
Posted on January 30, 2009 4:42 PM