No, this one is not from the local Knight Ridder outlet either. Our sister blog alerts us to a white-hot Wilmington Star-News editorial calling on Democrats to push Speaker Jim Black over the side. You think we’ve been rough on Black’s crony politics the past few months? The folks in Wilmington are irate:

It’s hard to keep up with the sneaky, self-serving, sleazy scheming of state Rep. Jim Black. He’s like a sewage plant with a persistent leak. Until the Democrats of the N.C. House tell him they no longer want him as their leader, the stench will stick to them.

Not exactly a principled call for reform, more of a cut-our-losses deal from a left-leaning paper, but still. There is just no hiding from Black’s shoddy performance and steadfast refusal to understand the problem. His dance the past few days on the his kindergarten eye-exam mandate — from the exams’ utter necessity to a 60-day delay to a 180-day delay — tracks with growing public outrage over the scam, not reason, principle, or decency.

But, hey, the die is cast. The Uptown crowd needs Jim Black to win General Assembly OK for local tax hikes. I even doubt that the breaking news that the State Board of Elections is investigating Black’s fund-raising activities will generate a peep from Uptown.