N&R editor John Robinson noted yesterday that Mark Binker is in analysis mode when covering the Easley hearings. Binker did a pretty good job, taking special note of the former guv’s yarn-spinning skills:
At other times, Easley fell back on his penchant for telling stories to answer questions. For example, the board has looked into a lease deal for a GMC Yukon that Easley obtained from Fayetteville car dealer Robert Bleecker. That deal apparently didn’t require Easley to make regular payments or pay the taxes on the car.
Leake asked Easley if Bleecker had ever called to collect. No, Easley said, he usually dealt with others at the dealership about the car.
“The last time I talked to Mr. Bleecker, I was vacuuming out my fireplace and the vacuum cleaner came unhooked and all the dust started blowing out the back and I had to hang up, and we didn’t discuss the car at all,” Easley said.
JLF president John Hood, however, might disagree with the headline writer’s assessment that Easley was ‘unflappable’ during questioning:
Speaking just as one member of the audience, however, I heard a man start out confidently, employ his usual blarney to evade the early questions, and then begin to fall apart. Easley’s charm became smarmy. His bravado became arrogant. His faulty recollections became evasive.
Mike Easley has not had a good year. He’s a shadow of his former self. Who wouldn’t be?
Commander Hood warns us to be aware of some politicians desire to divert the issue from Easley —- who was attorney general for eight years, for heaven’s sake —- to the ‘system’ that aided and abetted Easley’s behavior, not to mention that of Meg Scott Phipps, Frank Ballance and, last but not least, Jim Black.
