I wasn?t bowled over, like some political observers evidently were, by Mike Easley?s testimony yesterday. In fact, as I wrote on CJO today, I thought that as the hours wore on, the former governor?s confident blarney began to fail him.
A good example of his poor performance was captured by Asheville Citizen-Times reporter Jordan Schrader:
Easley said he remembers what happened with the first of the two bills from Campbell. His version of events:
?
Campbell called after the 2004 campaign to complain the campaign wasn’t
paying him on time for flights, so Easley suggested he bill the
campaign in advance, for a block of time in which he would fly Easley
in the future.? Later, Campbell called to say the campaign had questioned the bill,
so Easley called his campaign treasurer’s assistant, Rebecca McGhee,
and told her to pay the invoice.?I told her, ?Look, I know what this is. Get it paid,’? he said, ?and I went back to my work.?
McGhee
testified earlier that Easley told her to pay the bill even after she
told him the invoice was for flights that had already taken place and
that it wasn’t backed up by documentation.Easley said he was busy in 2005 trying to persuade the legislature to create a state lottery.
?I
just know I was in the middle of working legislators to try to get that
vote. And I just thought, ?You know, this is the last thing I need is
to be in the middle of this doggone invoice problem,’? he said.
The governor?s claim didn?t square with the facts, and then he made it worse with his pathetic ?I?m too busy saving the children to pay attention to the law? routine. Any viewer exercising his critical thinking skills knows how to interpret that. Apparently, some pundits around town lack the critical distance necessary to figure all this out.
