The Hard Way

For decades no matter how hard our Republican legislators in Raleigh tried they just couldn’t get themselves into trouble with a lobbyist – they just didn’t have the umph in the General Assembly to pull it off.
 
But now they do and, suddenly, Republicans are learning some hard lessons.
 
The greater your power the greater the number of temptations that land on your doorstep and since the most powerful Republican in Raleigh is House Speaker Thom Tillis it’s no wonder lobbying turmoil has fallen on the Speaker’s head.
 
One morning a fortnight ago Thom Tillis woke up and found himself with two aides having affairs with lobbyists and a cohort of newspaper reporters nipping at his heels. Nor did his lobbyist woes end there. A week later he was back in the newspapers for accepting a trip to Miami paid for by a lobbying group that swears flying the Speaker of the North Carolina House to Florida had nothing to do with lobbying.
 
After a decade of scandals in Raleigh you’d have expected any legislator who heard a lobbyist coo, Won’t you join me on a trip to Miami? would have run for the hills but the other problem with power is it makes a fellow feel invulnerable. Just ask John Edwards. And that’s when a legislator starts learning the hard way.
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Carter Wrenn

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The Hard Way

For decades no matter how hard our Republican legislators in Raleigh tried they just couldn’t get themselves into trouble with a lobbyist – they just didn’t have the umph in the General Assembly to pull it off.
 
But now they do and, suddenly, Republicans are learning some hard lessons.
 
The greater your power the greater the number of temptations that land on your doorstep and since the most powerful Republican in Raleigh is House Speaker Thom Tillis it’s no wonder lobbying turmoil has fallen on the Speaker’s head.
 
One morning a fortnight ago Thom Tillis woke up and found himself with two aides having affairs with lobbyists and a cohort of newspaper reporters nipping at his heels. Nor did his lobbyist woes end there. A week later he was back in the newspapers for accepting a trip to Miami paid for by a lobbying group that swears flying the Speaker of the North Carolina House to Florida had nothing to do with lobbying.
 
After a decade of scandals in Raleigh you’d have expected any legislator who heard a lobbyist coo, Won’t you join me on a trip to Miami? would have run for the hills but the other problem with power is it makes a fellow feel invulnerable. Just ask John Edwards. And that’s when a legislator starts learning the hard way.
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Carter Wrenn

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