I mean, besides taking $500,000 bribes from lobbyists?
Try calling the police on Republicans in the General Assembly.
The Charlotte Observer actually reported the tulmut on page A1 back on July 14, 2000. That day the state House went home and Speaker Jim Black wrapped himself in the robes of a protector of democracy.
“I did what I thought was necessary. I was trying to protect everyone,” Black, D-Mecklenburg, said of his decision to have the security officers who oversee the legislature call police.
Black said he had the police summoned because he feared a fistfight might break out on the House floor. About a dozen Capital police officers showed up outside the House chamber, but didn’t enter and no one was arrested.
“I’d never seen anything quite like that in this body before. I just wasn’t going to be caught unprepared,” Black said.
“It’s my duty to maintain order in this body. That display was unreasonable.”
What had the Republicans acting so unreasonable was the Democratic move to enact “one-stop” voting with the express hope that more votes would flow to Democrats. A Democrat victory in November 2000 would — and as it turns out, did — give Black and company control over re-districting in the state. And we know how that turned out, too.
And we also know why someone would give Jim Black $500,000 — so he could spread the money around Democratic candidates to both elect them and bind them to him once the election was over. Sure enough, Black won a narrow victory and held onto the speakership and his immense power over policy in the state.
Sounds like a good investment.
