Hagan and
Tillis: Much ado about nothing
Ashville Citizen-Times
Shakespeare
wrote Much Ado About Nothing as the 16th century closed.
Although a comedy full of hilarity, it contained dark threads of
shame and court politics. The play is laced with examples of
infidelity, self-deception, and mistaken identity. Set in the
Sicilian port city of Messina, it could today be staged on Capitol
Hill in Washington DC.
The
political class and most election experts are focused on the North
Carolina Senate race because its outcome may well decide whether the
Democrats retain control of the Senate. It matters not. When all the
votes are counted neither side will come close to having the 60 votes
it takes to break the death grip of constant filibusters. And that
means the gridlock will continue.
Without
getting too far into the weeds of the Senate contests this year it’s
worth noting that the Republicans need to gain a net of six seats to
seize control of the chamber. It’s very likely that they will pick
up seats in West Virginia, South Dakota, and Montana. And they have a
good shot at taking seats in Arkansas and Louisiana. But after those
five, it gets dicey. Their best chances for the all-important sixth
seat are Alaska and North Carolina.
What
you can be certain of is that Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis are going to
tell you that voting for them is a matter of enormous significance
for North Carolina and the nation. Don’t let them hoodwink you.
Kay
Hagan vaulted from the North Carolina Senate to the United States
Senate in 2008. At the outset of the campaign no one gave her a
chance to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Dole. But Dole unwisely released a
television ad attacking Hagan for accepting donations from
individuals in the Godless Americas PAC. The negative ad backfired.
Hagan seized the initiative and the large turnout of African-American
voters in support of Barack Obama carried Hagan to a surprisingly
easy victory.
Since
taking her seat in the Senate, Hagan has been largely invisible. Most
of her votes hew to the commands of Senate Democratic Leader Harry
Reid. Although she is a member of the Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Chairperson of its
Subcommittee on Children and Families, Hagan did not play a
significant role in the legislative consideration of Obamacare.
Instead she followed orders and voted for a bill that a majority of
North Carolinians oppose.
Instead
of spending her time on serious legislation, Hagan has focused on
pablum legislation like her Sportsman’s bill that proposes to
expand hunting and fishing rights on Federal lands. But even that
bill was shot down in the Senate last month.
Hagan’s
record exemplifies all that is wrong with the eviscerated Senate. She
keeps her head down, follows the party line, and focuses on raising
cash for her own reelection.
Thom
Tillis is hoping to vault from the North Carolina House, where he is
Speaker, to the United States Senate. But Tillis first had to
dispatch several right wing, Tea Party opponents in the GOP Primary
election this spring. That effort took valuable time and money away
from his main target, Kay Hagan.
But
more troublesome for Tillis have been the legislative disagreements
concerning teachers pay and tenure among Republicans who control both
the Legislature and the Governor’s mansion in Raleigh for the first
time since 1870. It remains to be seen if the deal on teachers
announced last week will enable Tillis to get back on the campaign
trail without having suffered a mortal wound.
If
enough voters decide Tillis can’t handle the job in Raleigh, he’ll
lose.
In
March of 1959 a ceremony was held in the Capitol’s Senate Reception
Room to honor the Senate’s five most outstanding former members.
They had been selected by a bipartisan Senate Committee, aided by
many scholars. Their definition of greatness required acts of
statesmanship transcending party and State lines. The five were:
Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Robert LaFollette, and
Robert Taft. Since then, four additional Senators have been similarly
honored: Arthur Vandenberg, Robert Wagner, Oliver Ellsworth, and
Roger Sherman.
The
truth is that Hagan and Tillis are birds of the same feather. They
each expect us to pay them $174,000 a year for what amounts to a
sinecure. That’s much ado about nothing, absent all of
Shakespeare’s comedy.
LeRoy
Goldman is an unaffiliated voter who lives in Flat Rock. He can be
reached at: EmailMe
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