Hagan and Tillis: Much ado about nothing

Hagan and Tillis: Much ado about nothing

LeRoy Goldman OPINION3:28 p.m. EDT August 1, 2014

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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