Facing unrelenting national criticism and the addition of Deutsche Bank to a steady parade of scrapped North Carolina business expansions, Pat McCrory on Tuesday attempted to undo the damage wrought by his signing of HB2. In a poorly cloaked political maneuver, McCrory signed Executive Order 93 which, as noted by the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh’s News & Observer, doubles down on the worse provisions of HB2:
Businesses can continue to discriminate with impunity.
Workers who face discrimination still can’t bring their grievances to a state court.
Municipalities are still forbidden from acting to extend additional protections to their residents.
The Governor’s decision to sign HB2 has damaged North Carolina’s reputation, but now he’s more worried about salvaging his own his own in time for November than he is in helping North Carolinians or North Carolina’s economy recover from his wrongheaded political priorities.
–To borrow a phrase from Bruce Springsteen, Gov. Pat McCrory must have sensed some “darkness on the edge of town” in his re-election campaign. That is the only reason the governor is running for political cover in pretending to correct HB2, the disastrous bill passed by Republican leaders in the legislature.
–In his video, the governor repeats his complaint that HB2’s critics are trying to hurt North Carolina, but it’s McCrory and his fellow Republicans who are dismantling the state’s hard-won reputation as an enlightened place.
–But legislators, who have shown little interest in following any of the governor’s suggestions for nearly four years, aren’t bound to do anything by the governor’s “order.”
–He should stop spinning the law and call for its total repeal.
–Hammered for weeks over his signing of House Bill 2, Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday attempted to undo the damage. He failed.
–McCrory is frantically pulling levers and pushing buttons, but this is still a state government without a brain, or a heart or courage.
–A close reading, though, reveals mostly empty language that leaves every element of House Bill 2 in place.
–…McCrory is flailing in the heat of an election year. The legislature dumped a bad bill on McCrory’s desk. He signed it and is now looking for a way out.
–The Wizard spoke Tuesday but it was all smoke. Too bad we can’t just click our heels and go back home to the North Carolina we used to know.
Published: Apr 13, 2016