To call this disappointing is to put it mildly:
North Carolina's Democratic attorney general said on Friday he would appeal a federal court ruling that struck down a Republican-backed state law requiring abortion providers to conduct an ultrasound and explain it to a woman before an abortion.
The move puts state Attorney General Roy Cooper, widely considered the likely Democratic challenger to Republican Governor Pat McCrory in 2016, at odds with many in his party who opposed the law passed in 2011.
Anyone keeping track of the goings on in my home state knows that North Carolina's General Assembly has managed to undo 20 years of progress in just a couple of sessions, but when the folks who are ostensibly on our side are complicit in it, either by sins of commission or omission, it hurts even more. And when it's a talented politician like Cooper (who, full disclosure, I have worked for) who wants to have a future in North Carolina politics, well... that's the cruelest cut of all.
But can I get a brainless quote from a local professor to insult my intelligence, too? Yes I can:
"It's an interesting and odd kind of twist," said Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College. "Maybe he's road-testing how far he can push that base to recapture some folks in the middle."
What a brainless piece of analysis. Forced ultrasounds is not a pet issue for "folks in the middle." Anyone who believes this is a good idea wouldn't vote for Cooper anyway. It's as poorly calculated a political decision as it is a questionably calculated legal one.
What a bummer... I guess my donation I had for Roy Cooper will now go to Clay Aiken instead.