Here's a great piece from The Daily Beast that exposes the hypocrisy of one Thom Tillis (R. NC):
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
Just before 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 3, 1978, Tillis was driving his then-girlfriend and future ex-wife down a street in Nashville, Tennessee, when 16-year-old Patricia Duncan took a left turn into his 1978 Ford. Duncan had only been driving for two months and didn’t realize that she didn’t have the right of way to make a left on a green light. As John Hollins, Tillis’ lawyer in the case, described it, “She just turned right in front of him and caused the accident.”
The accident left Tillis, according to court documents, with a “35% permanent partial disability.” Hollins, who noted that the disability ratings came from doctors, said, “I can’t remember if he limped at all, but he got a pretty severe injury.” Tillis had a very good case, Hollins said, pointing out that fewer cases were settled then and that, knowing the defendant’s lawyer, “he would have tried the case if he had a damn chance to win it.”
Tillis, despite the prognosis, was able to make a full recovery. Daniel Keylin, a spokesman for the Republican’s campaign, told The Daily Beast: “The injuries were serious, requiring surgery on Tillis’ hand and a lengthy recovery for full range of motion in his back. Now more than 35 years later, he has made a full recovery, but at the time it was feared—and expected—the injuries would leave lasting effects.”
Because the accident took place 25 years before Tillis entered politics, Keylin played down its role in shaping the candidate’s political views. “It’s important to point out that this accident occurred when Thom Tillis was 17 years old,” Keylin told The Daily Beast. “Obviously, he had not yet served in the General Assembly and likely had not spent much time pondering the importance of tort reform. However, in pursuing such reforms more than three decades later, it showed how important it is to crack down on frivolous lawsuits (which his case was not) and ensure that the process is more consistent and more efficient for everyone involved.”
As only the third Republican speaker of the North Carolina House since Reconstruction, Tillis pushed for tort reform in his debate, passing a bill that would cap noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. He also opposed efforts to repeal North Carolina’s contributory negligence law, under which a plaintiff who was even 1 percent responsible for his or her injuries would recover nothing in a lawsuit. It’s worth noting that though Tennessee has since abandoned contributory negligence, it was law in the Volunteer State at the time of Tillis’ car accident. - The Daily Beast, 9/30/14
The article is worth the read. It's this type of hypocritical bull shit that is costing Tillis his shot to unseat Senator Kay Hagan (D. NC) because Tillis is the face of the General Assembly's Tea Party extremism:
http://www.theatlantic.com/...
Theoretically, Tillis and the new governor were natural allies. Both were elected as moderates and both came from Charlotte, a buttoned-down town that’s home to the GOP’s business wing. They were cast in the mold of Jim Martin, another Charlotte moderate who had been North Carolina’s last Republican governor, more than 20 years ago. Both also needed to keep an eye on a statewide electorate. North Carolina had a long history of electing moderates at the top of the ticket. Business-friendly Democrats had held the Governor’s Mansion in part because primaries had forced Republican candidates too far to the right, making it difficult for them to win moderate voters necessary for victory in a general election.
But if Tillis or McCrory thought they could steer the new legislature down a moderate path, the opening days of the 2013 session must have been a shock. The new batch of jubilant legislators had all the answers and was champing at the bit to put them into practice. Like a conquering army, they hit Raleigh plundering and pillaging. They introduced voter-ID bills, anti-Sharia-law bills, and drug testing for welfare recipients. They “revised” boards and commissions to end some appointments and expand others. They cut taxes for the wealthy and ended the earned-income tax credit for the working poor. They took control of Asheville’s water supply and Charlotte’s airport. They redistricted county commission and school-board districts that were controlled by Democrats. There was no one to stop them.
McCrory in particular couldn’t seem to find his footing. He came to Raleigh from a moderate New South city to implement his pro-business, free-market agenda. He didn’t count on raging social conservatives and Tea Partiers who wanted to dismantle as much of state government as possible. And he didn’t count on a press corps watching his every move.
The new governor’s first dustup with the legislature came just a month after his inauguration, in the opening days of the 2013 session. Perdue had begun setting up a state insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act and had received millions of dollars in federal grants. McCrory’s transition team was working with the state Department of Insurance to establish the exchange, and the governor seemed open to expanding Medicaid. Senators, in response, introduced legislation to forbid Medicaid expansion or a state exchange. McCrory publicly urged legislative leaders to slow down but was ignored. When the bill passed along party lines, McCrory quickly shifted gears, claiming Medicaid was too broken to expand.
Instead of coming to McCrory’s aid, Tillis kept his head down. In 2011, he too had passed a bill to establish a state exchange. During the spat between the Senate and the governor, he never spoke up, and the Senate bill passed the House unamended. While Tillis might have understood the need for moderation in a general election, he could clearly see the peril of crossing the raging conservatives. Before he could become a U.S. senator, he would have to get through a primary with at least some conservative support; supporting an exchange or Medicaid expansion through Obamacare would be construed as consorting with the enemy.
An alliance between McCrory and Tillis that could have promoted a more moderate agenda or reined in the most radical notions never materialized. Instead, they were repeatedly rebuffed by the Senate. When Tillis and McCrory got behind a plan to sell a large piece of state property to the city of Raleigh, senators rejected the proposal, saying they hadn’t been consulted. When the governor supported a House tax-reform measure at odds with a Senate proposal, then-Senate Finance Committee Co-Chair Bob Rucho retorted, “If Pat had real business experience, he would not make such a poor policy decision.”
While the Senate was causing Tillis headaches, his own caucus was running off without him. The flurry of bills coming out of the House was staggering. Members introduced legislation to restrict voting, ban Sharia law, exempt the state from recognizing federal laws, and allow silencers on hunting rifles. Two representatives introduced a bill that would allow for a state religion, making the state a national laughingstock. One member publicly criticized Tillis for holding up bills about guns and religion and another resigned his chairmanship of the House Finance Committee in a dispute with the speaker. In an unusually public appeal, Tillis posted a message on his Facebook page warning his colleagues about overreach. The next day, the House passed a bill to allow guns in bars, on college campuses, and on public greenways and walking trails.
To add to the pressure, Moral Monday protests were attracting crowds of thousands every week and the national press was focused on the most radical aspects of the Republican agenda. Tillis tried to strike a moderate tone by calling for a dialogue but was drowned out by partisans on his right flank. The Republican base was in battle mode and in no mood for niceties. One senator penned an op-ed calling the protests “Moron Mondays.” - The Atlantic, 9/29/14
And because of all of this, Tillis is struggling in this tight race:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/...
A new poll shows Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan leading Republican Thom Tillis by 3 points in a North Carolina race Republicans had long eyed as a prime pick-up opportunity.
Ms. Hagan leads, 46 percent to 43 percent, among likely voters in a new CNN/ORC poll. Libertarian Sean Haugh gets 7 percent.
Mr. Tillis actually enjoys a 47 percent/40 percent favorable/unfavorable split among likely voters, while Ms. Hagan has a 46 percent/47 percent split in that category. About three-quarters of likely voters say they have made up their minds.
The survey of 1,010 adults, including 595 likely voters, was conducted Sept. 22-25. The margin of error for the entire sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points and plus or minus 4 percentage points among likely voters. - Washington Times, 9/29/14
So what's Tillis to do? Attack Hagan on ISIS:
http://www.politico.com/...
North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis went on the air Monday with the hardest-hitting television ad yet about the crisis in the Middle East.
The 30-second ad, shared first with POLITICO, links Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan’s absence from Armed Services Committee hearings with America’s failure to more aggressively tackle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS.
“While ISIS grew, Obama kept waiting, and Kay Hagan kept quiet,” a male narrator says ominously. “The price for their failure is danger. To change direction, we have to change our senator.”
The ad includes B-roll of men in the back of a pickup truck waving the group’s flag and assault weapons. - Politico, 9/29/14
Ok, so what would Tillis propose Obama do? Cue the sounds of crickets chirping:
http://www.salon.com/...
The criticism of Kay Hagan for skipping committee hearings is a gimme, and a little cheap. Scott Brown actually did a solid over the weekend for his Democratic opponent, Jeanne Shaheen, by explaining that senators have hectic schedules and serve on multiple committees that often double-book hearings. Bottom line: If Thom Tillis becomes a senator, he’ll be skipping a ton of committee hearings, too.
But whatever. We’re here to talk about terrorism and the strategies Republicans and Democrats would bring to bear to fight it. Tillis, before releasing the terrorism ad, filmed the GOP’s weekly video address and attacked the president for “leading from behind with a failed foreign policy that has weakened America.” He helpfully listed the president’s “failures,” one of which was that “the president still doesn’t have a strategy to destroy the terrorist group known as the Islamic State.”
The administration doesn’t have a strategy for taking on ISIS? Well… no. They do have a strategy. Obama even gave a big speech on it. He said in that speech: “This is our strategy.” It involves airstrikes and arming rebel factions in Syria and pulling regional allies together into an anti-ISIS coalition. Tillis even released a statement saying he backs airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria – a key part of the strategy he says doesn’t exist. You could argue that their strategy is muddled and insufficiently clear on how it will realize its ultimate objective of “destroying” the terrorist group, but it is a strategy.
The obvious question that arises when a candidate criticizes his opponent for doing the wrong thing on a given issue is “okay, well, what do you propose?” Tillis won’t answer that question. He’s actively avoiding taking positions on ISIS, while warning that the positions of his Democratic opponents are dangerous for his state.
This puts him in an awkward position, since certain aspects of the White House’s ISIS strategy have drawn bipartisan support in the legislative body to which he aspires. Language authorizing the arming and training of Syrian rebels was included in the continuing resolution to fund the government that passed earlier this month. Kay Hagan voted in favor of the CR, as did Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who campaigned with Tillis last week. On the trail, Tillis was asked if he, like Graham, supported giving weapons and training to the Syrian forces fighting Bashar al-Assad and ISIS. Tillis’ response, per the Charlotte Observer, was “I actually don’t know.”
“I actually don’t know if we should or shouldn’t,” Tillis said this week. “I would have to know that these arms would not get in the hands of people who would want to take over the Middle East.”
Asked about the differences, Tillis said, “it’s not a matter of disagreement.”
“It’s a matter of having an independent thought, something that Sen. Hagan hasn’t had 96 percent of the time. … Based on the information I have today, we don’t have a disagreement; we’re just at different places in the decision process.” - Salon, 9/30/14
I'm feeling pretty optimistic about this race but of course we can't take anything for granted. Luckily Hagan's getting some big name help on the campaign trail:
http://www.wncn.com/...
Former President Bill Clinton visited Chapel Hill Tuesday to help raise money for U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan's re-election campaign.
The event at the Carolina Inn was private and closed to the media.
Clinton arrived around 12:30 p.m. after a long line of Democrats, including Attorney General Roy Cooper, waited to see him. - AP, 9/30/14
Click here to donate and get involved with Hagan's campaign:
http://www.kayhagan.com/...