N.C. Governor Pat McCrory – Douchebag of the Day

There would be a lot of reasons for giving the Douchebag of the Day award to North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (or as I like to call him, Governor McSquinty). HB2 would be one of the biggest, but you could also include his complicity with the rest of the Republicans running things in Raleigh in dismantling a once great system of public education. You could add on the fact that he’s bought and paid for by his sugar daddy, Art Pope, but we get to combine HB2 and natural disasters for this one.

A couple of weeks ago, as Hurricane Matthew was churning its way up the east coast of Georgie and South Carolina, bearing down on North Carolina, where it ultimately did the most damage, McSquinty was doing what he does best, and whining at a party of bigots.

It all starts a couple of months ago. North Carolina’s immensely incompetent Republican governor Pat McCrory quietly allowed a bill to become law that would divert money from state disaster-relief programs into a legal defense slush fund that he would use to pay attorney costs in defending HB2, their infamous “bathroom bill.”

What’s especially shameful, is how the bill became law. There were a stack of bills on his desk. The disaster money-diversion bill was one of them. Instead of having the courage of his convictions and actually signing the document, he chicken’d out and allowed them to go unsigned which would cause them to become law by default at midnight. Wanna bet, if they hadn’t had the money for disaster recovery, he would have claimed he never signed the bill, so it wasn’t his fault. He’s blamed everyone else in North Carolina for the HB2 disaster except himself and the Republicans in the Legislature….you know, the people who passed the law.

But what wins him the award this month is his behavior as Matthew was bearing down on his state. Instead of being engaged in the preparations, he took time out to meet with religious right leaders at an event, and whine and cry about being shunned by friends and others. According to a report in the Charlotte Observer, McSquinty claimed, ““And I’ve had at least five this week tell me that. Good friends. Very good friends. ‘Pat, I love ya. I love ya man, we’ll be friends for life. We just can’t support you.”

He goes on to complain that he and his wife are no longer getting party invites (I guess that’s why he jumped at the chance to party with the state’s religious fundamentalists). He says, “My wife, for example, in Charlotte – she primarily stays in Charlotte,” he said. “She’s been disinvited to charity events. Basically, they call her up and say, ‘You better not come. You better not come.…“My wife and I … we’re being shunned for a political disagreement, a values disagreement.” Because, in his little mind, it was never his fault…he had nothing to do with this mess, so why should people think he’s an asshole, and decide they don’t want to be seen hanging out with him.

So, for continuing to fail to take responsibility for being a jerk, and then for whining because people don’t like because of who you are and what you’ve done, you get the Douchebag of the Day award, Pat.