I’ve interviewed a lot of politicians, and sometimes – not most of the time, but sometimes – you feel as if you want to take a shower afterward. The two who set off that slime-alarm bell most loudly? Jim Black and Mike Easley.
Black, the Matthews optometrist and former N.C. House speaker, is now in prison for a variety of election-related (and cash-in-envelopes-in-the-men’s-room-at-the-Capital-Grille-related) behaviors. Former Gov. Mike Easley is being depicted by Observer and Raleigh News & Observer coverage, not to mention at this week’s state elections board hearings, as extremely challenged in the ethics department.
From now on, I will listen to my instincts more often. There have been some other candidates over the years, some of them still in office, who set off that alarm. I’m not going to say who, because to accuse them of being crooks, without having evidence, would be libel. And it would be unfair, because there is the possibility my slime alarm isn’t 100 percent accurate. (For the record, none of the City Council candidates or mayor candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot set off the slime alarm. I don’t agree with some of them, but that’s different.)
And don’t get me started on the “crazy as a bedbug” alarm. That’s an even longer list …