It was modern politics at its noisiest with shouting and arm waving and bark-peeling emails flying through the ether but even by modern standards the State Republican Party blasting the Republican Leaders of the State House and Senate Leader was odd.

Last spring just about every Republican Leader from Pat McCrory to Phil Berger endorsed the same candidate for Republican Party Chairman but a Tea Party candidate – Hasan Harnett – whipped them all which left bruised feelings but the Grand Old Party rolled along with a bump in the road here and there until some folks got to worrying about money.

For as long as anyone can remember the Republican Party Chairman has accommodated the Leaders of the State House and Senate with a simple agreement: The Leaders would raise money and give it to Party and, in turn, the Party would allow them to spend it however they wanted to elect Republican Senators and Representatives.

It wasn’t unusual. Democrats have done the same thing.

But then Republican Leaders started wondering what would happen to the money they raised for the party when Hasan Harnett got his hands on it and the more they contemplated the more worrisome their dilemma seemed so in the closing days of the session they whipped a law through the legislature that allowed them set up two new Party Committees of their own – and Chairman Harnett’s folks saw red and charged, firing a broadside squarely at Tim Moore and Phil Berger saying they were scuttling the Party.

But the fate of the Party wasn’t the real rub: Nothing changed – contribution limits and reporting requirements all stayed the same – except one thing: When Moore and Berger were done Hasan Harnett’s control of the money had vanished.