Governor Roy Cooper measures his words carefully, so his tweet Saturday afternoon was striking:

“GOP demand for passage of their backroom casino deal in exchange for a state budget and Medicaid expansion is the most brutally dishonest legislative scheme I’ve seen in my 3+ decades. People are right to be suspicious. Something has a grip on Republican leaders and it’s not the people of NC. – RC.”

Them’s fighting words.

“Backroom casino deal.”

“The most brutally dishonest legislative scheme I’ve seen in my 3+ decades.”

“People are right to be suspicious. Something has a grip on Republican leaders….”

What’s the “something” he’s talking about?

Millions of dollars in lobbyists’ fees, consultants’ contracts, campaign contributions and dark-money donations, maybe?

Sometimes these tweets are written by communications staffers.

But the “RC” at the end and the tone of genuine anger said this was the real Roy.

It was refreshing.