Raleigh hasn’t seen a good fight between an editor and a Governor in 20 years.

John Drescher, Executive Editor of the N&O, has a good one going now with Governor Easley.

Witness these zingers from Drescher’s Sunday column:

“He’s a big-picture guy detached from his own government.”

“It’s not that we don’t like Easley and the people who speak for him. It’s just that they can’t get their stories straight.”

And this:

“I don’t recognize this Mike Easley. In 1990, I covered Easley’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. He was open, accessible and professional (and funny, too). When he was elected governor, I thought it would be good for the press and those who care about open government.

“I was wrong.”

Claude Sitton, ex-N&O editor, was the last guy to give a Governor this kind of treatment. Sitton and Jim Martin got at each other pretty good in Martin’s second term, leading in part to Martin retiring from politics.

Twenty years before that, then-Governor Bob Scott wrote Sitton a warm personal letter inviting the editor to “kiss my ass.” Sitton was raising questions about Scott’s personal finances.

This is no way for a Governor to go out of office. Governor Easley and his staff need to fix this problem.

Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.