How Berger Won
August 7, 2013 - by
Carter has done a couple of insightful (as always) blogs about Senator Phil Berger: that he’s a true-believer conservative and a small-town product, in contrast to the big-city moderates who are the second- and third-most powerful Republicans in North Carolina (respectively, Thom Tillis and Pat McCrory).
It also looks like Berger was a lot smarter than the other two when it came to figuring out how to be the most powerful man in town. It’s a classic lesson in getting and using political power.
First, Berger decided that nobody would get to his right. He always staked out the most extreme right-wing ground on issues. He boxed in McCrory and Tillis, who were terrified of alienating the right. Berger knew that, in the end, both would crumble like chocolate chip cookies.
Second, unlike Tillis, he didn’t hamstring himself by saying he’d run for U.S. Senate and not President Pro-Tem again.
Third, again unlike Tillis, he didn’t stake himself out promising that the legislature would leave early. Rule of thumb: the most powerful man in the legislature is the one who doesn’t care when he gets home.
At bottom of all this, of course, is an inescapable conclusion: Berger & Co. hate – and from what I hear that’s not too strong a word – Tillis and McCrory. And he took them to school this session.
Posted in General, North Carolina - Republicans
How Berger Won
August 7, 2013/
Carter has done a couple of insightful (as always) blogs about Senator Phil Berger: that he’s a true-believer conservative and a small-town product, in contrast to the big-city moderates who are the second- and third-most powerful Republicans in North Carolina (respectively, Thom Tillis and Pat McCrory).
It also looks like Berger was a lot smarter than the other two when it came to figuring out how to be the most powerful man in town. It’s a classic lesson in getting and using political power.
First, Berger decided that nobody would get to his right. He always staked out the most extreme right-wing ground on issues. He boxed in McCrory and Tillis, who were terrified of alienating the right. Berger knew that, in the end, both would crumble like chocolate chip cookies.
Second, unlike Tillis, he didn’t hamstring himself by saying he’d run for U.S. Senate and not President Pro-Tem again.
Third, again unlike Tillis, he didn’t stake himself out promising that the legislature would leave early. Rule of thumb: the most powerful man in the legislature is the one who doesn’t care when he gets home.
At bottom of all this, of course, is an inescapable conclusion: Berger & Co. hate – and from what I hear that’s not too strong a word – Tillis and McCrory. And he took them to school this session.
Posted in General, North Carolina - Republicans