Here was the churlish response of state Rep. Paul Stam, a Wake County Republican, to news that N.C. State University wants to name its new library for former Governor Jim Hunt:

“Normally to get your name on a government building, you have to be dead. But I’m not on a crusade about this.”

Good thing he’s not. Because then he’d have to crusade to rename the Holshouser Building at the State Fairgrounds. Memo to Stam: Jim Holshouser, the first Republican Governor in the 20^th Century, is still alive.

Not to mention Reagan Airport in Washington, which was renamed before the late President died. Or the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, also in Washington.

We Democrats owe Stam a big thank-you, though. Thanks to Republicans like him, there is little chance North Carolina will have a GOP Governor anytime soon to name anything for – dead or alive.