Some pundits, clearly suffering from too much holiday cheer, have strained to say kind things about Pat McCrory in his final days.

Not me. I’m taking one more shot on his way out.

Earlier in his one (blessedly) term, McCrory took a stand against legislative overreach. The legislature’s appointments to a coal ash commission, in his view, improperly encroached on the executive branch’s powers. McCrory sued. He enlisted Governors Hunt and Martin to support his suit.

Then came this month’s legislative power grab. This time, McCrory supinely signs the bills – and meekly hands over to the legislature significant powers that should be exercised by the executive.

Perhaps this is fitting. McCrory will go down in history as the first Governor of North Carolina to lose reelection. He may as well also go down as the Governor who surrendered the office to the legislature.

So let us say, as Winston Churchill in 1940 paraphrased Oliver Cromwell’s speech in 1653 dissolving the Long Parliament:

“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”

Roy Cooper can’t take the oath of office a minute too soon. North Carolina can’t take another minute of Governor McCrory.