It’s hard not to like Mike Easley. The Governor is personable. Charming. Doesn’t have the vice of taking himself too seriously (unlike most politicians). And has a fine-honed sense of humor.

But, oddly, at times, he acts as if he is unusually detached from the government he is running.

And, with the latest scandal, it seems the Governor’s lack of interest has landed him in a mess.

The News and Observer reports state government has wasted $400 million that should have been spent providing mental health care services. Worse, the newspaper lists a litany of horror-stories of patients being abused. And worse still “82 avoidable deaths.”

The governor now has a scandal of epic proportions on his hands.

His response, at a press conference Tuesday, was to say with perfect 20-20 hindsight that his administration “vigorously” opposed the 2001 Health Care “Reforms” that led to the scandal.

But, that does not seem to be so. In fact, the opposite seems true.

The News & Observer reports that in 2001 the Governor’s Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Carmen Hooker Odom, praised the plan Easley now says he vigorously opposed, writing: “I am presenting to you with pride and enthusiasm, ‘The State Plan 2001: A Blueprint for Change.” Then she added, ‘This effort is going to succeed because the time is right.’

That is not ‘vigorous’ opposition.

In addition, the sponsor of the legislation the governor says he ‘vigorously’ opposed flatly contradicts him. Representative Verla Inska says Hooker Odom never opposed the plan and that no one in the governor’s office, on his personal staff, opposed it either.

The governor, in response, said Inko’s memory is faulty – then, after his press conference, slipped out the side door to avoid taking anymore questions from the News & Observer’s pesky reporters who were waiting for him outside by his SUV.

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