“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade…. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.” – General George Patton.

Like Liston Ramsey and Marc Basnight before him, Phil Berger stayed too long.

Ramsey was the iron-fisted Democratic Speaker of the N.C. House for eight years, until he was ousted in 1988 in a coup orchestrated by a small, bipartisan group of rebels.

One of the rebels was Roy Cooper. People said Cooper’s political career was finished.

Marc Basnight was the longest-serving legislative leader ever in North Carolina.

A Democrat, he served nine terms as Senate President Pro Tem, until Republicans swept to control of the Senate and House in 2010.

He resigned from the Senate, and Berger took over.

Tuesday was Berger’s turn. He’s two votes behind Sheriff Sam Page, despite $10 million and Trump’s endorsement.

Voters in Berger’s home county of Rockingham voted 2-to-1 against him. One report this morning said most of the provisional ballots are from Rockingham.

Now Berger has to spend millions of dollars fighting to hold on to power – and match Basnight’s nine terms – instead of electing Republicans.

Privately, ambitious Republican senators want Berger to lose. They’d like to sit in that big office and wield that power.

It’s intoxicating.

That’s why so many politicians get run out of office instead of retiring with dignity.

Photo: The Charlotte Observer.