Visions of Art Pope dancing in their dope-addled, near-empty heads ... | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton cast a bright light on the indelible hypocrisy of liberal argument in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    It's really sad listening to the folks around the drum circle moaning about Art Pope. I've actually communicated with Art Pope. He is a guy who has inherited a lot of money. He's nowhere near the political mastermind that the Carrboro crowd makes him out to be.

    In 1992, Pope couldn't get himself elected lieutenant governor. Yet, we're told he is an evil mastermind with an agenda for controlling the state and the country.

    In today's nonsense dump from McClatchy, we get an "article" about "dozens" protesting Pope at a Maxway store in Durham. If you click on the link, you will see the byline is "staff reports." As I recall from my days in the drive-by media, "staff reports" is a fancy way of saying: "We did no reporting whatsoever here. We pretty much just transcribed a release somebody sent us." So, we really have no idea if there were really DOZENS or just two bag ladies paid to hold signs. (Or ANYBODY AT ALL.)

    *But, But, but — It's not right for rich people like Art Pope and THEKOCHBROTHERS to be allowed to BUY our government!*

    In response to that kind of whining from the castrati, one can simply turn to this compilation of the top all-time political donors from 1989-2014. FOURTEEN of the TOP TWENTY are overwhelmingly, die-hard Democrats. ONLY TWO of the top twenty have a Republican tilt.

    The Koch Brothers are at #58 and The Club for Growth is at #62. (Art Pope and Variety Wholesalers, his company, are nowhere to be found on this list.) It looks to me that we righties have more to complain about when it comes to influence-buying in politics.

    We did find some info on Pope and his company. Variety Wholesalers gave the NCGOP $2,500 in 2013 and $10,000 in 2014. Wow. $12,500 vs. over $113 million from ActBlue to lefties. And the media and their lefty pals are bent out of shape about Pope.

    Pope is merely the governor's budget director. He crafts a budget document that legislators rip to shreds upon arrival. Yet, The Washington Post gives Pope credit for conservative legislation that passed the General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory, Pope's boss, went along with reluctantly.

    National Democrats seem to be slowly and quietly backing off of the whole demonization thing of The Koch brothers. Most people don't know who they are anyway. And those who DO can't understand why two big-time job creators should be hated.

    Art Pope is a smart guy. It's good that someone with his acumen is advising Gov. Pat.

    But Art Pope could close up his wallet and go away, never to be seen again, and it wouldn't make a dent in Raleigh's influence-buying and peddling game.