Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Speaker Liston Ramsey a hero? Probably not

Liston Ramsey a hero?
State Treasurer Richard Moore has proposed the N.C. Democratic Party change the name of its annual fall dinner held in Asheville, after Republicans raised questions about a racist connotation in the annual “Vance Aycock Dinner.”
He proposes instead such party “heroes” as Charlotte architect Harvey Gantt, former speaker pro tem Marie Colton of Asheville and the late N.C. Speaker of the House Liston Ramsey. Gantt and Colton certainly would be excellent candidates for honors.
I’m not sure what Moore was thinking, but he might get a quibble about Ramsey, whose lieutenants maintained ironclad control of the House and perfected the discredited supersub system of the 1980s. They ran a rigid pork-barrel system that so disturbed both Democrats and Republicans that a coalition threw him out of office in 1989 and installed Democrat Josephus Mavretic in his place.
While Ramsey was well-regarded by many of his loyal allies, I don’t think Moore can make the argument that he’s the logical choice to replace either Aycock or Vance as the name of a big to-do.
He might have been better off suggesting other western North Carolinians, say, the late state Sen. Herbert Hyde, who claimed some Cherokee heritage, or the late U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin, whose investigation of President Richard Nixon’s 1972 reelection committee unraveled the Watergate affair and led to Nixon’s resignation. But Ervin might meet opposition as well, because he strongly opposed some civil rights legislation and efforts to remove racial barriers earlier in his U.S. Senate career. The late state Sen. Jim Richardson of Charlotte would be another good choice.
It’s complicated, of course. Gov. Charles B. Aycock was a leader in the White Supremacy movement at the turn of the last century and helped whip up fervor for the bloody coup that turned out a legally elected government of Republicans and black people in Wilmington in 1898. He later was responsible for the universal education movement that provided formal schooling for black citizens.
A group of Republicans calling themselves the Carolina Stompers raised the question about changing the name of the Vance Aycock Dinner, but after Moore called for the name change, the Stompers dropped plans to protest at the dinner and said they’d refocus on correcting the history books.
Zebulon Vance was a Civil War governor who would have prolonged slavery if his efforts had led to a Confederate victory. There have been no complaints I’m aware of about his name, but if there are arguments to get rid of Aycock’s name, then arguments to get rid of Vance can’t be far behind.
Addendum: Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Bob Orr, a Republican running for governor, sent along a suggestion. While he wasn't trying to help out Democrats, "why not Henry Frye and Susie Sharpe The Sharpe/Frye dinner), both were hugely important to the process of opening up opportunities and while they are jurists, it’s still a great way to honor a couple of special people."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jack,

How dare you, of all people, take a swipe like that at Liston and "his loyal allies"

After enjoying many a meal with this group, what do you now find so "discredited" about their budget process?

That it's efficient for compromises to be made a small group of people?

That the budgets balanced?

That Liston's group in four terms didn't create the shortfalls that Mavretic & the foolish Dem/Rep alliance did in one term (leaving Dan Blue and former Liston loyalists to clean up Mavretic's budgetary mess in the next two terms)?

You know too that Liston was a welcome breath of fresh air when he became Speaker, allowing some degree (albeit small) of access to even freshman members of the minority party when there had been no such treatment before.

After this selectively remembered swipe at the deceased, I wonder what will you write about Joe Hackney in 25 years.

Anonymous said...

Well, gosh, Jack. Seems like someone has called you out.

Of course maybe you ate with them as a reporter? And then wrote about them? (Shocking.)

Why don't you write this about Hackney now: Since he's from the Triangle (the idyllic Chapel Hill, the town of my beloved alma mater) he's unlikely to give Charlotte much in the way of courts money, freeway lights money or even more lanes for existing state roads and interstates. Nor the taxing authority so that Charlotte could pay for things herself.

Really !@#$%s, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Ramsey had a mixed legacy, to say the least. He has some rural populism that led to great funding for social services. This helped move NC forward. But he had no real sense of democracy. His lieutenant, Billy Watkins, was a brutal dispenser of favor and punishment.

What about Terry Sanford, for starters?

Jack Betts said...

qpI take no swipe at the many friends of Liston Ramsey who honor his memory for the good things he did as four-term speaker, but as a reporter watching how House Democrats rigidly controlled the appropriations process, closed out those who wouldn't cooperate, granted pork barrel spending to those who did and rarely gave rank-and-file members time to read and reflect on budget bills before they had to vote, it struck me as system that served those in power, not all 120 House members. It alienated Democrats as well as Republicans and led to his downfall. Yes, it's also true that subsequent majorities in the House -- Republicans and Democrats -- have also engaged in some similar techniques to control debate, shape the budget to their liking and squeeze out opposition, but that doesn't make it a model system.
-- Jack Betts

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