Michael Whatley's Biggest Campaign Issue Comes With Preettty Awkward History

"Do something!" is the source of a lot of "oops" in politics and government.

DOOOOO SOMETHING!!! That’s a refrain in politics, if not in so many words. A terrible phrase that has resulted in terrible ideas time and again. Maybe it’s because I live here but it seems like North Carolina is especially prone. Just look at the Senate race between Whatley and Cooper.

Former head of NC GOP Michael Whatley has been tearing ex-gov Roy Cooper up over the absurd COVID-era prison release fiasco brought to us by Democrats — namely Cooper and current governor Josh Stein, then AG. It’s fair to say the scandal has become a centerpiece of Whatley’s Senate campaign. Fair enough.

But digging back through the pandemic years brings to mind a subject I’ve written about a lot in the past: The dangers of “do something” politics.

That is to say, be careful when you demand officials do something during a crisis (real or imagined). Sometimes … they listen.

Whatley’s been ripping Cooper over the prisoner release settlement negotiated through Stein’s office that Cooper signed off on. It’s big news in the state, and there’s an ongoing probe being conducted by Republicans.

It’s central enough to Whatley’s campaign that he agreed on the Scott Jennings Podcast that the prisoner releases are the “number one issue” in the race. He says Cooper has to answer for it, telling The Nick Craig Show he hopes the North Carolina General Assembly will “bring [Cooper] in and explain what he was thinking” in caving to left wing pressure and settling with the ACLU and NAACP in their lawsuit over prisoner conditions during COVID.

Again, and I can’t stress this enough: fair enough. BUT … there’s more to the background here.

Back in 2020, when Whatley was chairman of the state party, he criticized Cooper on the same subject, prisoners and COVID. But from the other direction.

In a July 2020 video posted by NCGOP Communications, Whatley slapped Cooper for failing to “protect folks in prisons” during the pandemic. The state party also issued a press release accusing Cooper of only taking “COVID in prison seriously when a judge orders him too.”

Hmm, now what judge would that be?

Oh right. We keep saying “settlement” on this prisoner release deal, right? That’s because the judge’s orders here are from the same legal fight over prison conditions during COVID. The release even linked to an article on NC NAACP v. Cooper, the very lawsuit settled resulting in the prisoner release scandal.

So Whatley and the NC GOP under his leadership were attacking Cooper for not doing what the ACLU and NAACP were pushing for, and only taking the COVID prison problem “seriously” when a judge — again, a judge making a ruling in the since settled, scandalous lawsuit — ordered him to.

Awkwaaard.

Now, that obviously doesn’t mean Whatley agreed to, or with, the settlement. And it doesn’t give Cooper a pass, and certainly not Stein.

But it really makes me think of one of the things that’s bugged me endlessly in writing about politics the last 20 or so years. The dangers of DO SOMETHING!

First, it’s not a Republican or conservative principle that the government should always do something about something. They can butt out. I mean obviously when it comes to the state that’s running the prisons, the issues related to what goes on in those prisons is the government’s business. But..

Second, even if it is the job of government to do a thing, it doesn’t mean a panicked “do something!” is a principle on which to base a timeline or an action. People will always demand what they aren’t getting and often what they should not get. Not every wish should come true. Remember “Unanswered Prayers” by Garth Brooks?

Yeah that’s right, I know about music things.

And third, cynical “of the moment” political maneuvering almost always backfires. When Republicans take up a position because its contrary to, or hurts the prospects of a Democrat, but fail to consider where the position itself has inherent merit, they are asking for trouble. Borrowing it for the future, if you will.

No, it wasn’t Whatley who signed on the dotted line when FedEx delivered the actual nightmare of the mass prisoner release scandal. It was Cooper that did that. And who should be reminded of it daily. And yeah, Cooper is still the obvious worst choice for Senate. Maybe ever.

But Past Whatley left a landmine for Future Whatley by playing political tiddlywinks with the NAACP and ACLU point of view on prisoners and COVID. He and the party may claim they never saw it going so far as a mass release of violent criminals into and among the citizens of North Carolina.

But for me? I’d say they damn well should have seen it coming. I’m calling it The Whoops Conundrum for now. Not as good a name as The Override Paradox but what do you want from me? I’m not that clever.