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The Day After
posted at 2007-02-16 20:05 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
If you want to read more about yesterday's plea hearing, just pick a paper - there's no shortage
of headlines about it. The N&O assigned a full complement of reporters,
illustrators, and photographers. You can see the results here.
Aftermath
Image of the day on Jones St.: Jim Black's former staff removing his items - pictures, art, mementos - from their offices, and boxing it all up to be taken back to Charlotte. Black's current office was emptied out earlier in the day. A moving truck was parked out in front of the legislature when I left just after 5pm, although Julie Robinson in Speaker Hackney's office tells me it wasn't connected to Black's move-out.
This was a hard day for a lot of people who had worked for Black for years. There wasn't much anger - just sadness and fatigue. Even after almost two years of controversy, what happened yesterday still came as a shock to many. One staffer told me some of them knew about some of the issues that initially got Black into trouble, but they had no clue about the cash payoffs.
Complicated
I was talking to Leg. receptionists Ann and Roberta at the front desk this afternoon when the phone rang. I only caught Roberta's half of the conversation: "No, he doesn't work here anymore," and "His office is closed - they're packing it up now," and "No, I don't know where Patrick is."
When I asked who it was, Ann explained, "It's that lady who calls here every day for Speaker Black." Ann says it's an elderly lady who called Black's office about a year ago, looking for help with a Social Security problem. As it turned out, she had a lot of other problems too, but not much money or family support. Ann says the woman doesn't even live in Black's former district, but he and his assistant Patrick have been working with her anyway, trying to find her some help through local social service groups.
This isn't the only story like this I've heard. There are others - like the legislator Black used to give rent money to, not to buy loyalty (that was already established), but because that person needed help.
I think that's what makes this all so sad. Black's no saint, obviously. And bags of cash in bathrooms? It's like a bad "Law and Order" episode -- the "corrupt politician" caricature practically draws itself. But that's never the whole picture. For all the wrong Jim Black did, he did a lot of things right, too, often without taking credit for them. You won't read those stories in the papers this week. But people who were close to him know, and that makes what happened even harder for them to understand.
