What's That? It's Pat!

I've always liked Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory, even though he's a Republican, and I am a Democrat. He's always struck me as a fair-minded man who works with the best interests of Charlotte in mind. He's steered the city through an unprecedented period of growth, been a tireless civic booster, brought the NBA back to town, and even hosted his own radio show. I like to cite him as "one of the Republicans I would vote for."

That said, I was disappointed to hear about Pat's remarks at the Democratic National Convention in Boston yesterday. Because The Charlotte Observer now requires registration, here's an excerpt from this article:

Before he could take two steps, he stopped and cocked his ear toward Bush-Cheney spokesman Dan Ronayne, who just wanted to remind the GOP mayor to remember to get in some good licks at Sen. John Edwards, another N.C. politician visiting Boston.

Sure enough, the first question, from a faraway anchorman in New Jersey, was about the Democrats' vice presidential nominee. And McCrory, who would spend the day boosting Bush, bashing Edwards, and basking in the national spotlight, was ready.

"We don't know much about him," McCrory said of his home state's senior senator. "(Before he was elected), probably 99.9 percent of the public had never heard of him in Charlotte -- except for some of the doctors who deliver babies who he had sued. And since he's been elected, we really haven't seen him."

Hoping to raise some doubts about Edwards on his big night at the Democratic National Convention, the Bush-Cheney team had paid for another boyish Tar Heel politician to come to Beantown and booked interviews for him with Fox, MSNBC, CNN and more than a dozen radio and TV stations around the country.

I don't know about lots of Senators before they are elected. I did know about Elizabeth Dole before she was elected, but that didn't make me like her. I didn't know anything about SC GOP Senator Lindsay Graham before he was elected, but the election process is nice and long so we can get to know the candidates.

What's really going on here, in a bit of pot-kettle-blackage, is Pat digging on Edwards' ambition, implying that he's been seeking higher office for his entire stay in the Senate. The same allegation has been made against McCrory. From the same article:

"I've never talked about a specific job in Washington," he said, then adds, "because they know how much I enjoy being mayor at this point in time." Still, he's on a committee advising Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and has worked closely with federal housing officials.

I don't begrudge Pat McCrory - or John Edwards, for that matter - for angling for a bigger, better job. It takes a lot of ambition to get involved in politics in the first place. Go for the brass ring. But as long as you're a Mayor or a Senator, don't forget what job one has to be.

Be careful, Pat. You're representing the city I love, but you're not speaking for me up there, or a lot of other people in the Charlotte area. Don't succumb to the instinct to go for the cheap hit just because ideologues want you to and you can.