Former House Co-Speaker Richard Morgan, a Republican from Moore County, is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction this fall. Like some candidates, he has also recently published a book about his time in politics,:The Fourth Witch: A Memoir of Politics and Sinning." In it he sheds light on how he came to share power in the N.C. House of Representatives with former Speaker and Co-Speaker Jim Black of Mecklenburg, now serving time in a federal prison for having accepted bribes.
He writes about a former aide to Black, Meredith Norris, who wielded great power and who benefitted from Black's helping her get clients as a lobbyist, and about former Rep. Mike Decker, a conservative Christian who accepted a bribe to switch his vote to help keep Black in power and who is also in federal prison.
Here's what Morgan had to say about Black: "It's hard to describe how I feel about what Jim did today. I served beside him two years as Speaker. I worked with him every day. He was my friend. How I don't feel is outraged. Or holier than thou. A day comes when unless you're blind you can't avoid seeing what every saint who ever drew breath figured out: Sin is bone deep. It's wider than any ocean. And none of us is safe. A thirty-year-old-girl was foolish enough to believe monitoring legislation wasn't lobbying. A history teacher from the Gospel Light Christian School, in an IHOP in Salisbury, took a $50,000 bribe. And a 72-year-old grandfather is serving five years in prison.
I guess how I feel about it is like the sinner's prayer, 'Have mercy, oh Lord, on me a sinner.'"
Later in the book, Morgan writes about his failure to confront Black in the House:
"My sin wasn't that I agreed to share power with Jim. It was in my not looking him in the eye, later, and saying, 'I can read a newspaper report. Is it true you bribed Mike Decker?'
"Instead, I didn't ask. Because Jim was my friend I closed my eyes -- and I'll warn you the easiest sin you'll ever commit is the one where you don't have to say a word or lift a finger -- where all you have to do is close your eyes."
