Easleys took lovely trips abroad; we got the bill

By Scott Sexton
Winston-Salem Journal

It's a rhetorical question with an obvious answer, but one that nonetheless bears asking in light of Gov. Mike "Tax Hike" Easley's lame attempt at explaining the extravagant (and taxpayer-borne) costs of overseas junkets that he and first lady Mary Easley enjoyed.

Who is dumber, a European restaurateur who tries to sell a cheeseburger and onion rings combo for $60 or the rube from Brunswick County who pays $60 for it?

Hmmm.

Yet Easley used that very example in a news conference Tuesday in which he defended the $109,000 of our money that his wife spent during a 2007 trip to France and one in May to Eastern Europe, and the $170,000 that the first couple and several others blew on a trip to Italy in April.

"Let's be honest about it, a cheeseburger and onion rings is $60 over there," Easley said.

Say, what? Perhaps Easley was confused and bought his burger not in Rome but in Amsterdam, where smoking dope is an accepted pastime.

"I suggest that maybe he was sending (a) chauffeur to get those cheeseburgers, and that's where he got that dollar figure," said state Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham.