Easley and the enablers.

• Author: Mooneyham, Scott
• Position: CAPITALGOODS - Mike Easley

Mike Easley always has been a charming fellow. Despite being a bit of a loner, the former governor could light up a room, whether it was filled with business people pressing their policy interests or a prison work detail come to hang Christmas decorations at the Executive Mansion. You hit a lot of bases when you can do spot-on impersonations of Hank Hill or Jim Hunt. But considering his frequent absences from some of the perfunctory events his predecessors always made, you wondered whether he really wanted to be there, whether the appearance hid the truth. Maybe that charm helped lead to his downfall.

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When people always laugh at your jokes, it becomes easy to believe everyone flocks to you because of that great sense of humor. Those with business interests before the state--whether developers who want environmental permits or utility executives who want regulatory changes--don't hang around governors because of their charm. Those who seek appointments to powerful governmental policymaking and regulatory boards don't do favors just because the recipients are appealing people.

None of the developers or wealthy fundraisers who enabled his fall--the folks who offered up those free plane flights and a discounted coastal land deal--were around when Easley stood before a judge in a Wake County courtroom. Looking straight ahead, he answered, "Yes, your honor," to a series of questions. When they ended, he became North Carolina's first governor convicted of a felony for actions while in office, copping to knowingly filing a false campaign report.

The plea deal didn't result in any prison time, leading to Internet chatter and Thanksgiving conversations that he had gotten off easy. Maybe. But a year in prison couldn't have been worse than the disgrace. A few decades earlier, he had been a corruption-busting prosecutor going after politicians caught with their hands in the cookie jar. His attorney described the former governor and his wife, Mary, as broken people. Joe Cheshire is one of the best criminal lawyers in the state, and part of his defense apparently involved trying to immediately repair Easley's image.

Even if that was a bit of an embellishment, it's not unreasonable to feel some sympathy for the man. Easley came into office as something of a political outsider with a small circle of friends. Many were fellow state prosecutors or people he had worked with as attorney general. That inner circle came to include his...