Perdue's post mortem on Easley

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue is sparing the pleasantries in talking about Gov. Mike Easley.

Perdue, a fellow Democrat and her party's nominee to succeed Easley, has subtly been dissing Easley in her speeches for weeks.

"I'm going to be such a different governor than we've seen," she told a Concord crowd in August. "I'm going to be hands on. I'm going to be active and engaged."

Okay, not so subtly, given that she's underscoring Easley's tendency to rarely leave the governor's mansion, other than to go to Southport for a long weekend. On Wednesday, though, Perdue told the N&O editorial board how she REALLY feels. Has Easley been a good governor?

"Wow! Why don't you go for the jugular?" she responded. "I'm not in the business of judging governors."

N&O Executive Editor John Drescher pointed out that, moments before, she had praised Max Gardner, governor during the Great Depression.

"Well, he's dead," Perdue responded.

So it's okay to judge them after they're dead?

"No, John, that's not fair."

More after the jump.

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"I've watched Mike Easley very closely. I've watched George Bush. I don't even say he's a terrible president, just a bad president. I really am so different than Mike Easley that I don't believe I can fairly say to you that he's been a bad governor. I can say to you that he's done some exceptionally important things and I'm proud oif his leadership on those issues. As you know the governor and I are not real partners. The way I'm elected (in a separate vote), I'm a free agent. I haven't been part and parcel of anything with the administration and that's the way it is. And I promise you that whoever's lieutenant governor with me will have a different role, a different role."