I have to admit, Sinsheimer's latest e-mail is pretty interesting. It's a compendium of angry newspaper editorials from around the state questioning a budget provision Black sponsored requiring that all children receive a comprehensive eye exam within six months of starting school.
As someone who got a bunch of math problems wrong in second grade because my squinting didn't make the questions on the chalkboard any clearer, this doesn't strike me as a horrible idea. But it is expensive, and many doctors say a simple cup-over-the-eye screening test is enough to pick out the kids who could use a full exam.
The reason this has become an issue, though, is because Black himself is an optometrist.
His fellow eye doctors have donated heavily to his campaign chest -- a subject that the State Board of Elections will delve into during public hearings next week.
Optometrists and ophthalmologists stand to make big money -- $100 a pop in a state with more than 100,000 new school enrollees every year. Since Speaker Black is already in trouble over alleged cronyism, the eye exam provision has drawn heavy fire from the editorial writers:
* "It is heard to keep up with the sneaky, self-serving, sleazy scheming of state Rep. Jim Black. He's like a sewage plant with a persistent leak." (Wilmington Star-News)
* "That this requirement happens to involve Black's business -- eye care -- only makes it more sordid, and makes the embattled speaker look even sleazier than the lottery scandal has made him appear." (Winston-Salem Journal)
* "At best, this is a conflict of interest. At worse, it's a gross abuse of power. Sadly, abusing power increasingly appears to be Speaker Black's greatest talent." (Dunn Daily Record)
Is any of this fair? Black says the eye program is a good idea -- and was the idea of Governor Mike Easley. Easley denies this. Meanwhile, state Senate leaders are already talking about repealing the program at the earliest opportunity.
At this point, however, eye exams aren't really the issue any more. The issue is how Black is perceived and whether he can still be effective as House Speaker. The state's editorialists were already widely calling for his resignation; the eye exams merely provided fodder for their ire. But if Black's legislative colleagues, and the broader public in an election year, view his actions through a lens of distrust, he'll have reached the point where he may have no choice but to pack it in.
