I was one of those who argued, as the North Carolina House cast deadlocked vote after vote for speaker, that the two parties should share power in a co-speakership arrangement. I still this it was the right decision, but it sure looks like Democrat Jim Black and Republican Richard Morgan are out to prove me and other optimists wrong.

The co-speakers announced their main committee chairmanships Tuesday, and it’s not looking pretty. There are eight – count them, eight – co-chairs of the House Appropriations Committee. Six members will co-chair the House Finance Committee, which handles tax bills. Each co-speaker also got two “floaters,” or at-large members of any committee they choose, which will continue to warp the committee system by usurping the ability of a panel to generate and determine the course of its own legislation.

You may remember the Greek myth of the Hydra, a creature that sprouted two heads every time a hero chopped off one. Black and Morgan have recreated this beast in Appropriations and Revenue, both of which had already stumbled through a couple of sessions with a smaller number of co-chairs who nevertheless served to weaken authority and accountability.

In this case, Morgan has further complicated the situation by leaning heavily on his dissident Republicans to fill these various posts. Perhaps he approached other knowledgeable members of the GOP caucus in a spirit of comity and urged them to play a meaningful role in the coalition regime. Perhaps they spurned him. I don’t know. But for whatever reason, the Republican Speaker has chosen from among the most unrepresentative members of his party to help direct these committees – members such as Rep. Wilma Sherrill of Buncombe on Appropriations and Rep. David Miner of Wake on Finance. Their ideological preferences are vastly different from those of most Republican lawmakers as well as most GOP politicians and activists across the state. Over the years, Sherrill has supported numerous budget-busting spending items that most of her colleagues opposed. Miner has indicated that he is leaning towards “moderation” in such areas as tax increases.

I don’t mean any disrespect towards Sherrill and Miner, who surely have a right to hold these views, but their choice does show a degree of disrespect for the mostly fiscally conservative GOP caucus in the House. As I said, perhaps they deserved it for rebuffing Morgan’s entreaties. Perhaps not.

The big picture is as follows. Democrats will hold 33 committee chairmanships, compared to the Republicans’ 23. The powerful Rules Committee is in sole Democratic hands. Morgan has announced picks for his legislative staff who are talented but whose backgrounds do not lie in the conservative mainstream of the North Carolina Republican Party. This is a co-speakership with a little more speaker on one side and a little more co on the other.

I’m not a Republican, but if I were I’d be worried about whether the party is likely to reunify any time soon and pose a meaningful challenge to continued Democratic dominance in Raleigh.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.