Is it worse for McCrory to be called Pat or irrelevant?

It is probably -- probably -- just a coincidence that Gov. Pat McCrory promised to veto a Senate plan to shift sales tax revenue from urban to rural counties just a few days after Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, said the governor is practically irrelevant.

It almost surely is not a coincidence that the senator who is the main proponent of the tax plan called McCrory just "Pat" in a statement he issued late Tuesday, 90 minutes after McCrory issued his veto threat.

The fact that the Senate's Republican leadership and their Republican governor often don't get along well is not news to those who follow state politics closely. What was unusual about what Apodaca, McCrory and Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, said is how obvious it made that fact.

In case you missed it, when Apodaca was asked in a meeting with the Citizen-Times editorial board recently whether McCrory would play a role in negotiations over the state budget, he responded, "No. The governor doesn't play much of a role in anything."

Excerpts from the discussion containing that quote were published in Monday's newspaper and quickly circulated on social media and in a few news media outlets.

The next day, Brown brought several leaders from rural counties to Raleigh to push for his sales tax plan. McCrory blasted it later Tuesday, saying it would result in a tax increase and he wouldn't agree to it.

"Redistribution and hidden tax increases are liberal tax and spend principles of the past that simply don't work. More importantly, this bill will cripple the economic and trade centers of our state that power our economy," the governor's statement read.

He mentioned again that the General Assembly has yet to replenish economic development recruitment funds as McCrory requested.

"Instead of pursuing left-wing ideas that continually fail, it's time for the General Assembly to get to work on job creation for all North Carolina," McCrory said.

Brown shot back with a statement that began: "I can't figure out if Pat thinks he is the Governor of Charlotte or the Mayor of North Carolina." It goes on to accuse McCrory of pushing policies that harm rural areas of the state and again refer to him by his first name only.

It's a safe bet that McCrory doesn't like being called almost irrelevant or, in a statement in this context, by just his first name. GOP senators surely don't like having their proposals called "left-wing ideas."

But, legislators and governors often clash whether they are in the same political party or not and the world keeps spinning.

So do political parties. Democrats were quick to issue a statement Monday highlighting Apodaca's words about McCrory. Whether Apodaca had said anything or not, McCrory's effectiveness and ability to get the General Assembly to do what he wants are bound to be issues in 2016.

To be fair to Apodaca, he is not the first person to question McCrory's impact and won't be the last.

Disagreements probably matter less to GOP senators' chances next year. Many represent safe Republican districts where the main obstacle to re-election is the possibility of a primary challenge, not losing to a Democrat. Tangling with a governor considered more moderate probably is not a big liability for most.

The more immediate question is whether McCrory, senators and representatives can work out their differences and agree to a state budget. It is usually harder to change a position once you've taken it publicly, but McCrory and senators had already differed on the sales tax issue, which is contained in the Senate budget plan.

And, getting folks who have different views to agree on a course of action is supposed to be in politicians' job description.

Read more from Mark Barrett in the Politics Now blog.