State Sen. Tom Apodaca and Senate minority leader Martin Nesbitt clashed again on Wednesday, this time over interrogation by a Senate committee that made a mid-level DOT secretary break down in tears.

Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican, has taken the lead as Senate Rules Committee chairman in an investigation into a letter that gubernatorial aides altered to push for funding for two turnpike projects Gov. Bev Perdue favored. Senate Democrats on Wednesday protested the committee’s investigation into the matter as heavy-handed and unfair to a lower-ranking DOT secretary who Nesbitt said “was just doing her job the best she could.”

“That’s no different than you making a mistake and us calling Miss (Carolyn) Gooden down here and, putting her up there and grilling her for 45 minutes over a mistake that was made in your office,” Nesbitt said, referring to Apodaca’s aide. “… It’s just unconscionable to pounce on somebody’s assistant who was just doing her job the best she could.”

“If Miss Gooden had done what that lady (Stanley) did,” Apodaca fired back, “she wouldn’t be working for me. So let’s get that straight right now.”

Read the whole story here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/06/27/2163412/democrats-protest-republican-grilling.html

Apodaca, the second-ranking Senate Republican, and Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, have clashed this session too over a bill sponsored by Apodaca that will strip the city of Asheville of authority to govern zoning and building at the Asheville Regional Airport and will de-annex frm Asheville the airport and land at the WNC Agriculture Center.