You don't need to be Orlando Wilson or some other great fisherman to know that there is but one rule to fishing: If a catch is too small, you toss it back.

The opposite rule should apply in politics: If a catch is too big, you should throw it back -- because something's fishy.

There is something fishy about that huge raise first lady Mary Easley received from N.C. State University. If she doesn't throw it back, Chancellor James Oblinger or UNC system President Erskine Bowles should reduce it.

I like the governor personally, because among other things, he doesn't seem overly concerned with the opinion of the media or the public. Every time he was criticized for not showing up at some back-slapping function to have his picture snapped with, say, a farmer who grew the largest kumquat in Eastern North Carolina, my respect for his independence grew.

He embodied the state's Latin motto, Esse quam videri, "To be, rather than to seem."

Now, though, no longer facing re-election and apparently having lost any taste for public life, the governor appears to be in the midst of an unseemly effort to cushion Lady E's and his return to private life.

Take a dozen pals on a junket to Italy at taxpayer expense? Climb aboard.

See your wife get a huge increase in pay from a state institution during the final months of your tenure? Sign here.

There may be some star-quality benefits -- bragging rights or an ability to attract renowned lecturers, for instance -- that a university receives for having the governor's wife on the faculty. That's why I never understood why N.C. Central University rarely mentioned that she was teaching there or that the governor is an alum of its law school.

If star quality is why NCSU feels Mary Easley is worth a pay hike from $90,300 to $170,000, it should say so and not insult our intelligence with talk of her increased responsibilities.

The NCSU vice chancellor's assertion that the increase was warranted because of that is absurd, unless she's going to -- in addition to the duties cited -- direct traffic, cook her famous string bean casserole (oops, sorry: that was Sweet Thang's specialty) and coach special teams for the Wolfpack.

Efforts to reach Gov. Easley on Monday were unsuccessful.

The governor and his wife may not care what the media think of them, but a little empathy with the unwashed masses is in order.

MARY EASLEY: I'm sorry, Chancellor Oblinger. I can't take such a whopping check when people in our state are hurting so.

CHANCELLOR: Why, that's mighty thoughtful of you, ma'am. The people of North Carolina will be pleased to know that you turned down this money as a show of solidarity with them.

EASLEY: Turn it down? I just said I couldn't accept a check. You leave my money in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar on the back porch of the Vatican: I'm flying back to Rome next week.

I disagree with the impassioned, disappointed state employee who wrote to me that Gov. Easley doesn't care about poor people.

He cares. He and the first lady have adopted the philosophy of that great religious leader the Rev. Ike, who said, "The best thing you can do for the poor is not become one of them."

With recent reports on his trip to Italy and Lady Easley's extensive foreign travel and 88 percent raise -- collectively known as the Great Money Grab of '08 -- a contemptuous gov seems to be telling us we can all kiss his esse quam videri.

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