First, President Trump told Pelosi and Schumer that he’d be proud to take the blame for a shutdown; then, a day later, Trump said he didn’t want a shutdown; next, zigging, Trump said it was going to be a long shutdown; then, zagging, he said he didn’t want a long shutdown.

At a glance President Trump’s four statements sound like contradictions but, instead, were they simply Trump negotiating tactics – moves Trump was making to squeeze Pelosi and Schumer to get money to build his wall? Or did Trump contradict himself four times without knowing it?

Who can tell?

But it does make you long for the days when the words politician and zig-zag weren’t synonymous.  

Mark Harris won one of those rare victories you hardly ever see in politics – he upset an incumbent Congressman in a primary. After that Harris went straight on to win the General Election by 905 votes but then ran head on into a buzzsaw: When the day came to declare him the new Congressman in the 9th District the Elections Board said no.

The Board started issuing subpoenas, investigating reports of voter fraud, and most people, not sure who was telling the truth, scratched their heads waiting patiently for the Board to lay the facts on the table. But the politicians in both parties didn’t wait: The Republicans saw a Congressional seat they had in their hands slipping through their fingers and the Democrats saw an election they’d lost by less than a point once again within their grasp.

The head of the Republican Party, Dallas Woodhouse, immediately demanded that the Elections Board declare Harris had won – before it investigated the voter fraud. And a Democratic Congressman (who’s from the suburbs around Washington, D.C., not from North Carolina) said flat-out he knew for a fact “votes have been stolen” which was followed by Nancy Pelosi threatening to order a new election (which the Democrats will have the power to do when they have the majority in Congress).

Newspaper reporters flocked to Bladen County, reporting how a local politician, McCrae Dowless, had signed people up to vote for Mark Harris by absentee ballot then, once the voters received their ballots in the mail, Dowless’ ‘grassroots workers’ returned to their homes saying, Give us your ballots. We’ll send them to the Board of Elections – the problem with that was obvious: Dowless – who was being paid by Harris – having a voter’s ballot in his hands opened the door to mischief.

That wasn’t all: The newspapers also reported Dowless’ grassroots workers had gone to the homes of Democrats, primarily African-Americans, who almost surely voted against Harris and collected their absentee ballots too – the obvious question then was: What did McCrae Dowless do with those ballots?   

By then Mark Harris’ Democratic opponent was blasting him for bankrolling ‘criminal activity’ and the head of the Republican Party was backpedaling, telling CNN it looked to him like an investigation was a good idea after all.

Two years ago, back in 2016, the first time Mark Harris ran against Robert Pittenger for Congress he lost the Republican Primary by 134 votes; in that same election McCrae Dowless had worked for a third candidate who got 221 absentee votes to Harris’ 4 and Pittenger’s 1 in Bladen County. After the smoke cleared from that election Harris had met with a local judge, a sheriff, a County Commissioner and a former Republican Party Chairman who told him he ought to hire Dowless to do the same thing for him the next time he ran. And that’s what he did. He hired Dowless but, a few days ago, when WBTV asked him if he’d known about any shenanigans Harris explained, I didn’t – and still don’t – know whether that happened.

So is Mark Harris a villain – who paid a local fixer to get himself elected? Or did he make a mistake in judgement by trusting the wrong man? Was McCrae Dowless a Svengali stealing ballots? Or is he an innocent man? No one will know until the Elections Board lays the facts on the table – so waiting makes sense. But not to politicians.  The Democrats now see Mark Harris as damaged goods so they want a new General Election and they want it to be between Dan McCready and Mark Harris. Some Republicans figure Harris may be damaged goods too, so the head of the Republican Party changed directions a third time: If the Elections Board orders a new General Election, he said, it should also order a new Primary;—and the Republican majority in the State Legislature obliged him by passing a law that does just that.

It’s gotten to be an old story: We find ourselves with a problem but given a little time we can figure out the right cure to fix it.  But before anyone knows the truth the politicians in both parties, each dead-set on electing their own man, go berserk and give us a circus.

Trump is both creature and creator of today’s hyper-speed, Twitter-hype news cycle. To win in 2020, Democrats need a candidate who beats him at the communications game.

The New York Times reports:

“By all accounts, Mr. Trump’s consumption of cable television has actually increased in recent months as his first scheduled meetings of the day have slid back from the 9 or 9:30 a.m. set by Reince Priebus, his first chief of staff, to roughly 11 many mornings. During ‘executive time,’ Mr. Trump watches television in the residence for hours, reacting to what he sees on Fox News. While in the West Wing, he leaves it on during most meetings in the dining room off the Oval Office, one ear attuned to what is being said.”

While he watches, Trump – alone, angry and aggrieved – pumps out tweets that drive and dominate the news. He fires people, announces head-spinning policy decisions and airs his inexhaustible grievances. The nation lurches daily, even hourly, from the Mueller investigation to myriad guilty pleas to government shutdowns to financial crises, on and on.

Presidents used to depend on spokespeople, press offices and podium appearances to make news. Trump just uses his thumb to thumb his nose at the media, his own staff and Cabinet and the world.

In response, a lot of would-be Democratic candidates have taken to Twitter, with mixed results. Some sound fresh and feisty. Others reek of the cautious vetting and editing that sucked any life out of Hillary Clinton’s social media.

One candidate breaking new ground is Beto O’Rourke. While others went on TV and Twitter this past week to debate immigration and the border wall, he live-steamed visits to a tent city on the border. Live-streaming was his great campaign innovation this year, and it could be the next level of direct communication in 2020.

Presidential elections are won by candidates who master new media: FDR and radio. JFK and live TV. Nixon (’68, with Roger Ailes), staged Q&A on TV. Reagan and the photo op. Clinton and hip TV. Obama and online organizing. Now Trump and Twitter.

Along with policy chops and presidential character, Democrats should look for the candidate who masters next-generation communications – and who can go head-to-head with Trump in debates. That’s the winning ticket.

With Rob Christensen’s retirement, we lose North Carolina’s most experienced, knowledgeable and insightful political reporter.

There were, still are and always will be other great political reporters in North Carolina. But nobody stayed on the job for 45 years. Nobody had Rob’s wealth of history and sources. Nobody worked harder, worked sources harder, listened longer and more closely, learned and remembered more, and wrote closer to the bone than Rob did.

Fun fact: I was one of Rob’s first editors when he came to the N&O in 1973. He was a junior reporter, covering city government. I was a junior editor, working as assistant city editor, then night city editor, between stints as a reporter. Three years later, I started working for Jim Hunt. Since then, Rob and I have talked, on and off the record, hundreds, maybe thousands of times. He was always polite, patient and persistent. And I always learned from reading him and talking to him.

For years I heard Democrats complain that Rob was a secret Republican. Republicans once threw him out of their state convention because they thought he was a not-so-secret Democrat. The truth is that, even after 45 years, I have no idea what Rob’s politics are. And I’m pretty good at sniffing out people’s politics.

No, Rob played it straight. He gave it to us straight. And he did his damnedest to get it right.

Hell of a job, Rob. Thank you. We’ll miss you.

After President Trump signed the new NAFTA agreement I thought, Trump got that one right – but then, before the ink dried, Trump erupted, twice, tweeting he hoped Michael Cohen would spend a long time in jail and that he and the President Xi of China were “the only two people who can bring about massive and very productive change.”

A slam. And a boast.

By now, it’s an old story. President Trump does something right and feelings of goodwill stir but then, in the next breath, Trump fouls his nest then the goodwill vanishes and the handwriting on the wall says: Donald Trump is his own worst enemy.

My blogging partner Carter Wrenn hit the big time yesterday. He had the “Quote of the Day” in The New York Times: “I’m old fashioned, but anytime somebody may have broken the law, it’s appropriate for the state to look into it.”

Carter was quoted (as “the dean of North Carolina’s Republican strategists”) in a story about election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. But what he said could apply to a lot of politics today. Political news and crime news seem to have become one and the same.

Thanks, Trump.

There are the payoffs to a Playmate and porn stars. The Russia collusion story. The Russian redhead infiltrating the NRA and GOP. Trump cronies going to jail, pleading guilty and cooperating – or refusing to cooperate – with investigators. And now an investigation of pay-to-play in the Trump inaugural committee.

Here at home, the #NC09 scandal grows ever larger and ever closer to Mark Harris, who “won” the election but may never get to Congress. A horde of political and investigative journalists has descended on Bladen County. And who among Tar Heel politicos, Democrat or Republican, is shocked to hear there may have been election shenanigans in that part of the state?

For now, the spotlight has turned away from pay-to-play stories swirling around Speaker Tim Moore. But his time is coming, especially if he’s Speaker again.

Then there’s this karmic coincidence: Just when North Carolina becomes ground zero for political investigations, John Drescher is leaving the N&O for The Washington Post. John will be a deputy editor on The Post’s National Politics Investigations team.

It sounds like he’ll be flying into the eye of the storm. So here’s a salute to John. He’s one of North Carolina’s greatest journalists ever. And that takes in a lot of greats.

And here’s a salute to all the journalists – here, in Washington and everywhere – who chase the truth. It’s a sorry time in politics. A lot of people who’ve been in it for a long time, Democrats and Republicans, know there’s a need for great reporting, full reckoning and far-reaching reform.

Democrats, repeat after me: “Impeachment should be done only on a bipartisan basis. Ask Republicans what they think about impeaching Trump.”

This is smart for two reasons. First, it’s the right thing to do. Bill Clinton’s impeachment showed that it shouldn’t be  done on party lines. The country is divided enough already. Second, it’s good politics. Democrats won’t look too political, and Republicans will be put on the spot.

Democrats won big in the 2018 midterms because they didn’t make it all about Trump; they focused on people’s real-life problems. They should keep it up.

Next year, the Democratic House majority should pass an infrastructure-jobs bill, a clean energy-jobs bill, a middle-class tax cut and good stuff like that. Challenge Trump and Senate Republicans to pass them all.

It looks like Nancy Pelosi wants to do that, not impeachment, but too many Democrats in Congress want to get on TV and run their mouths.

There’s plenty to talk about, like payoffs to a porn star and a Playmate and collusion with Russia. Let the Republicans talk about it. Let them explain why everything Trump has done is just fine – or not. Let them own him.

Let’s take the whole mess to the voters in 2020. There’ll be plenty to talk about then.

The election-fraud story in the 9th Congressional District has a long way to go, but three things are clear.

First, real news and real journalism are alive and well. I won’t single out any reporter or news outlet, because so many have performed so well. A salute to each and every one of you.

A salute, too, to the sources and the experts who have helped reporters advance the story, especially Dr. Michael Bitzer and Gerry Cohen. To follow the story, follow them on Twitter. (And a salute to North Carolina’s apparently transparent and informative State Board of Elections. Who knew?)

Second, a caution to the media: Next time, don’t be so quick to declare winners on Election Night. We now face a combination of close races plus lots of absentee and provisional ballots. Elections may not be decided for days, weeks or months. This year is no aberration; it’s the new normal. Also, delays don’t mean somebody is “stealing the election.” It’s called “counting the votes.”

Third, a caution to Democrats commenting on #NC09. Don’t be like Dallas Woodhouse – spouting off one day only to find yourself sputtering and stuttering to explain yourself on national TV the next day. Let the story play out. Let the media, the experts and – most of all – the investigators get the facts. Let’s find out who knew what when.

As its decade of political dominance nears an end, the Republican Party reeks of the stench of corruption from top to bottom, from Washington to Wisconsin to Georgia to Raleigh and all the way to Bladen County.

The Bladen scandal once again puts North Carolina at center stage – and Republicans in the spotlight. The GOP bloodhounds who’ve been hot after non-existent voter fraud have turned tail now that there’s Republican election fraud. Maybe they’ll amend their voter ID bill to put Leslie McCrae Dowless in charge of all state elections.

The GOP fish clearly rots from the head. Trump has brought more grifters, fixers, favor-seekers, felons, soon-to-be felons, crooks, criminals, perjurers and Fifth Amendment pleaders to Washington than Grant, Harding and Nixon combined.

In Wisconsin and Michigan, Republican legislators are stripping powers from newly elected Democratic governors and attorneys general. Sound familiar?

In Georgia, the Republican Secretary of State stole and suppressed enough voters to get himself elected Governor.

And now we might have a stolen election right here at home.

All across the nation, Republican power is built on voter suppression and gerrymandering, crookedness and corruption – anything to thwart the will of the people. History teaches that you can get away with this, until you suddenly can’t. The universe teaches that all that rises also falls.

A reckoning is coming. It’s time to throw the thieves out. And, as somebody said, lock ‘em up.

Footnote: In just a week, the Bladen County story went from a minor stir to a monster storm. The Washington Post has a good account, “The shoe-leather reporting boosting North Carolina’s explosive election fraud investigation.” A lot of familiar names appear in the story, but an important one is missing: Gerry Cohen, retired general counsel to the legislature, election-law maven and one of the smartest people around. To keep up with the Bladen story – and all election matters – follow him on Twitter @gercohen.

Democrats 30 years ago would be shocked at how Democrats today are extolling and eulogizing President George H.W. Bush.

In 1988, while Bush talked about a “kinder, gentler” America and “a thousand points of light,” he let Lee Atwater run a viciously negative, racist (Willie Horton) campaign against the hapless Michael Dukakis. Atwater apologized on his deathbed.

As Reagan’s VP, in Doonesbury’s delightful term, Bush “put his manhood in a blind trust.” He embraced what he once called “voodoo economics.” He flipped on abortion. He bragged he was a key player, but claimed he was out of the loop on Iran-Contra. Again and again, he caved in to the right-wingers.

And President Bush gave America Justice Clarence Thomas.

When Jim Hunt looked at running for Governor again in 1992, Bush loomed large. He had 90 percent approval ratings after the Gulf War. Some of Hunt’s closest allies argued it was suicide to sail against that wind.

Our pollster Harrison Hickman was the first to spot Bush’s underlying vulnerability: If he could win the war, surely he could fix the economy – if he cared. But the patrician Bush, who missed out on the Depression growing up on his parents’ Connecticut estate, didn’t have a clue. He got trounced by Bill Clinton, who felt our pain. Clinton nearly won North Carolina. Hunt won a third term.

Over time, Bush got to looking better. When George W. Bush (and Cheney and Rumsfeld) puffed and postured, we missed 41’s prudence. We came to see the goodness, if not greatness, of the man – his courage and courtesy, his decency and dedication to duty, his gift for friendship and love of family, his humility and his humor.

Then came Trump. Now we see how far we’ve fallen. No wonder we mourn George.