Archive for May 2006
Whose Money Talks Loudest?
It will be Art Pope’s millions against the Basnight/Black “machines” this fall. That is, unless Speaker Jim Black’s train derails because of bad publicity and threatening investigations. The legislative races will be a contest between two different ways of raising the big chunks of cash it takes to win a majority in the State Senate…
Read MoreMore Pay to Play
How deeply is ‘pay to play’ ingrained in the culture of the Democratic Party?Let’s take a look at the upcoming Democrat race for Governor in 2008. Three candidates are already raising war chests and State Treasurer Richard Moore leads the pack. The News and Observer reports Moore has raised over 42% of his money from…
Read MoreLook Out, Dick Nixon
The USA Today/Gallup poll now shows George Bush at a 31 percent approval rating. Nearly two-thirds of Americans – 65 percent – approve of the job he’s doing. I think he is basically down now to the total viewership of Fox News. According to USA Today: Only four presidents have scored lower approval ratings since…
Read MoreAnother Version of ‘Pay to Play’
When the state had to bid an $18 million contract to purchase office supplies, it hired the consulting company Accenture and paid them $300,000 to evaluate the bids. However, according to the News and Observer, Accenture, the state’s consultant, has also been paid millions of dollars by Office Depot (for work unrelated to North Carolina).…
Read MoreGas Price Politics
Has there ever been a worse idea than the Senate Republicans’ proposal for a $100 tax rebate to help Americans buy more $3 gas? Has there ever been more convincing proof that Senator Bill Frist belongs in an operating room, not the White House? In fairness, Washington Democrats aren’t much better. Since I whacked Bill…
Read MoreRaleigh Mayor
A good way for Republicans to get a head start on the next Mayor’s race is to start making Mayor Charles Meeker’s runaway spending an issue. Now. On top of proposing to raise taxes on new homes, and raising property taxes to pay for a school bonds and raising property taxes two years ago, the…
Read MorePope versus Morgan – Chapter 4 – The Purge
The usual way to eliminate an opponent, politically, is to defeat him in an election. A simpler way – when the legislature redraws its districts – is to put him in someone else’s district. After he was elected Co-Speaker, Richard Morgan took Leo Daughtry out of his district and put him in a district with…
Read MoreA Small Cut
With Mayor Meeker talking about raising taxes again, and the City Council talking about spending $11 million more than it has, Republicans should be recommending ways to trim the budget. Here’s a small idea. The City publishes a newsletter, “Liveable Streets Update: Downtown Raleigh.” The newsletter seems to exist for only one reason – to…
Read MoreBrad Miller’s Burden
Brad Miller is an ideal Congressman: serious, sincere and hard-working. Here is how decent a guy Brad is: He chaired the Senate committee that drew up his Congressional district, but his friends say he didn’t make the district nearly Democratic enough. No good deed goes unpunished. Brad now has Vernon Robinson as an opponent. Robinson…
Read MoreQuote of the Day: It’s about Me
The day before the election, when defense attorneys asked a Durham judge to remove DA Mike Nifong from the Duke University lacrosse rape case, charging his “zeal to win votes trumped his duty to see justice,” Nifong responded (News and Observer, 5/2/06): “Some people try cases in the media by filing motions that contain outrageous…
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