Archive for February 2012
Immunity
Last year when I decided to work with the trial lawyers I took a fair amount of razzing from my Republican friends – among Republicans, lawyers are not as unpopular as the Huns but it’s close. As best as I can tell the last lawyer Republicans admired was Cicero. Anyhow, last year there were two…
Read MoreNewton’s 3rd Law
The Democrats in Raleigh haven’t looked this befuddled in years – redistricting is one source of their bewilderment but the roots of their disorder run deeper: In every state election for two decades the Raleigh Democrats have outraised Republicans by millions – this year the Democrats are staring at empty coffers and Phil Berger has…
Read MoreGOP Mini-Me’s
The GOP 13th Congressional District race looks like a mini-version of the Republican presidential race. George Holding is playing the part of Mitt Romney: establishment conservative focusing on cutting spending and deficits (and ignoring the reality that Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush gave us the biggest deficits ever). Paul Coble…
Read MoreCross Your Fingers
Can Democrats get so lucky? Will the Republicans really nominate Rick Santorum? I had high hopes for Newt Gingrich. But, once again, he has proven to be the Hindenburg of American politics: a huge vessel of hot air doomed to go down in flames. Clearly, Mitt Romney would be the toughest Republican in…
Read MorePR 101 – for Refs, Too
Listen up, ACC execs and refs: Any Big Shot today has to be open, honest and accountable. No comment and not answering questions won’t cut it. Full disclosure: I was at the State game Saturday, and I’m a big fan of the Pack. But I pride myself on never getting after the refs (they’re…
Read MoreA Jobs Plan
A Democratic TAPster offers these thoughts “Re – Caterpillar and others over the past several months: “If I were running for governor (and I’m not but have to admit I think I could beat the current group of contenders) I would come out in favor of corporate incentives. I would state I will not…
Read MoreClick Button, File Form
A Republican filed to run for State House and no sooner had he filed than he was told he had to fill out a second form called a Financial Disclosure Report – so he went to the State Ethics Commission’s website and found the form then ran head on into a bureaucratic maze. When…
Read MorePlaying by House Rules
What would have happened two years ago if then-Speaker Joe Hackney had ordered Capitol police to clear away a group of Tea Party demonstrators on the second floor of the Legislative Building? Republicans no doubt would be in high dudgeon over such high-handed action. The Tea Party would be in a frenzy over “police-state…
Read MoreBroken Record
Pat McCrory hasn’t yet figured out how to deal with not having Bev Perdue to kick around any more. He said at his filing that he’s running against “broken government.” Well, who isn’t? As questions he got showed, “broken government” can mean the legislature as well as the executive branch. And McCrory…
Read MoreWe’ve Heard this Before
Obama’s new budget is out and the more things change the more they remain the same – he’s increasing the deficit (from $1.3 to $1.33 trillion) and increasing spending, but big cuts are coming somewhere down the road. Obama’s been running that same flim-flam, promising big cuts down the road since he was elected…
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