Archive for May 2012
Not Losing Our Religion
Yes, the gay-marriage amendment has “revealed generational and urban-rural divisions,” as The News & Observer reported Sunday. But, as is so often true in North Carolina politics, the fundamental divide is over religion. Note how often supporters of the amendment say or write something along the lines of one bumper sticker: “It’s in the…
Read MoreA Hole in the Boat
It looks like the prosecutors put a pretty big hole in Edwards’ boat last Thursday: For months Edwards has been arguing the million dollars he took from ‘Bunny’ Mellon and Fred Baron wasn’t a campaign donation because he spent the money to hide his affair from his wife and not voters. But Thursday two…
Read MoreHow Little Scandals Become Big Scandals
House Speaker Thom Tillis spent last week catching hand grenades – first his Chief-of-Staff landed on the front page of the newspaper for having an affair with a lobbyist then a second Tillis aide confessed to a peccadillo with another lobbyist; — both aides promptly resigned (at Tillis’ request) then the press asked Tillis the…
Read MoreThis Too Shall Pass
A Democratic TAPster offers the thoughts below on how quickly things change in politics: “Just a few days ago Stuart Rothenberg had a column in Roll Call pondering whether President Obama and the Democrats have made a big mistake focusing on North Carolina as part of the 2012 campaign strategy. Given what has come…
Read MoreA Man Without a Party
Ever since what one observer called David Parker’s “televised suicide bombing,” I’ve been pondering his infamous press conference performance. Especially: Who told him that would be a good idea? The answer, apparently, is no one. I’m told that he talked to no one on the party staff, sought out no one’s advice. …
Read MoreMcCrory Manager Exposed
Here is the kind of information you won’t get from what Sarah Palin calls the “lamestream media.” It’s only available in the lamebrain media, like this blog. Specifically, you have to read our Forum section to discover that Pat McCrory’s new campaign manager “has ties to CHARLIE CRIST!” The TAPster adds: “Crist is…
Read MoreDownright Seedy
There’s an outbreak of fornication on Jones Street. In the State House. In Speaker Thom Tillis’ office. Between lobbyists and Tillis’ aides. Yesterday after all the shenanigans landed in the newspapers Speaker Tillis disposed of two aides then, after “reviewing” 130 pages of emails and other records, announced they hadn’t lifted a finger to give…
Read MoreSex and the Speaker’s Office
I like the observations below because the TAPster who wrote them not only takes aim at everybody, but also dares to defend lobbyists: “The irony – and hypocrisy — of this sex scandal is these staffers work for Republican politicians who imposed their personal morals on the state’s citizens by ramming through the proposed…
Read MoreNot Serving Wine
It’s hard to tell who’s crazier: Andrew Young or John Edwards. Back in 1998 in Myrtle Beach Young hears Edwards make a speech and, as Young told it himself in court last week, fell in love. A few years later Rielle Hunter met Edwards in a New York bar and fell in love too.…
Read MoreMore to Come?
The N&O story today by Dan Kane and John Frank (“Second Tillis staffer admits to inappropriate relationship with a lobbyist”) had this eye-catching line: “After Thomas’ resignation, Tillis said he returned to his office on Sunday afternoon and questioned five of his 10 remaining staff members, who had been the subject of rumors related…
Read More