It’s hard for a Washington politician to explain away a $300 million snafu but it’s even harder for a Raleigh Bull Moose without the opportunity to learn dissimulation first-hand by watching the masters in Congress. From the first day Phil Berger rapped the gavel his hand-picked Medicaid Czar, Senator Ralph Hise the Mountain Statistician, made…
Read MoreBoweaver is a yellow-dog Democrat. He was wound up at breakfast about retiring Rep. Paul Tine of Dare County. Tine, who switched from Democrat to Unaffiliated and joined hands with House Republicans this session, has announced he’s not running again. He maintains he was undaunted by the prospect of running as an Unaffiliated, because he…
Read MoreIt was modern politics at its noisiest with shouting and arm waving and bark-peeling emails flying through the ether but even by modern standards the State Republican Party blasting the Republican Leaders of the State House and Senate Leader was odd. Last spring just about every Republican Leader from Pat McCrory to Phil Berger endorsed…
Read MoreRepublicans are fighting mad. At each other. The Republican presidential contest is an insult-comic festival. The US House Republican caucus is cannibalizing itself. Republican members of Congress from North Carolina are knifing each other in the back. And front. Republican legislators are fighting with the Republican Board of Governors over the next UNC President. Governor…
Read MoreGovernor McCrory isn’t one of those politicians who lusts after power; he’s more like a genial movie star or an actor who walks onto the stage, speaks his lines, listens to the applause then moves on to the next act. The Bull Mooses in the State Senate do lust for power. They bulldoze the Governor.…
Read MoreThirty hours after Roy Cooper’s announcement and just as the Democratic presidential debate was ending, Deborah Ross announced for US Senate. If she and Cooper do as well the rest of the way as they did their first day, Democrats will be celebrating in 13 months. Her announcement video was strong. It introduced her, “rooted” her…
Read MoreThere’s not a soul in the state who can match a Senate Bull Moose when it comes to bragging he’s a true conservative – that he’s more conservative than the Governor or any politician around. But then the Bull Mosses slipped. From the day the Senate came to town Phil Berger’s Medicaid Czar, Senator Ralph…
Read MoreSo now we can look forward to the Clinton-Trump debates next fall. On stage with Hillary last night were Grumpy (Sanders), Grumpier (Webb), Sleepy (O’Malley) and Dopey (Chafee). She pretty much mopped the floor with them, which happens when you’ve played the game at this level before. Clearly, only two Democrats can stop her now:…
Read MoreJust before the legislature left town the blog that promotes Senator Phil Berger reported hundreds of dead people were collecting Medicaid and that fraud’s gotten so bad even the Obama Administration wants a crackdown – but the warning came too late: The Honorables were headed for the exits and Phil Berger’s Medicaid Czar – Senator…
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