A discerning reader adds a twist to my theory (see “Pat Versus Phil” blog below) that Senator Berger might back a primary opponent against Governor McCrory: It could be Lt. Governor Dan Forest: “Can’t help but notice Senate budget included Forest’s pet project for more education revenue but they didn’t include any of Gov’s pet…
Read MoreRepublican primaries are the best entertainment you can find this summer. First Eric Cantor loses in a monumental upset. Then black Democrats save Thad Cochrane’s hide. Then two former Democrats running for Wake County DA fight over who’s the best Republican. And now Phil Berger Jr. loses big despite outspending his opponent big, plus…
Read MoreThe Old Bull Mooses walked into a meeting with the House to wrangle over the state budget but before they could fire a shot the House’s lead wrangler, Nelson Dollar, threw them a curve ball: He announced he was calling half a dozen school superintendents to testify at the hearing. The Bull Mooses had…
Read MoreThis increasingly looks like a political death match – with one survivor in the end. I’m betting on Phil Berger. Yesterday Governor McCrory compared Senator Berger & Co. to Marc Basnight, Tony Rand and – yes – Harry Reid. Ouch. Them’s fighting words. Imagine Jim Hunt comparing a Democratic House Speaker in the…
Read MoreWhat is it about our sports teams that possesses us so? Brazil’s soccer team loses in the World Cup, and a nation plunges into despair, mourning and an angry orgy of recrimination. A national tragedy, it seems. LeBron James takes his talents home, and a city erupts in joy and thanks. The Second…
Read MoreWhat on earth do you do when a eight-year-old lands on your doorstep? I heard two spokesmen on the radio today with answers – the first told a story of a lone girl, one of the border children, who after being repeatedly raped by gangs in Honduras, trudged or rode on the tops of…
Read MoreYou hear that North Carolina is growing and changing. Now you can see just how and how much – and what that may mean for politics – thanks to Ferrel Guillory and his colleagues at the UNC Program on Public Life. They have just posted their new issue of NC DataNet on their website.…
Read MoreIt is a well-known fact that the not-so-great state of South Carolina has only two things going for it: the coast and the city of Charleston. The coast is there by the grace of God and the gifts of nature. But it turns out that much of what makes Charleston a great place –…
Read MoreLocked in a wrestling match with the Governor over Medicaid (and how much it will go over budget) the Old Bull Mooses invited Art Pope (the Budget Czar) over to the Senate for a cordial visit then added if he didn’t come along peacefully they’d send him a subpoena. Pope, responding like a gentleman,…
Read MoreRecent Articles
Senator Thom Tillis wants to have it both ways. He wants MAGA Republicans to think he’s…
Read More
Trump railed about radical left judges taking away his power, usurping his presidency, fumed one judge…
Read More
Lips pursed, standing at the front of her elementary school classroom, during the Cuban Missile Crisis,…
Read More