Is this a “Groundhog Day” sequel? Republicans talking about impeachment? Is it 1998 again? Dan Barkin had an intriguing article in the N&O about several Republican U.S. Senate candidates talking up impeaching President Obama. They fumed about Obama’s alleged high crimes and misdemeanors, not to mention being black, a Democrat and President anyway. Democrats…
Read MoreNobody ever runs for office on snow removal, but it’s a sure way to get run out of office. This week the mayor of Atlanta and governor of Georgia are skating on thin ice after a winter storm left thousands of people stranded on the roads. Earlier this month, New York’s new mayor caught…
Read MoreSome Republicans probably would like to get Sen. Bill (Mad Dog) Rabon a rabies shot – or get him fixed, if you know what I mean. Rabon’s now-famous rant just shows that, in politics, the worst wounds are self-inflicted. Rabon diminished his own stature, put his bosses in an awkward spot and gave folks…
Read MoreAs a boy easily bored in school, I loved snow days. We lived in one of the world’s great sledding locales, just off Canterbury Road in west Raleigh. Every crossing street – Churchill, Lewis Farm, Grant – is a steep hill both ways. We spent hours going down them, going home long after dark. …
Read MoreDon’t you suspect there’s an email to the effect of “Time for some voting problems for Democrats”? Why else would 13 Republican legislators try to quash subpoenas for any documents they have related to the “rationale, purpose and implementation” of the state’s new voter ID law? This, you recall, is the same crowd that promised…
Read More50 years ago we declared war on poverty, spent $20.7 trillion, and lost. So now the President is trying again. Only this time he’s calling it a war on income inequality because a war on poverty only appeals to folks who are poor while a war on income inequality appeals to just about everyone except,…
Read MoreWhenever you think political discourse can’t get coarser, somebody comes along and proves you wrong. Especially super-PACs, which are basically piggy banks for political consultants who make big bucks by making over-the-top ads that make the people writing the checks happy but flop with voters. (See: Karl Rove, Crossroads GPS, 2012 elections.) Carter and…
Read MoreFrom a message point of view, the rollout of McCrory 2.0 was a mess – and a missed opportunity for the Governor. McCrory might have heeded his “mentor” Jim Hunt and called for a sustained three-year effort to raise teacher salaries to the national average. Instead, he vaguely promised some kind of pay raise…
Read MoreBack when General Washington whipped King George the old saying ‘A penny saved is a penny earned’ was a bit of folk wisdom hardly a soul disagreed with – but these days modern economists have determined that kind of old-fashioned virtue is really a vice and that the true path to prosperity is borrowing –…
Read MoreRecent Articles
Curmudgeonly Cajun James Carville says Democrats just need to “roll over and play dead” and wait…
Read More
Trump raised tariffs. Said tariffs are beautiful. The next day, about facing, said automakers didn’t have…
Read More
A legend in politics, with a sneaky streak but a kind heart, Paddy sat down in…
Read More