Governor McCrory should have hung around to hear Colin Powell. He would have seen a real leader. He might have learned something. Presumably, McCrory had “boring stuff” to do that was more pressing than hearing Powell address the CEO Forum. He introduced Powell, then fled. But the 400-plus suits in the audience saw…
Read MoreRepublican pay policies are the same as Republican economic policies: For the top 1 percent, lobster and champagne! For everybody else, crumbs. Cookie crumbs, I presume. The N&O reported that DHHS (Department of High High Salaries) “has created new high-salaried positions in its central office this year and is paying some top executives more…
Read MoreGovernor McCrory is having a bad summer. He probably thought life would be better with the legislature gone. But that just put the heat right on him. And he doesn’t look like he’s having fun. People in the know say the Governor is sensitive about his media coverage. If that’s so,his blood pressure must…
Read MoreLast Thursday a tiny cloud appeared on the horizon, and instead of dissipating, by Friday it was hovering right over Governor Pat McCrory’s head. If you want to see how Democrats’ morale is fairing, just read Gary’s or Thomas Mills’ commentaries. This week they’re happy folks. Because last week Governor McCrory said it…
Read MoreWhy do Republicans feel compelled to insult, dismiss and condescend to women in North Carolina? The latest: Governor McCrory dismissing Ann Goodnight’s pointed and powerful letter to the N&O (reprinted in full at the end of this blog). The Governor sniffed at the letter to Al Hunt of Bloomberg News: “Ms. Goodnight, he…
Read MoreLast week, “a bodyguard prevented a News & Observer reporter from asking (DHHS Secretary Aldona) Wos any questions” after a speech. This week, when questions arose about DHHS paying $85,000-plus salaries to young campaign aides to Governor McCrory, “the governor’s spokeswoman, Kim Genardo, referred questions” to Wos. “Wos could not be reached.” Hold…
Read MoreIt’s a bleak landscape. A nightmare vision of a counter-revolution roaring down the tracks, turning back the hands of the clock, rolling back progress to the days before indoor plumbing, air-conditioning, and daylight savings time. Republicans, Reverend William Barber howls, are turning back the clock to the days of Jim Crow. Republican tax…
Read MoreThis isn’t a story of sin begetting sin but of foolishness begetting foolishness. Years ago, somewhere, some Democratic political guru sat in a room with reams of demographics of people who never had voted and when he finished studying those pages of statistics one fact was clear as a bell: If those folks started…
Read MoreGovernor McCrory increasingly looks like a modest Triple-A ballplayer who is befuddled by big league pitching. His latest whiff is defending the DHHS salary debacle. McCrory should have put as much distance as possible between himself and the decision to give 24-year-olds who worked in his campaign senior jobs paying $85,000 and $87,500 in…
Read MoreRecent Articles
Once upon a time, there was a great and powerful newspaper: The News & Observer. Everybody…
Read MoreThe shouting, sign-waving and cane-wielding by congressional Democrats at the State of the Union isn’t a…
Read MoreCurmudgeonly Cajun James Carville says Democrats just need to “roll over and play dead” and wait…
Read More