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A Gift to Democrats

By Gary Pearce July 11, 2013

Nine times out of 10 in politics, what you think is a conspiracy is just incompetence. So it is with the Republicans and abortion.   Several TAP readers believe that all the GOP’s thrashing on abortion is a well-thought-out plan to pass new restrictions and avoid the political consequences.   They may achieve the first…

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A Quirk of Human Nature

By Carter Wrenn July 10, 2013

The other morning there was a picture on the front page of the News and Observer of a hundred angry women, every one of them mad as blazes, carrying signs, shaking fists and chanting, ‘Shame, shame, shame’ at Republican Senators who’d just passed a new abortion bill (that required abortion centers to meet the same…

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Branding Politics

By Gary Pearce July 10, 2013

“Employers must go where employees want to be” – Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst.   Raleigh City Councilman Randy Stagner quoted that line this week. It sums up the challenge that Raleigh and all North Carolina face today under the state’s new management.   Rob Christensen captured it in his strikingly strong column Sunday: “North…

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Hard Day

By Carter Wrenn July 10, 2013

Monday was a hard day for Reverend William Barber.   For months, Reverend Barber has been leading ‘crusades’ for the poor, the needy, against racism, and against Republicanism.   But Monday, the Civitas Institute put a dent in his image – it reported the groups sponsoring Reverend Barber’s ‘Moral Monday’ protests have received over $100…

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Trading Punches

By Carter Wrenn July 9, 2013

When Reverend William Barber steps up to a microphone wearing his vestments and clerical collar and lets fly with a haymaker calling Republicans immoral or characterizing Republican legislators as George Wallaces who want to turn back the clock to the days of Jim Crow – it’s just natural some Republican’s going to feel an itch…

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A Tribute to Modern Politics

By Carter Wrenn July 9, 2013

Up in Virginia they’re locked into a donnybrook of a Governor’s race – the Republican candidate’s saying the Democratic candidate’s a hypocrite and a poor family man and a threat to every woman in Virginia (because of something he said about abortion clinics).   The Democrat’s wife is saying she’s fed up with the Republicans…

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Where Do You Stand, Pat?

By Gary Pearce July 9, 2013

Governor McCrory’s waffling on the abortion bill recalls the old mountaineer who listened to a slick politician give a long-winded, on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand answer to a tough issue. Finally, the mountaineer demanded: “Son, are you fer it or agin’ it?”   McCrory shouldn’t kid himself that he can pass off the bill as protecting women’s health.…

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Shooting the Reasonable Fellow

By Carter Wrenn July 8, 2013

Colon Willoughby, the District Attorney, is catching it from all sides.   Faced with the chore of prosecuting hundreds of ‘Moral Monday’ demonstrators, Willoughby suggested to the protestors they were wreaking more havoc on the Wake County Courts than on Republicans and politely suggested maybe they ought to reconsider the virtues of getting themselves arrested…

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Hagan for Governor

By Gary Pearce July 8, 2013

A TAPster offers an intriguing strategy for Democrats:   “Kay Hagan should run for governor.   “She should forget the US Senate, where nothing ever happens and there’s little chance to help her fellow North Carolinians, and come home. She can beat Pat McCrory, especially if his leadership continues to be weak or he is…

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Quite a Week

By Carter Wrenn January 24, 2025

This week was quite a week: Biden pardoned his brother, sister, other brother, a general who…

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Biden Muted

By Gary Pearce January 24, 2025

One bleak visual at the inauguration summed up Joe Biden’s presidency: Biden sat silently – seething…

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Joe John

By Gary Pearce January 22, 2025

State Representative Joe John, who died today, looked something like a friendly but fierce bulldog. He…

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