Gary’s taking a break from blogging. Pinch-hitting today is a TAPster with a long memory: Re your blog posting about Art Pope (“The Budget Pope”): A lot of people either aren’t old enough to remember, or simply don’t know, that another wealthy Raleigh businessman was indispensable to Jim Hunt in that role. John…
Read MorePresident Obama stepped to the podium in the White House at a press conference – with Afgnanistani President Karzai beside him – and said he’s bringing 66,000 American soldiers home from Afghanistan sooner rather than later (which sounded fine). Then he added, Because the Afghan Army is now ready to whip the Taliban all by…
Read MoreThis headline is off-message: “NC Republicans want tax hikes on food, services” (WRAL). At a time when Washington Republicans are cementing reputations as anti-tax hardliners, how did Raleigh Republicans get plunged into this morass? The answer: a member of their caucus, Senator Bob Rucho, dragged them to the cliff. Question: Will Governor McCrory,…
Read MoreTo cure gun violence the Vice President met with the NRA, which told him the cure was fixing our broken culture – like violent video games; next the Vice President met with the video game industry which told him ‘Independent scientific research showed no connection between video games and real-life violence,’ then another group told…
Read MoreI avoid political events. Been there, done that. But last night I dragged myself out in the rain and cold to hear Eric Mansfield, who’s running for Democratic Party chair. I don’t pretend to understand internal party politics. But here’s my opinion: A party with Mansfield as chair will be a party to be…
Read MoreNorth Carolina Republicans are stepping out on a political high-wire. Surely, most people love the idea of not paying personal or corporate income taxes. But then you start looking at the details. Every business would pay a receipts tax. Everybody would pay (and businesses bill and pay) a tax on services – medical…
Read MoreAs Carter notes in his blog below, the boom in outside political groups is eclipsing the traditional parties. You can see three recent examples in Raleigh. The big event Inaugural weekend wasn’t the traditional Junior League Ball or a Republican Party event. It was the Foundation for North Carolina (“F”-NC) fundraiser. Last week,…
Read MoreThe Democrats in Raleigh are grumpy because Speaker Thom Tillis has set up a new nonprofit to be the ‘Voice of House Republicans.’ Now, like ‘em or not, Super PACs, IE’s, and 527’s are the new political reality – Obama had ‘em, Romney had ‘em, and now Speaker Tillis has one. The more curious…
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