Archives

Categories

Carter and the Holding Co.

By Gary Pearce July 15, 2011

With George Holding’s name, money and prosecutorial profile – plus Carter’s brain – he has to be the odds-on favorite to win the Republican 13th District nomination.   News of which makes AG Roy Cooper the happiest man in Raleigh today.   But bad news for Senator Berger’s son and the other aspirants – including…

Read More

Mulling Over Moldova

By Gary Pearce July 14, 2011

Was there much mystification among the Moldovan (Moldavian? Moldovar?) muckedy-mucks who mustered last month to meet the American Secretary of State, only to find that instead of Hillary Clinton it was Elaine Marshall?   A cynical, but funny, TAPster took aim at Secretary Marshall’s “laughable idiocy” for her visit to Moldova, where she met with…

Read More

Redistricting and Ruin

By Gary Pearce July 13, 2011

You can draw a straight line connecting the big political stories in Raleigh and Washington this week: redistricting in Raleigh and the debt stalemate in Washington.   It’s a cliché – but it’s nonetheless true – that under today’s redistricting system voters don’t pick their politicians; politicians pick their voters. And, yes, both Democrats and…

Read More

Jurors for Sale

By Gary Pearce July 12, 2011

Two of my PR friends considered it unethical for Raleigh PR exec Rick French to shop around the offer of “Juror Number Six” in the Casey Anthony trial to talk to the media – for $50,000.   Just to be contrary, I posed this contrary question: “What’s wrong with the jurors cashing in? Everybody else…

Read More

Overriding Politics

By Gary Pearce July 11, 2011

This is going to be fun. North Carolina joins the states that have “veto override sessions.”   It’s uncharted territory. Nobody here has much experience with this kind of thing. We’ll learn fast.   And move fast if, as Speaker Tillis promised, the session lasts only four days.   Last I saw, Governor Perdue had…

Read More

TAPsters Explained

By Gary Pearce July 8, 2011

A kind reader emailed this week: “I enjoy your blog. What’s a TAPster?”   A TAPster is my version of a Tipster. TAP is for “Talking About Politics.” Plus, I promised to buy a beer for anyone who sends me material that I post, which saves me the trouble of doing my own thinking and…

Read More

David vs Goliath

By Carter Wrenn July 8, 2011

Folks used to say, You can’t fight City Hall, but these days City Hall down in Stanly County is having a tough time battling a multi-national corporation.   Back in the 1950’s the federal government granted Alcoa a ‘license’ that gave it control of part of the Yadkin River for the next 50 years. Alcoa…

Read More

Obama’s Summer

By Gary Pearce July 8, 2011

Things are looking dim for President Obama. His poll numbers are lagging along with the nation’s economic numbers. He’s locked in three Middle East wars and a war with Republicans in Washington. Now he’s got Democrats and the AARP mad because he’s willing to cut Social Security and Medicare to get a budget deal.  …

Read More

Lie Low and Wait for the Storm to Pass

By Carter Wrenn July 7, 2011

A state trooper from Wilmington stopped Gina Tessener from Raleigh because her headlight was out, then smelled liquor on her breath and asked her to take a ‘walk the line’ sobriety test.   Mrs. Tessener told him no – so the patrolman put the willowy blonde mother of three in handcuffs and drove her to…

Read More

Categories

Archives

Recent Articles

Going Too Far

By Carter Wrenn February 3, 2025

Cheeks round, pudgy fingers fumbling, Ellmer took a newspaper article out of his briefcase, pushed it…

Read More

Dividing Line

By Gary Pearce February 3, 2025

Trump has done America a big favor: in just two weeks, he’s drawn a bright line…

Read More

A Show

By Carter Wrenn January 31, 2025

Addison McDowell worked for Ted Budd, worked as a lobbyist, 31 years old ran for Congress,…

Read More