Oh Lord, will we ever learn from our mistakes? There’s a restaurant near my office with a dozen television sets lining the walls (usually turned to basketball games) but the other night they were all turned to CNN and Fox as a Libyan fighter went down in flames and a cruise missile blew apart…
Read MoreAn N&O letter-writer takes umbrage at the bipartisan effort to pardon Civil War-era Governor W.W. Holden, denouncing him as a “pestiferous ulcer on the body politic.” (It’s hard to find good calumny like that anymore) Then someone leaves on senators’ desks an “unflattering biography of Holden that quoted histories written by a deceased white supremacist…
Read MoreI do consulting work with doctors and hospitals, and my view of medical-malpractice reform differs from Carter’s. First off, personal-injury lawyers aren’t opposed to reform just out of tender hearts and a passion for justice. They’re looking after their bank accounts. Second, a lawyer who is a skilled courtroom performer can hit the…
Read MoreWell, the United Nations has voted to go to war with Libya only it doesn’t call it a war it calls it a ‘no-fly zone’ – which is political double talk for filling the skies over Libya with American or French or British fighters blowing up Libyan tanks and artillery and air-defense batteries. The…
Read MoreOnce years ago at one of Jesse Helms rallies a local Republican official – one of the old-line party stalwarts Jesse used to call ‘pachyderms’ – cornered Jesse and pointing his finger started upbraiding him for not toting the party line up in the Senate and not voting the way the Republican leaders wanted him…
Read MoreI love Public Policy Polling – and the almost-daily poll fix they give me. But I take issue with a recent analysis. PPP found that Senator Kay Hagan’s approval rating was up – to 39 percent, with 38 percent disapproval. According to the N&O: “Pollster Tom Jensen attributed Hagan’s improved standing to some more conservative…
Read MoreIt’s hard to make heads or tails of this: The Republican Legislature raises taxes on hospitals $215 million – and the hospitals are delighted, tickled to death. In fact, newspapers report, the legislature raised the ‘tax’ at the request of the Hospital Association. The explanation gets even stranger. And more confusing: The $215 million…
Read MoreShould the legislature merge and cut Smart Start and More At Four? As the Geico guy might ask: “Is stirring up Jim Hunt a good idea?” Republican legislators apparently are hearing an earful from Hunt already. Those who weren’t around when he was Governor will learn what one legislator back then told one of…
Read MoreThe Wilmington Star News has branded the unkind words ‘pay to play’ on Senate Republican Leader Harry Brown, who’s put his political clout behind ‘groin-building’ to help wealthy homeowners who need seawalls (groins) to keep the beaches in front of their vacation homes from vanishing. The Star News attack on Brown was straightforward: It…
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