After State Senator Howard Lee was defeated for reelection in 2003 the governor appointed him to the Board of Education. Serving on the Board is an unpaid position and the Board only meets two days a month. But The News and Observer (8/14/06) reports Senator Lee also spends “a couple of days a week” on…
Read MoreJohn Edwards and Joe Lieberman have little in common. But they do both have one big thing this year: running as outsiders. Most politicians fantasize about “outsider” campaigns. Usually when they get tired of playing insider games with other politicians, interest groups and contributors. But the dream has come true for Joe and John. And…
Read MoreNothing is quite so repellent â or dangerous â as a politician in the throes of reform-mania. Witness the North Carolina legislature. To start with, no legislator really wanted to pass lobbying or campaign finance reform. They liked the old system. After all, they had designed it to serve themselves. So they did what they…
Read MoreGary and John Hood of the Locke Foundation are having a little debate about the Blue Ribbon Commission. I recently read the Commission’s report. It says Wake County’s population is going to double in twenty-five years and, as a result, we’re going to have to spend a whole lot of money on schools, streets, sewers…
Read MoreThe Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee knows how to fight back. Its new web ad blasts the Bush record on protecting America: “Not enough troops… “Four times as many terror attacks in 2005… “Iran developing nuclear weapons… “North Korea quadrupling its nuclear arsenal… “Millions more illegal immigrants… “Feel safer? Vote for change.” Click here to see…
Read MoreI’m not the only one suspicious of the timing of last week’s airport-terror scare. As Keith Olderman pointed out on MSMBC’s Countdown Monday night, the Bush administration for years has conveniently announced terror threats at politically-advantageous times. Like right after the Connecticut Senate primary. Has the act worn thin? We’ll see in November. Click to…
Read MoreIs the dingus Spanish impresario Jaume Plensa wants to build in the middle of Fayetteville Street the most brilliant work of modern art in the twenty-first century – or is it a good old-fashioned flim-flam? Is Mr. Plensa Picasso – or P.T. Barnum? The leaders of Raleigh’s art circles say Plensa has woven aircraft cables,…
Read MoreSince I got my first job as a copyboy at The News & Observer 41 years ago this summer, my life has been inextricably intertwined with that paper. But I’ve never seen the N&O do more damage to itself than with the front-page mistake on the Duke-lacrosse investigation. Public Editor Ted Vaden described it this…
Read MoreEverybody’s piling on Jim Black. So I’ll dissent. First of all, enough with Republicans decrying a pay-to-play system in Raleigh. It’s a pale imitation of the pay-to-play system Republicans installed in Washington – and in Raleigh, when they had the House majority. Second, enough with politicians and reporters who are shocked – shocked, mind you…
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