A Constitutional Head-butt

The News and Observer headline – “Executive Privilege Showdown Looming” – may sound boring, but it could be the start of some real fireworks. The Democrats sent a little subpoena over to the White House, demanding to see records about “The Bush Administration’s terrorism-era warrantless wiretapping” and a few other things. The President sent it…

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Shaking Up the World $50 Million at a Time

Who’d have ever dreamed Hillary Clinton would raise over $50 million – and that Barack Obama would outraise her by almost $5 million. Worse – if you’re Hillary – Obama now has 258,000 donors, who’ll keep giving and giving, which spells a big financial edge in the coming months. This is a political wind change…

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Pirates of the Potomac

American government, it turns out, is a lot more colorful than I was taught in High School Civics class. Take the stale, old, boring ‘The Separation of Powers Doctrine.’ It turns out it’s not boring at all. The real theory here seems to be that most politicians are pirates. So the Founding Fathers set up…

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What Raleigh Needs Is a $150,000 Consultant?

Mayor Meeker and the City Council are considering changing Raleigh’s C.A.C. (Community Action Council) structure. And, of course, the first thing someone suggested was hiring a consultant to do a study. For $150,000. The C.A.C.’s are gadfly-like neighborhood groups funded by the city to advise the City Council. Right now, they claim 6400 members. But…

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Edwards Supports Gay Marriage?

Well, not John. Elizabeth. Mrs. Edwards made a pilgrimage to San Francisco to help kick off the annual gay pride parade which The News and Observer (6-25-07) described as ‘a campy civil rights celebration… attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators sprinkled with drag queens, leather chaps and a healthy dose of nudity.’ Mrs. Edwards promptly…

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Burr’s Contortions

Senator Richard Burr’s contortions on President Bush’s Immigration Bill have him tied in knots. First, Burr announced he was against the bill. And voted against it. Then, yesterday, he reversed himself, supporting Bush’s bill on a key procedural vote. Now, Burr’s staff is reassuring opponents of the bill, telling them he will vote against its…

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Bloomberg

At first, I was a little intrigued by Michael Bloomberg’s running for President as an Independent. After all, the Republicans (at least the ones in the White House) have joined Ted Kennedy on immigration and the Democrats have marched so far left Hillary’s now a moderate, so I thought, maybe, shaking up the two-party system…

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Odds and Ends

It’s perplexing. How could Vice President Cheney not understand that when he said he was not a member of the Executive Branch just about everyone in America was going to look at him and say, Huh? Cheney may have a hoary legal point. But he just surpassed Dan Quayle’s misspelling potato when it comes to…

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Oh, Johnny Boy

It may be a coincidence but just as John Edwards is redirecting the focus of his campaign away from the war and back to his crusade against poverty, the New York Times has published a scathing report about Edwards’ anti-poverty foundation, the Center for Promise and Opportunity. The Times reports, “The main beneficiary of the…

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Ms. Pelosi, Work and Junkets

Nancy Pelosi, during the honeymoon after being elected the first woman Speaker ever, promised she was going to put the members of Congress to work after their indolent year under the Republicans. Then she set a schedule for House sessions this year. That gave members twenty weeks off (Dick Morris Reports, 6-20-07). No corporation can…

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