Posts by Carter Wrenn
Not Even a Fine
It was a lopsided fight from the start: An international conglomerate marched a battalion of blue-chip lobbyists and high-priced lawyers into the arena and took aim at a gaggle of bureaucrats who didn’t want to fight and who, at best, stumbled and fumbled when they had to. What Alcoa had its sights set on was…
Read MoreMust Love Dogs
Long ago the bib-overall wearing editor of a small weekly newspaper in Raleigh published a story claiming Jim Hunt was gay. There wasn’t a word of truth in it. He’d made it up and splashed it across the front page, hoping to elect Jesse Helms. For one stunned moment, there was a collective gasp. Then…
Read MoreFollow the Money
It’s hard for a Washington politician to explain away a $300 million snafu but it’s even harder for a Raleigh Bull Moose without the opportunity to learn dissimulation first-hand by watching the masters in Congress. From the first day Phil Berger rapped the gavel his hand-picked Medicaid Czar, Senator Ralph Hise the Mountain Statistician, made…
Read MoreControlling the Money
It was modern politics at its noisiest with shouting and arm waving and bark-peeling emails flying through the ether but even by modern standards the State Republican Party blasting the Republican Leaders of the State House and Senate Leader was odd. Last spring just about every Republican Leader from Pat McCrory to Phil Berger endorsed…
Read MoreClay Feet
Governor McCrory isn’t one of those politicians who lusts after power; he’s more like a genial movie star or an actor who walks onto the stage, speaks his lines, listens to the applause then moves on to the next act. The Bull Mooses in the State Senate do lust for power. They bulldoze the Governor.…
Read MoreThe $300 Million Hole
There’s not a soul in the state who can match a Senate Bull Moose when it comes to bragging he’s a true conservative – that he’s more conservative than the Governor or any politician around. But then the Bull Mosses slipped. From the day the Senate came to town Phil Berger’s Medicaid Czar, Senator Ralph…
Read MoreA Shaky Proposition
Just before the legislature left town the blog that promotes Senator Phil Berger reported hundreds of dead people were collecting Medicaid and that fraud’s gotten so bad even the Obama Administration wants a crackdown – but the warning came too late: The Honorables were headed for the exits and Phil Berger’s Medicaid Czar – Senator…
Read MoreThe Intangible
The political powers that be up in Washington are telling everyone who’ll listen that Deborah Ross is too liberal to defeat Richard Burr but, still, Deborah Ross on a tear is a wonder to behold. Senator Richard Burr is steady as it goes. He’s genial and laid back and accommodating to a fault while Deborah…
Read MoreA Tough Question
Ole Ned Barnett, the Editorial-Writing-Chief down at the News and Observer, is a fine fellow though like many Editorial-Chiefs he’s a bone deep liberal who frets over the vices of sexism and the virtues of gay rights and seldom finds an encouraging word to say about Republicans. Which is fine. The N&O’s spending its own…
Read MoreElections Where Issues Don’t Matter
Arthur walked through the door, dropped a four inch thick poll on the table with a thud, sat down, and said, If you don’t want to lose this election, you have to learn something new. That was in December of 1983 when Jesse Helms was fighting for survival against Jim Hunt and Arthur – who’d…
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