Posts by Gary Pearce

Raleigh and Washington aren’t the only capitals where politicians are scrambling to get in front of the ethics reform train. Tennessee’s legislature is meeting this week in a special session. It was called after four state legislators were caught up in an FBI bribery sting operation – called Tennessee Waltz. As a long-ago politician was…

Bill Graham, the NC GOP’s new poster boy (and, apparently, John Edwards wannabe) has jumped on the 2.8 cent increase in the state gas tax. He wants to ride it to statewide office. Democrats in the legislature are so nervous they created a special committee to look into “the state’s largest gas tax increase in…

Here is a paragraph – from The New York Times’ story about superlobbyist/supercrook Jack Abramoff – that should chill the spines of politicians throughout our great land. It comes from “a former Republican leadership aide who insisted on anonymity:” “There’s a lot of talk coming out of various quarters that the Justice Department is going…

We may not have a bird flu epidemic in America yet, but it looks like there is an outbreak of mea culpas in Raleigh and Washington lately. This week Speaker Jim Black apologized for mistakes in judgment. His statement didn’t solve all his problems, but it gave him some badly needed political breathing room. But…

Am I the only person who feels conflicted over this fight about how to celebrate Christmas – or, excuse me, the holidays? On the one hand, I’m congenitally offended by the Christian Ayatollahs like Called2Action here in Wake County. They claim to be on a mission from God to instruct the rest of us –…