Bleeding Red
June 10, 2009 - by
The Wolfpack Nation is angry. Angry at the Big Men On Campus who embarrassed N.C. State
Here is an up-to-the-minute guide to the venting:
Jim Oblinger and Larry Neilsen. They proved, once again, that the coverup is always worse than the original offense.
Oblinger, the memory machine, was done in by a chain of emails he says he forgot. Erskine Bowles is right: We all had conversations and emails in 2005 we forgot. But this final straw strained credulity.
Oblinger also appears to have deliberately misled the media over the weekend about Neilsen’s contract. That was just dumb. Why did he say one thing when the contract said something else?
And who are the faceless administrators and attorneys who apparently advised Oblinger through all this? Still on the job, we presume?
The N&O. One normally level-headed observer accused the paper of a “hatchet job” on NCSU. Wolfpackers never forgot how the N&O’s reporting led to the resignation of another Chancellor, Bruce Poulton, nearly 20 years ago. That was over Jim Valvano’s questionable recruiting of basketball players. The university recovered, but the basketball program never has. Now the scandal is over the questionable recruiting of faculty members and administrators.
I’m a graduate of both NCSU and the N&O. I paid my way through State by working at the paper. Read my lips: There is no Carolina
The Easleys: More thoughtful Wolfpackers blame the Easleys. Yes, they say, Oblinger and Neilsen made mistakes, but Easley took advantage of his power and position to pressure the university into hiring her and then raising her salary. Through his budget director, no less.
One perceptive reader wrote this about my blog saying Dan Gerlach, the budget director, should have cautioned Easley about doing that:
“As you are probably aware, it’s not realistic to expect the Gov’s lieutenants to caution him against something he wants them to do. If they did, they’d be replaced. It’s just as unrealistic to expect the Neilsen and Oblingers of the state to react to gubernatorial prodding by playing dumb or otherwise failing to cooperate. There’s a price to pay for that — and anyone at their levels of state government knows it.”
It looks like Governor Easley’s instinct is to fight with the media, just as he did last year over releasing emails.
Defending him this week was Ace Smith, the political operative from California who ran Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign in North Carolina
Back then, Easley was being mentioned as a potential Cabinet secretary – or even VP – if Clinton
That was a long time ago.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.
Bleeding Red
June 10, 2009/
The Wolfpack Nation is angry. Angry at the Big Men On Campus who embarrassed N.C. State
Here is an up-to-the-minute guide to the venting:
Jim Oblinger and Larry Neilsen. They proved, once again, that the coverup is always worse than the original offense.
Oblinger, the memory machine, was done in by a chain of emails he says he forgot. Erskine Bowles is right: We all had conversations and emails in 2005 we forgot. But this final straw strained credulity.
Oblinger also appears to have deliberately misled the media over the weekend about Neilsen’s contract. That was just dumb. Why did he say one thing when the contract said something else?
And who are the faceless administrators and attorneys who apparently advised Oblinger through all this? Still on the job, we presume?
The N&O. One normally level-headed observer accused the paper of a “hatchet job” on NCSU. Wolfpackers never forgot how the N&O’s reporting led to the resignation of another Chancellor, Bruce Poulton, nearly 20 years ago. That was over Jim Valvano’s questionable recruiting of basketball players. The university recovered, but the basketball program never has. Now the scandal is over the questionable recruiting of faculty members and administrators.
I’m a graduate of both NCSU and the N&O. I paid my way through State by working at the paper. Read my lips: There is no Carolina
The Easleys: More thoughtful Wolfpackers blame the Easleys. Yes, they say, Oblinger and Neilsen made mistakes, but Easley took advantage of his power and position to pressure the university into hiring her and then raising her salary. Through his budget director, no less.
One perceptive reader wrote this about my blog saying Dan Gerlach, the budget director, should have cautioned Easley about doing that:
“As you are probably aware, it’s not realistic to expect the Gov’s lieutenants to caution him against something he wants them to do. If they did, they’d be replaced. It’s just as unrealistic to expect the Neilsen and Oblingers of the state to react to gubernatorial prodding by playing dumb or otherwise failing to cooperate. There’s a price to pay for that — and anyone at their levels of state government knows it.”
It looks like Governor Easley’s instinct is to fight with the media, just as he did last year over releasing emails.
Defending him this week was Ace Smith, the political operative from California who ran Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign in North Carolina
Back then, Easley was being mentioned as a potential Cabinet secretary – or even VP – if Clinton
That was a long time ago.
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles.