General
Rooting for Failure
Do Republicans want America – and North Carolina – to fail? That’s the only explanation that makes sense. If they starve public schools, they can say public schools don’t work – and abandon them. If they derail Obamacare, they can say it’s a train wreck. If they kneecap cities, they can say cities aren’t…
Read MoreA Sea Change
Republicans have been riding high since the 2010 elections but, now, there’s a bushel basket full of polls – by both Democrats and Republicans – floating around Raleigh that tell a sad tale. At their zenith, last fall, Governor McCrory was the most popular political leader in the state. Better still for Republicans, the…
Read MoreA Real Leader
Governor McCrory should have hung around to hear Colin Powell. He would have seen a real leader. He might have learned something. Presumably, McCrory had “boring stuff” to do that was more pressing than hearing Powell address the CEO Forum. He introduced Powell, then fled. But the 400-plus suits in the audience saw…
Read MoreThe 1 Percent
Republican pay policies are the same as Republican economic policies: For the top 1 percent, lobster and champagne! For everybody else, crumbs. Cookie crumbs, I presume. The N&O reported that DHHS (Department of High High Salaries) “has created new high-salaried positions in its central office this year and is paying some top executives more…
Read MorePat’s Hot Summer
Governor McCrory is having a bad summer. He probably thought life would be better with the legislature gone. But that just put the heat right on him. And he doesn’t look like he’s having fun. People in the know say the Governor is sensitive about his media coverage. If that’s so,his blood pressure must…
Read MoreDemocratic Morale
Last Thursday a tiny cloud appeared on the horizon, and instead of dissipating, by Friday it was hovering right over Governor Pat McCrory’s head. If you want to see how Democrats’ morale is fairing, just read Gary’s or Thomas Mills’ commentaries. This week they’re happy folks. Because last week Governor McCrory said it…
Read MoreWoe is Wos
Last week, “a bodyguard prevented a News & Observer reporter from asking (DHHS Secretary Aldona) Wos any questions” after a speech. This week, when questions arose about DHHS paying $85,000-plus salaries to young campaign aides to Governor McCrory, “the governor’s spokeswoman, Kim Genardo, referred questions” to Wos. “Wos could not be reached.” Hold…
Read MoreBack to the Dark Ages
It’s a bleak landscape. A nightmare vision of a counter-revolution roaring down the tracks, turning back the hands of the clock, rolling back progress to the days before indoor plumbing, air-conditioning, and daylight savings time. Republicans, Reverend William Barber howls, are turning back the clock to the days of Jim Crow. Republican tax…
Read MoreThe ‘Voting Rights’ Foo-Fa
This isn’t a story of sin begetting sin but of foolishness begetting foolishness. Years ago, somewhere, some Democratic political guru sat in a room with reams of demographics of people who never had voted and when he finished studying those pages of statistics one fact was clear as a bell: If those folks started…
Read MoreA Major League Blunder
Governor McCrory increasingly looks like a modest Triple-A ballplayer who is befuddled by big league pitching. His latest whiff is defending the DHHS salary debacle. McCrory should have put as much distance as possible between himself and the decision to give 24-year-olds who worked in his campaign senior jobs paying $85,000 and $87,500 in…
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