General
Time to Pull Over
A frustrated TAPster vents at both parties: “The ‘check engine’ light is flashing on the dashboard of North Carolina politics, and a quick look under the hood shows the problem is more than a bad tank of gas. “We are emerging (hopefully) from a generation of incompetent political leaders. Governor Perdue’s mindless comparison…
Read MoreJust Kidding
After I posted my blog on the Democratic Executive Committee’s meeting being a plot hatched by Art (“I Am Not An Heir”) Pope, a TAPster emailed me: “You’re being facetious, right?” Surprised, I replied: “Of course.” She wrote back: “I figured, but you’d be amazed how many of my rabidly Dem friends are posting…
Read MoreBackwards
Like almost everything else in modern times politics has changed – in odd ways. In the old days when Jesse would run for Senate the Republican parties scattered across counties across the state had one mission: They figured their job was to elect Republican candidates. A lot of times what they could do was limited…
Read MoreThe Manchurian Committee
There is only one logical explanation for what happened at the Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting: It was a vast right-wing conspiracy masterminded by the Dr. Evil of North Carolina politics, Art (“I Am Not An Heir”) Pope. Here’s how the nefarious scheme worked: Years ago, Pope saw that David Parker had run…
Read MoreNobody Likes a Bully
Contrary to how things looked after North Carolina passed the marriage amendment, Gay Politics Week may end up hurting Mitt Romney far more than President Obama. It’s telling that Republicans didn’t pile onto Obama after Joe (Gabby) Biden forced him to come out of the closet. Then the story exploded about Romney organizing…
Read MoreThe Rules
A TAPster reminds me that Tuesday’s primaries reinforce the three rules of politics: Rule 1: Money talks. Rule 2: Never forget Rule 1. Rule 3: There are no other rules in politics. When Bob Etheridge conceded Tuesday night, he said he didn’t like raising money, but he sure enjoyed visiting 45…
Read MoreBaldwin Runs for Chair
I question Mary-Ann Baldwin’s sanity. But I hope she gets elected state Democratic Party chair. The party desperately needs someone who can raise hell, raise money and referee all the players this fall. One of the worst political rumors I heard this week – and that covers a lot of ground – is that…
Read MorePrequel to November?
Four years ago, the May primary thrust North Carolina into the national spotlight. An unexpected surge of new voters clinched the Democratic presidential nomination for Barack Obama. The tide raged on into November. It lifted Democrats to one of their biggest election victories in decades. This year, we’re back in the spotlight. This time,…
Read MoreNot Losing Our Religion
Yes, the gay-marriage amendment has “revealed generational and urban-rural divisions,” as The News & Observer reported Sunday. But, as is so often true in North Carolina politics, the fundamental divide is over religion. Note how often supporters of the amendment say or write something along the lines of one bumper sticker: “It’s in the…
Read MoreA Hole in the Boat
It looks like the prosecutors put a pretty big hole in Edwards’ boat last Thursday: For months Edwards has been arguing the million dollars he took from ‘Bunny’ Mellon and Fred Baron wasn’t a campaign donation because he spent the money to hide his affair from his wife and not voters. But Thursday two…
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