General
How the Government Really Works: A Train Wreck V
So here’s what has happened: Secretary Lanier Cansler promised legislators he could cut the Medicaid Home Care $50 million (because, he said, the 45% of the patients were cheats) – if they’d let him give out a no bid contract to one of his former clients. But it turned out only 3% of the…
Read MoreThe Obama Enigma
D.G. Martin was interviewing Carter and me for “Who’s Talking” on WCHL radio when we began discussing the topic that soon will dominate political debate: WOWW – Where Obama Went Wrong. Was it the policy or the politics (see “Blaming the Messenger” below)? Was it the economy? Was in getting in bed with Congress?…
Read MoreEarly Warning
There’s only one way Democrats can interpret the early results from early voting in North Carolina: It’s bad. According to Democracy North Carolina, “one-stop early voting is off to a record-shattering pace for midterm elections and the largest group casting ballots are white Republican men.” Another way to look at it: So far,…
Read MoreBlame the Editor
Here’s a caricature of how government works North Carolina style: The Chairman of the Wildlife Commission, who naturally got his job by giving money to Governor Perdue, orders the Commission’s CEO to write a nice article about the Governor and publish it in the next edition of their magazine and mail it out to hunters…
Read MoreBlaming the Messenger
I feel Robert Gibbs’ pain. In a New York Times magazine article Sunday, President Obama said, “We probably spent too much time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right.” Gibbs, the White House press secretary, noted ruefully in the article, “I haven’t been at a policy-problem meeting…
Read MoreHow the Government Really Works: A Train Wreck IV
The Rest Home lobby must have one of the most powerful – or lucky – lobbies in North Carolina. A few years ago, Congress passed a bill to give states the flexibility to care for elderly Medicaid patients in their homes instead of in Rest Homes and almost every state jumped at the opportunity…
Read MoreShameless Self-Promotion
Rick Martinez, news director with WPTF radio (680AM), taped an interview with me this week about my biography of Governor Jim Hunt. It airs on Carolina Newsmaker Sunday at 7 am (which he said is one of their highest-rated shows. Go figure). I confess I had some reservations before the interview. I had never…
Read MoreGood News
Things are looking up for us news hawks. These days, I have to read my favorite daily newspaper very s-l-o-w-l-y to make it last through breakfast. But as soon as I turn on my computer, I have two new websites to go to for more political fodder: M2M Politics (“Covering North Carolina Politics…
Read MoreWho’s the ‘Fruit Loop’?
What’s with this Republican obsession with gays? There’s state Rep. Larry Brown, who emailed legislators about “queers” and “fruit loops.” There’s Carl Paladino, the GOP candidate for governor in New York, who makes Brown look charitable. And there were all the gay slurs in the last race for North Carolina Republican Party chair. …
Read MoreDesert Crosses, Crusaders’ Flags and Nose Piercing
Back in 1934 for reasons no one has explained the Veterans of Foreign Wars decided to build a sole wooden cross – as a memorial to soldiers who died in World War I – in the Mohave Desert, where hardly a soul would see it. The cross stood peacefully atop Sunrise Rock for six…
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