General
No Southern Accents?
The Washington Post said last week that the one group largely unrepresented in Obama’s key team is Southerners. As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise!” The story didn’t mention that the official voice of the White House will have a Southern accent. That’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who grew up in Alabama, went to N.C.…
Read MorePay to Pick
The political world is in a frenzy of moral dudgeon over the alleged high crimes and moral misdemeanors of Governor Rob Blagoyevich. The nerve of him! Wanting to make money off the appointment of a new Senator! Besides, get a load of his hair. Then I read a story about Governor David Patterson of New…
Read MoreBully Pulpit
The rumor this week has been that Governor-elect Perdue will appoint her Cabinet Friday. Other rumors have it that she’s still having trouble filling some key positions, like DENR and DHHS. Dumping the whole load at once is a different media strategy from past Governors. Most rolled out their appointments one by one. Each secretary…
Read MoreHarems, Mothers-in-Law and Wife Swap
A group of my friends have been having a more or less ongoing debate between ‘Decliners’ and ‘Optimists.” The ‘Decliners’ take one look at, for instance, the governor of Illinois and say, You see, look, one more proof virtue is kaput. The country’s headed downhill and there’s no turning back – the American Republic has…
Read MoreSweet Caroline
I take a back seat to no one when it comes to being a John F. Kennedy hero-worshipper. I shook hands with him in 1960. I was 11 years old. He was campaigning with Terry Sanford, and they stopped at Glenwood Village to change cars. JFK was to me what Obama is to my kids.…
Read MoreBurr: Run Scared
A year ago Democrats couldn’t dredge up a candidate against Liddy Dole – now they’ve got ‘em coming out of the woodwork to take on Richard Burr. Burr has a litany of problems. For instance, he’s not nearly as strong a candidate as Mrs. Dole and he needs to get that fact clearly in focus…
Read MoreBev’s All Ears
Governor-elect Bev Perdue has done a lot of listening lately. Maybe too much. The highly publicized public forums that her transition team held – and the 14 reports that were generated – may not help her a bit when it comes time to stop listening and start governing. They may make her job harder. The…
Read MoreRepublican Death Wish
Republicans today remind me of Democrats after Reagan won in 1980: Determined to become a permanent minority party. If I could be a mole and dupe the GOP into a sure-fire strategy for self-immolation, I would keep them doing what some Republicans seem determined to do anyway: Drive GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Ignore the…
Read MoreSenate 2010
After the election, people would ask me: “Aren’t you glad the campaign is over?” Hell, no. I miss it. I miss the wall-to-wall attack ads. I miss the overheated blogs. I miss the sound and fury. Now all we have to talk about is policy and personnel. Yawn. So let’s get on with the 2010…
Read MoreBasnight to the Rescue
Well, the parole system is broken and according to the News and Observer all kinds of parolees have been running around unsupervised and literally killing people – so which political party is howling bloody murder and up in arms to solve the problem? The Democrats. Senate Leader Marc Basnight, it turns out, is about the…
Read More