General
Infection?
It was the kind of thing district attorneys do all the time: Robert Mueller was fishing. He subpoenaed Trump and Company for all the documents they had that mentioned nine of Trump’s associates. But on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd, erupting, reported because of the subpoena, “Sources say the President is ‘unglued’ as chaos plagues…
Read MoreWalking Around in a Fog
In the blink of an eye, CNN, pouncing, announced the real reason Hope Hicks had resigned – it reported after Trump had read she said she’d told ‘little white lies’ for him, he’d berated her, asking, How could you be so stupid? CBS had it’s own theory: It reported that a titanic power struggle was…
Read MoreReality Show Politics
The state Democratic Party heard the Republican Party was making automated calls, had heart palpitations, and filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s office. The Consumer Protection Agency sent the complaint to the Republican Party – and asked for a response. When GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse read the Democrats…
Read MoreA Cautious Man and a Joint Committee
For years, whenever Roy Cooper passed on running for Governor, people would smile and say, Ole Roy — he’s just naturally cautious. The other day when Governor Cooper announced he’d granted the gas pipeline companies the state permit they needed the way he explained it sounded fine: We’d get a pipeline. Plus the companies would…
Read MoreGrant’s Tome
We need a break from Trump. So I’m reading and blogging about other, greater leaders. Monday, it was Nelson Mandela. Today it’s Ulysses Grant, always rated one of the worst Presidents. Until Trump. Ron Chernow’s thousand-page biography hasn’t done for Grant what Chernow did for Alexander Hamilton. Maybe Grant needs a Broadway musical. Before I…
Read MoreWhat great leaders do
Given what passes for leadership today, let’s look at what a real leader once said. This is from a speech by Nelson Mandela when he was rebuilding a country that had been torn apart by apartheid and racial hatred: “During my political career, I have discovered that in all communities, African, coloured, Indian and white,…
Read MoreDigging a Hole Deeper
Policy Watch broadsided Duane Hall, claiming he’d sexually harassed women; in a flash, Democrats from Roy Cooper on down demanded Hall resign from the legislature. Hall slipped, said he’d only kissed one woman who didn’t want to be kissed, then, a day later, said Policy Watch slammed him because he (a 50-year-old man) had once…
Read MoreOnce There Was a Time…
When President Trump nominated Tom Farr for the vacant federal judgeship in eastern North Carolina, Anthony Spearman, the head of the state NAACP, headed to Washington to disagree. But his pilgrimage took an odd twist when he compared Tom Farr to Adolph Hitler. Trump appointing Hitler? Pure political bluster. But fiction took on a life…
Read MoreShould I renew the N&O?
I can’t believe I’m even asking. I grew up with the N&O. When I was a year old, my parents moved here from Hertford County so my Dad could take a job in the N&O composing room. When I was 16, I went to work in the newsroom as a copyboy. I stayed there 10…
Read MoreDeadly serious politics
The best answer to a bad guy with political power is good guys and girls with political power. To beat the bad guys, you need to understand how political power really works. The NRA’s real power doesn’t come from the money it gives to politicians. The New York Times’s lead story Sunday spelled it out:…
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