Broke

Oil still gushes into the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of BP – “Broken Pipe.” So many dollars, debt and deficits gush out of Washington that the country looks broke.   Even Al and Tipper broke up.   This is a scary scenario for President and Obama and the Democrats (except for the Gore split). Nothing…

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In Praise of Campaign Money

 It seems to be accepted truth today that all money in political campaigns is inherently evil. Let me offer a contrary view, thanks to Ferrel Guillory   Ferrel is the ever-wise director of Program on Public Life at the UNCCenter for the Study of the American South.   At breakfast the other day, we were…

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Correction

An alert reader caught this in my blog yesterday about Mark Critz, the Democrat who won the special congressional election in Pennsylvania:   “I don’t think Critz voted for health care bill (he wasn’t in Congress then). He did say he would not have voted for it.”   The reader is correct, and I thank…

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A Primary Lesson

Democrats, Republicans, Tea Partiers, anti-Tea Partiers – everybody – found something to like in last week’s primaries across the country.   I found a lesson in a special congressional election in Pennsylvania that applies to a congressional election in North Carolina – specifically, to the efforts by the State Employees Association of North Carolina to…

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Endorsements and Establishments

Do endorsements matter? Not judging from Tuesday’s primaries.   A candidate endorsed by President Obama loses a Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. A candidate endorsed by the Senate Republican leader – and the state’s senior Senator – loses the GOP primary in Kentucky.   So how does Ken Lewis’ endorsement help Elaine Marshall?   Well, it’s…

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Obama Sets a Trap

About the only varmint on earth these days more unpopular than a Democratic Congressman is a Wall Street banker – so to save their political hides President Obama and the Democrats in Washington have gone banker hunting.   Now, broadly speaking, Wall Street bankers have a simple theory of politics: Without regard to race, creed,…

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Barking Yellow Dogs

When a Washington Post reporter asked me about Democratic congressmen from North Carolina voting against health-care reform, I told him: “You buy a dog, don’t be afraid when it barks.”   When Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel and the DCCC recruited Health Shuler and Larry Kissell to run in 2008, they knew what they were getting.…

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The Trust Deficit

It’s bad news for Democrats when only 22 percent of Americans say they trust government.   That number comes from a Pew Research Center poll, which found “a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government — a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter partisan-based backlash, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials.”  …

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Tea Time

The Tea Party movement may return the Republican Party to power – or ruin it. Whichever, the Tea Party controls the GOP’s future.   If Mushmouth Mitch McConnell and Suntan John Boehner become majority leaders in the next Congress, they’ll have no choice but to walk the Tea Party line.   That would pretty much…

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Kick ’em off their Respirators

The other day a friend sent me an article saying Obamacare cut Medicare $500 billion. I wrote back and asked, Exactly what Medicare treatments for patients did Obama cut?   Back came another email with an article attached written by a lady, the former Lt. Governor of New York, who said Obama has set up…

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