National Republicans
Thinking Head
When every politician in Washington sounds like a robot reciting a predictable party line, Rand Paul sounds like a man who actually thinks. Sometimes he sounds sounds nutty and sometimes he makes sense, but he’s worth watching – and listening to. Paul first caught my attention when he filibustered against drones, denounced the NSA…
Read MoreVollermort
The internal politics of the North Carolina Democratic Party are a mystery to me, so I’m lost when people ask, essentially, “WTF is Randy Voller up to?” So I refer you to an insightful piece by an observer I trust: Bob Geary with Indy Week. Geary begins: “After a stormy year as state Democratic…
Read MoreKeep ‘em here, Send ‘em home
Immigration, the newspaper says, is ‘bedeviling” Congresswoman Renee Ellmers. It’s also bedeviling Speaker John Boehner. And half the Republicans in Washington. It’s a knotty problem. Part of the politicians have decided it’s best to send every single illegal immigrant back to where they came from – but no one’s quite sure how to…
Read MorePandora’s Box
It’s got to be a temptation – but it may not have a happy ending. Lately, President Obama’s taken to running the country by Executive Order – for instance, the other day he found a part of Obamacare wasn’t going to work so he simply announced he wouldn’t enforce that part of the law. …
Read MoreTalking Impeachment
Is this a “Groundhog Day” sequel? Republicans talking about impeachment? Is it 1998 again? Dan Barkin had an intriguing article in the N&O about several Republican U.S. Senate candidates talking up impeaching President Obama. They fumed about Obama’s alleged high crimes and misdemeanors, not to mention being black, a Democrat and President anyway. Democrats…
Read MoreA Mystery Number
50 years ago we declared war on poverty, spent $20.7 trillion, and lost. So now the President is trying again. Only this time he’s calling it a war on income inequality because a war on poverty only appeals to folks who are poor while a war on income inequality appeals to just about everyone except,…
Read MoreThe Next Ted Cruz?
The newspaper reporter asked if North Carolina’s Senate Primary was going to be the next litmus test of the Tea Party’s political muscle – and as fast as he could Greg Brannon’s campaign spokesman said ‘Yes’ then added the Primary was just like Senator Rand Paul’s election in Kentucky in 2010 and Senator Ted Cruz’s…
Read MoreThe Dithers
Back before Christmas when Congress struck its ‘big budget deal’ the newspapers were running stories left and right telling everyone how Round 2 of the Sequester was going to be aw-ful and terr-ible and croo-el. In one story a lady in Fayetteville told how the army was going to be so decimated by the…
Read MoreBridges, Bullies and Obamacare
Fearless Forecast: Obamacare won’t be a decisive issue in 2014, but Chris Christie’s bridge-gate will be in 2016. That sounds backwards. After all, polls right here at home show that Obamacare is dragging down Senator Hagan. And the buzz is that Christie’s poll ratings are holding up and Republicans are rallying around him. …
Read MoreBully at the Pulpit
Republicans can toss their Christie for President buttons, but they can learn a lesson from Governor Soprano. Pat McCrory can learn to take responsibility. He, Phil Berger and Thom Tillis (“whining…losers”) can learn that voters don’t like bullies. A TAPster (who once thought well of McCrory) noted the contrast between Christie and McCrory:…
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