National Republicans
Politics in Columbialand
A long time long ago in the far away Kingdom of Columbialand two tribes battled over control of Congress for years then one of the tribes (the Republicans) split into two smaller tribes: The Pachyderms and the Tea Partiers. The Tea Partiers turned out to be an unusual tribe. They had a creed and they…
Read MoreDeclaration of Independents
A “record-high 42 percent of Americans identify as Independents: Republican identification lowest in at least 25 years,” Gallup breathlessly tells us. But those numbers may obscure the truth about politics today. It’s not that four in 10 Americans swing bath and forth between the two parties – carefully studying the issues, judiciously judging the…
Read MoreA Problem Congress Can Solve
Years ago a doctor asked my mother her definition of happiness and without batting an eye she said: Love and money. When it came to fundamentals mother got right down to brass tacks. A while back up in Washington a piece of the federal government – theNational Academy of Sciences – decided Congress needed to…
Read More2014
Millions of dollars will be spent and billions of words spilled, but only one thing will decide this election: Will voters be madder at President Obama or at Republicans in the legislature? On today’s market, the outlook for Democrats is as chilling as a New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge. For two months, the…
Read MoreE.T.
When I saw the headline I thought it must be a hoax but it turned out to be true: Congress, which hasn’t passed a budget in memory, had held a dead-serious, high-level, official hearing to establish whether there is extra-terrestrial intelligence in the universe. As one wit quipped on the Washington Post’s website, First, they…
Read MorePickpockets
You would think by now out of sheer boredom Congressmen would be looking for new ways to fool voters but, undeterred at using the same old worn-out trick again, just before Christmas eager-beaver Paul Ryan rolled out his new budget, saying how he’d made a deal with the Democrats to cut spending and cut the…
Read More2014: Another 2010?
Maybe I should apologize. But would Bob Rucho apologize? No sir! So I’ll double down, as they say. My blog yesterday – warning that the next Congress might be run by people who think like Rucho – apparently ruined the Christmas spirit for some Democrats. My friend Jerry Wayne Williamson of Boone (follow…
Read MoreA Christmas Truce
Americans are so polarized politically, we argue about Christmas and Santa Clause’s race. I propose a truce. And I’m going first. Through a blessed accident of calendar, Christmas and New Year’s Day are on Wednesdays this year. That effectively wrecks two work weeks. Good riddance. But let’s go farther. Like German and…
Read MoreFlexible Ethics
Governor McCrory and Republican legislators said they would do away with “pay-to-play” and “corruption” in Raleigh. Then a group of lobbyists held a fundraiser in Raleigh. It’s illegal, of course, for lobbyists to contribute to legislators. But the fundraiser was for a congressional candidate named Phil Berger Jr. Yes, the son of State Senate…
Read MoreRepublican Vs. Republican
Don’t underestimate the chances that people who think like Bob Rucho might control Congress a year from now. Behind Rucho’s tweet and the budget battle in Washington is a death match between the Tea Party and the GOP Establishment. If the Tea Party wins that war, and if Obamacare sinks Democrats in November, the…
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