National Republicans
Not One Overheated Washington Politician…
Broken politics and posturing politicians present one degree of mendacity when it comes to passing a budget – but the moment a war appears on the horizon that same devilment turns lethal. A few days ago the President declared that, as leader of the oldest constitutional democracy on earth, he needs the support of…
Read MoreTwo Skunks
In the desert land where the Lord struck St. Paul blind then showed him a vision, a pair of skunks are fighting a Civil War and five-thousand miles away in the world’s oldest democracy a great hue and cry has arisen to bomb one of the skunks. Now in the oldest democracy politics is…
Read MoreSitting Pretty
An Old Wise Lobbyist (OWL) gives me a Labor Day break by sharing this: “Contributors to Rep Edgar Starnes’ campaign should be disgusted and dismayed that he used their contributions to beautify his Raleigh legislative office. “The Republican House leader used $7,000 of campaign money for furniture and other niceties at the legislative…
Read MoreThe ‘Voting Rights’ Foo-Fa
This isn’t a story of sin begetting sin but of foolishness begetting foolishness. Years ago, somewhere, some Democratic political guru sat in a room with reams of demographics of people who never had voted and when he finished studying those pages of statistics one fact was clear as a bell: If those folks started…
Read MoreMad Men
“You have a Republican majority that is doing exactly what they were elected to do.” – Claude Pope, state GOP chairman “They really messed up when they screwed with the mothers, the teachers and the women.” – Shannon Shanks, Wilmington teacher Well, in 2014 and 2016 we’ll find out who’s right. Republicans may…
Read MoreWhere’s Our Wendy?
Because it’s about a big electoral prize that Democrats dream about – and because it has some salience to North Carolina – this long article in Texas Monthly is worth a read for Democrats. (Sorry, Republicans, it’s banned for you.) The article addresses this proposition: “Democrats once ruled Texas. Then came five decades of…
Read MoreMalicious Magic
The other day Thomas Edsall of the New York Times reported that a terrible thing has happened. Since the Voting Rights Act passed, the number of Black state legislators has grown from fewer than 5 to 313 – but at the same time, Black political power has diminished. The problem: Most Black legislators are Democrats…
Read MoreHillary Reagan Clinton
In a sure sign of how much they fear her, Republicans suggest that Hillary Clinton would be too old – 69 in 2016 – to be President. (Hey, 69 isn’t so old!) “She’s been around since the ’70s,” one Republican operative said. Another: It would be “a rerun of ‘The Golden Girls’.” …
Read MoreIf You Don’t Fight, You Can’t Win
Back during the Korean War, when the Marines were surrounded by the Chinese at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, a reporter asked Major General Oliver P. Smith if he was retreating and Smith said, “Retreat, hell! We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction.” That was tough leadership. Back in the 1990’s…
Read MoreStill Broken
Earlier this year there was a lot of moaning and gnashing of teeth about the terrible Sequester spending cuts – listening to the politicians up in Washington you’d have thought the government was teetering on its last legs, on the brink of financial Armageddon, staring doom in the face. President Obama even said the…
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