North Carolina – Democrats
A Hole in the Boat
It looks like the prosecutors put a pretty big hole in Edwards’ boat last Thursday: For months Edwards has been arguing the million dollars he took from ‘Bunny’ Mellon and Fred Baron wasn’t a campaign donation because he spent the money to hide his affair from his wife and not voters. But Thursday two…
Read MoreHow Little Scandals Become Big Scandals
House Speaker Thom Tillis spent last week catching hand grenades – first his Chief-of-Staff landed on the front page of the newspaper for having an affair with a lobbyist then a second Tillis aide confessed to a peccadillo with another lobbyist; — both aides promptly resigned (at Tillis’ request) then the press asked Tillis the…
Read MoreThis Too Shall Pass
A Democratic TAPster offers the thoughts below on how quickly things change in politics: “Just a few days ago Stuart Rothenberg had a column in Roll Call pondering whether President Obama and the Democrats have made a big mistake focusing on North Carolina as part of the 2012 campaign strategy. Given what has come…
Read MoreA Man Without a Party
Ever since what one observer called David Parker’s “televised suicide bombing,” I’ve been pondering his infamous press conference performance. Especially: Who told him that would be a good idea? The answer, apparently, is no one. I’m told that he talked to no one on the party staff, sought out no one’s advice. …
Read MoreSex and the Speaker’s Office
I like the observations below because the TAPster who wrote them not only takes aim at everybody, but also dares to defend lobbyists: “The irony – and hypocrisy — of this sex scandal is these staffers work for Republican politicians who imposed their personal morals on the state’s citizens by ramming through the proposed…
Read MoreBlame Newt Gingrich
A capital veteran says of the Charles Thomas/lobbyist scandal: “Sex between legislators, staffers and lobbyists isn’t anything new. Been going on for years. What’s new about this is a private investigator hired by an undisclosed client did the N&O’s investigation and the N&O printed the result. This is a spooky precedent.” Laura Leslie…
Read MoreWhat Is Bill Thinking?
Most of time, you can tell what a campaign is thinking by watching what it does. Sometimes, what a campaign does makes you wonder what – or if – they’re thinking. So it is with Bill Faison’s campaign for governor. Some weeks ago, the buzz was that Faison was going to pump a half-million…
Read MoreWalter, Bob, Bill and Pat
Walter Dalton, Bob Etheridge and Bill Faison are slugging it out in the Democratic Primary and the prospect of one of them emerging flat broke after the election and facing Pat McCrory (who’s sitting on $3 million) in the fall has Republicans feeling warm all over about winning the Governor’s race for the first time…
Read MorePayback?
Since their 2010 debacle, Democrats have muttered about an “iron triangle” they believe helped do them in: politically motivated prosecutions, relentless Republican pressure for the investigations and tough media scrutiny. Some even saw a coordinated conspiracy. So don’t be surprised if they look for payback in the Charles Thomas/lobbyist affair. They want investigations –…
Read MoreJustin Guillory Responds
Following is Justin’s response to my blog (see below) about his N&O op-ed: “Thanks for taking an interest in my op-ed. Here is my take on your questions: “First, I disagree that progressive politics are not business friendly. The current Republican leadership has taken us so far to the right that we need…
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