North Carolina – Republicans
Prequel to November?
Four years ago, the May primary thrust North Carolina into the national spotlight. An unexpected surge of new voters clinched the Democratic presidential nomination for Barack Obama. The tide raged on into November. It lifted Democrats to one of their biggest election victories in decades. This year, we’re back in the spotlight. This time,…
Read MoreFact Checking the Fact Checkers
If a newspaper is going to be a ‘Fact Checker’ it ought to take the time to do the research to get its facts straight. A few days ago the News and Observer reported Paul Coble ‘has voted to issue’ millions of dollars in new Wake County bonds (debt) but added, But those bonds…
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 MoreMcCrory Manager Exposed
Here is the kind of information you won’t get from what Sarah Palin calls the “lamestream media.” It’s only available in the lamebrain media, like this blog. Specifically, you have to read our Forum section to discover that Pat McCrory’s new campaign manager “has ties to CHARLIE CRIST!” The TAPster adds: “Crist is…
Read MoreDownright Seedy
There’s an outbreak of fornication on Jones Street. In the State House. In Speaker Thom Tillis’ office. Between lobbyists and Tillis’ aides. Yesterday after all the shenanigans landed in the newspapers Speaker Tillis disposed of two aides then, after “reviewing” 130 pages of emails and other records, announced they hadn’t lifted a finger to give…
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 MoreNot Serving Wine
It’s hard to tell who’s crazier: Andrew Young or John Edwards. Back in 1998 in Myrtle Beach Young hears Edwards make a speech and, as Young told it himself in court last week, fell in love. A few years later Rielle Hunter met Edwards in a New York bar and fell in love too.…
Read MoreMore to Come?
The N&O story today by Dan Kane and John Frank (“Second Tillis staffer admits to inappropriate relationship with a lobbyist”) had this eye-catching line: “After Thomas’ resignation, Tillis said he returned to his office on Sunday afternoon and questioned five of his 10 remaining staff members, who had been the subject of rumors related…
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…
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