North Carolina – Republicans
Shedding Light on the Rhubarb
Most of the political pundits in the newspaper said the disagreements between the three tribes of Raleigh Republicans were ideological – they broke it down like this: Tribe #1 – Conservative; Tribe #2 – Less Conservative; Tribe #3 – Least Conservative. But a college professor (who’s usually dry as a bone when talking about the…
Read MorePuffed Up
The N&O’s striking front-page photo of Speaker Thom Tillis looks like a caricature of a pompous, puffed-up politician. Now, all of us have been captured on film in less-than-flattering poses. But not on the front page. And not at a time and in a way that seems to capture all the things that people…
Read MoreA Mischievous Genie
Over a week ago in a newspaper story – after a day of women chanting “shame, shame, shame” – a Republican consultant declared bluntly House Speaker Thom Tillis had better support the Senate’s abortion bill or just about every Republican was going to be mad with him. Next, in the same story, a Democratic…
Read MoreGOP MVP
The Republican team’s best player this season is – the envelope please – Senator Phil Berger. Now, this is a judgment about political skills, not philosophy. I disagree with Berger on probably every issue. But as I look at all the Republican players on the field this year – particularly compared to Governor McCrory…
Read MoreTaxes, Jobs and Education
Thankful yet? You get a tax cut. And North Carolinians get more jobs. At least, that’s the theory. Cary Republican Rep. Nelson Dollar called it the “jobs bill of a generation.” Sen. Josh Stein, a Raleigh Democrat, called it “tax breaks for the wealthy and out-of-state corporations.” Here’s the economic question: Will…
Read MorePat Pops Off
Governor McCrory has a bad habit: He says what he thinks will impress the person in front of him. That gets a politician in trouble. And it has him. It’s why he’s breaking his promise on abortion. It’s why he made himself a punching bag over whether he was in a Moral Monday crowd.…
Read MoreA Gift to Democrats
Nine times out of 10 in politics, what you think is a conspiracy is just incompetence. So it is with the Republicans and abortion. Several TAP readers believe that all the GOP’s thrashing on abortion is a well-thought-out plan to pass new restrictions and avoid the political consequences. They may achieve the first…
Read MoreA Quirk of Human Nature
The other morning there was a picture on the front page of the News and Observer of a hundred angry women, every one of them mad as blazes, carrying signs, shaking fists and chanting, ‘Shame, shame, shame’ at Republican Senators who’d just passed a new abortion bill (that required abortion centers to meet the same…
Read MoreBranding Politics
“Employers must go where employees want to be” – Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst. Raleigh City Councilman Randy Stagner quoted that line this week. It sums up the challenge that Raleigh and all North Carolina face today under the state’s new management. Rob Christensen captured it in his strikingly strong column Sunday: “North…
Read MoreHard Day
Monday was a hard day for Reverend William Barber. For months, Reverend Barber has been leading ‘crusades’ for the poor, the needy, against racism, and against Republicanism. But Monday, the Civitas Institute put a dent in his image – it reported the groups sponsoring Reverend Barber’s ‘Moral Monday’ protests have received over $100…
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