Carter is a Republican. Gary is a Democrat.

They met in 1984, during the epic U.S. Senate battle between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt. Carter worked for Helms and Gary, for Hunt.

Years later, they became friends. They even worked together on some nonpolitical clients.

They enjoy talking about politics. So they started this blog in 2005.

They’re still talking. And they invite you to join the conversation.

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Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

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A Jobs Plan

By Gary Pearce February 19, 2012

A Democratic TAPster offers these thoughts “Re – Caterpillar and others over the past several months:   “If I were running for governor (and I’m not but have to admit I think I could beat the current group of contenders) I would come out in favor of corporate incentives. I would state I will not…

Click Button, File Form

By Carter Wrenn February 17, 2012

A Republican filed to run for State House and no sooner had he filed than he was told he had to fill out a second form called a Financial Disclosure Report – so he went to the State Ethics Commission’s website and found the form then ran head on into a bureaucratic maze.   When…

Playing by House Rules

By Gary Pearce February 17, 2012

What would have happened two years ago if then-Speaker Joe Hackney had ordered Capitol police to clear away a group of Tea Party demonstrators on the second floor of the Legislative Building?   Republicans no doubt would be in high dudgeon over such high-handed action. The Tea Party would be in a frenzy over “police-state…

Broken Record

By Gary Pearce February 16, 2012

Pat McCrory hasn’t yet figured out how to deal with not having Bev Perdue to kick around any more.   He said at his filing that he’s running against “broken government.” Well, who isn’t?   As questions he got showed, “broken government” can mean the legislature as well as the executive branch.   And McCrory…

We’ve Heard this Before

By Carter Wrenn February 16, 2012

Obama’s new budget is out and the more things change the more they remain the same – he’s increasing the deficit (from $1.3 to $1.33 trillion) and increasing spending, but big cuts are coming somewhere down the road.   Obama’s been running that same flim-flam, promising big cuts down the road since he was elected…

Berger and The N&O

By Gary Pearce February 16, 2012

A TAPster who has watched a succession of politicians tangle with the N&O was struck by Senate Leader Phil Berger’s letter to the editor Tuesday, especially the end:   “Interestingly, the editorial opines that the state’s Legislative Building is a ‘hot-air factory where opponents of the Racial Justice Act seemingly will say anything …’ Clearly,…

Play that Video

By Carter Wrenn February 15, 2012

I’m old-fashioned enough not to have much faith in these new ‘automated telephone polls’ that the Democrats at Public Policy Polling do, but you have to give them credit – those polls have turned their company into a P.R. juggernaut. They’re in the newspaper just about every day.   Their latest poll on the Democratic…

Mitt as Pretzel

By Gary Pearce February 15, 2012

Mitt Romney has to be the most phony-baloney politician in American history. If there was an Olympics for Flip-Flop, he’d hold the Gold. If he did yoga, he’d be a pretzel. He is the Mickey Mantle of Political Switch-Hitting, the Oscar Robertson of Obfuscation, the unchallenged champion of the George Orwell Trophy for Double-Talk.  …

The Dark Side

By Gary Pearce February 15, 2012

Economic numbers are brightening a bit, so President Obama’s ratings are a bit brighter. But the most striking thing about the election climate nine months out is the darkness on the Republican side.   Listen to them – and to what their words and their expressions say about their mood, their attitude and their vision…

Getting the News

By Gary Pearce March 13, 2026

How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…

MAGA-gator

By Gary Pearce March 12, 2026

Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…

Enough is Enough

By Gary Pearce March 11, 2026

Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…