Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Republicans who venerate Ronald Reagan might be interested in what he said as President about raising the debt ceiling. “Congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would…
Tom Fetzer must feel like the baseball scout who discovered Derek Jeter. Randall Williams looks like a consultant’s dream candidate for mayor of Raleigh. He’s an ob-gyn who’s done humanitarian work in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti. He’s a fresh face and a fiscal conservative. He has no political baggage (or, judging from the N&O…
Clearly, the Republican adults in Washington don’t want to drive off the shut-down-government cliff again. They remember how well that worked for Newt Gingrich in 1995 – and led directly to President Clinton’s reelection in 1996. The leaders’ problem is they can’t control the Tea Party kids who keep grabbing the steering wheel, with…
With George Holding’s name, money and prosecutorial profile – plus Carter’s brain – he has to be the odds-on favorite to win the Republican 13th District nomination. News of which makes AG Roy Cooper the happiest man in Raleigh today. But bad news for Senator Berger’s son and the other aspirants – including…
Was there much mystification among the Moldovan (Moldavian? Moldovar?) muckedy-mucks who mustered last month to meet the American Secretary of State, only to find that instead of Hillary Clinton it was Elaine Marshall? A cynical, but funny, TAPster took aim at Secretary Marshall’s “laughable idiocy” for her visit to Moldova, where she met with…
You can draw a straight line connecting the big political stories in Raleigh and Washington this week: redistricting in Raleigh and the debt stalemate in Washington. Itâs a cliché â but itâs nonetheless true â that under todayâs redistricting system voters donât pick their politicians; politicians pick their voters. And, yes, both Democrats and…
Two of my PR friends considered it unethical for Raleigh PR exec Rick French to shop around the offer of “Juror Number Six” in the Casey Anthony trial to talk to the media – for $50,000. Just to be contrary, I posed this contrary question: “What’s wrong with the jurors cashing in? Everybody else…
This is going to be fun. North Carolina joins the states that have “veto override sessions.” It’s uncharted territory. Nobody here has much experience with this kind of thing. We’ll learn fast. And move fast if, as Speaker Tillis promised, the session lasts only four days. Last I saw, Governor Perdue had…
A kind reader emailed this week: “I enjoy your blog. What’s a TAPster?” A TAPster is my version of a Tipster. TAP is for “Talking About Politics.” Plus, I promised to buy a beer for anyone who sends me material that I post, which saves me the trouble of doing my own thinking and…
How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…
Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…
Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…