Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
First Congress voted against the war in Libya, then it voted to go right on paying to fight the war it was against. As a matter of policy that’s hard to fathom but as a matter of politics, well, there’s something in it for everyone. Congress is on your side no matter what side you’re…
The Gang of Six’s “big solution” to the federal budget sounds a lot like the recommendations of the study commission that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson chaired last year. It makes Democrats mad by reining in entitlements and by raising revenues about $1 for every $3 in spending cuts. It makes Tea Party…
A friend emailed a good question about my earlier blog on Elaine Marshall and Moldova: “Did you attempt to contact Elaine Marshal to find out if her trip was paid for personally or by state funds?…Can you tell me what you did to check this out before publishing it? And what I am missing about…
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…
The political sniping began even as chaos still reigned at the White House Correspondents Dinner. My…
A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…
Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…