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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Slick

By Gary Pearce May 28, 2010

The Gulf oil spill set off massive responses. No, not the ones to stop the leak or clean up the spill. The political responses: Republicans and the media trying to stick the gooey blame on President Obama – and the White House, to keep it away.   Sarah (“Drill, baby, drill”) Palin says the spill…

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The ‘Helms Station’

By Gary Pearce May 27, 2010

It’s no surprise Jesse Helms cozied up to the FBI. He and J. Edgar Hoover were the leading enemies of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.   But the revelations spotlight part of WRAL’s history that people at the station today might rather forget.   In the 1960s, WRAL was known as the…

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Not Agent Pierce

By Gary Pearce May 26, 2010

I’ve been absolved.   Several people asked if I’m the “Agent Pierce” on N&O Executive Editor John Drescher’s blog. Apparently, they think I went undercover by changing the spelling of my name.   Drescher absolved me this week. It’s not me.   I’ve read Drescher’s frustrations about dealing with bloggers who fling vitriol and venom…

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Broadband for Everyone?

By Gary Pearce May 26, 2010

There’s an interesting – and important – vote scheduled in the state Senate Finance Committee today at 1 p.m.   The bill is S1209.  The Broadband for Everyone NC coalition – which I’m working with – views this as an industry-sponsored bill that will give control of North Carolina’s broadband (and economic) future to Time…

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Crab Pots, Mental Health and a Perdue Meltdown

By Carter Wrenn May 25, 2010

Last week over on NC Spin Tom Campbell published a glowing interview with Perdue Cabinet Secretary Lanier Cansler – but even before the ink dried on the page the yarn Cansler spun Campbell was coming undone.   You might think before the Governor and Secretary Cansler put someone in charge of caring for the state’s…

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Heard of Google?

By Gary Pearce May 25, 2010

Governor Perdue and Lanier Cansler didn’t need the John Tote fiasco.   Perdue has made strides putting her administration in order. Cansler has the thankless task of managing an unmanageable department. But he has Carter and the home-health hounds gnawing on his leg, and the mainstream media is starting to chew too.   Then comes…

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Correction

By Gary Pearce May 25, 2010

An alert reader caught this in my blog yesterday about Mark Critz, the Democrat who won the special congressional election in Pennsylvania:   “I don’t think Critz voted for health care bill (he wasn’t in Congress then). He did say he would not have voted for it.”   The reader is correct, and I thank…

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Whoops!

By Carter Wrenn May 24, 2010

Last Friday Bill Randall published his ‘Charter of Principles’ on Facebook. Then, so more people would read it, he published it again a few hours later. And with reason. It is an impressive statement. Eloquent. Profound. Articulate.   The problem is Randall did not write it. He plagiarized it.   Fifty years ago, back in…

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A Primary Lesson

By Gary Pearce May 24, 2010

Democrats, Republicans, Tea Partiers, anti-Tea Partiers – everybody – found something to like in last week’s primaries across the country.   I found a lesson in a special congressional election in Pennsylvania that applies to a congressional election in North Carolina – specifically, to the efforts by the State Employees Association of North Carolina to…

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A Democrat to Watch

By Gary Pearce February 10, 2025

No, Trump’s blitzkrieg hasn’t left Democrats hapless, hopeless and rudderless. Here’s one example of the immense…

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Always Wrong

By Carter Wrenn February 7, 2025

It’s a kind of mystery – will hitting Canada and Mexico with tariffs land us in…

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Broken Egg Promise

By Gary Pearce February 7, 2025

Waffle House shows Trump lied – and broke his biggest promise. He promised, “when I win,…

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