Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
The Tea Party crowd is in a frenzy over rising deficits and the national debt. In Asheville Friday, Republican candidates fell all over themselves at a Tea Party meeting that featured a clock tracking the debt. Do these people have any memory cells whatsoever? Obviously not, so let me remind them that,…
Jerry Brown is one of those idiot-savant politicians who can be both a genius and a self-destructive fool. Years ago, he was California’s youngest governor ever, and he succeeded an actor (Ronald Reagan). Now he’s trying to be the state’s oldest governor ever, and he would succeed another actor. Brown’s own roles have…
A supporter of the new Wake school board held up a sign at this week’s hearing: “Elections matter.” At the health-care summit President Obama told John McCain: “The election is over.” They’re right. And Obama should ram through health-care reform just like the new school board majority is ramming through its new policies.…
WakeCounty is North Carolina’s most Democratic county. President Obama carried the state in 2008 because he racked up a 60,000-vote margin in this county alone. But two big and bitter battles yesterday showed what a split county this is – and that there are no final victories in politics. The votes – the…
Sometimes you come across a rascal who’s got so much brazenness and old-fashioned nerve you just can’t help but admire his audacity – throw him in a briar patch and he’ll land on his feet and end up owning the place. That’s why it’s hard not to keep an eye peeled to see what…
The candidate filings show where the energy is this year. And it’s not encouraging for Democrats. Republicans fielded candidates in all 50 state Senate races and nearly all the state House races. There are 40-plus Republicans running in congressional primaries. We may be seeing the three ingredients required to make a landslide: One…
While Secretary Lanier Cansler’s former firm has been lobbying his department, it’s also been making payments to Cansler, personally. Another Democratic scandal? Back when Governor Perdue appointed Lanier Cansler to lead North Carolina’s biggest state agency, he announced had severed all ties with his former lobbying firm – they had parted company and…
North Carolina native Julianna Smoot – who was finance director in the Obama presidential campaign – has been named the new White House social secretary. The announcement last week said this about Smoot: “A native of North Carolina, Smoot has worked in and out of Washington. Prior to joining the Administration, Smoot served…
A reporter was musing recently about how North Carolina politicians used to be a bland, boring bunch. That was back when we prided ourselves on clean, honest government. Times have changed: A former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate brought down by a sex scandal. A former Governor and a key adviser…
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…