Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
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…
Jesse Helms is probably rolling over in his recording studio. WRAL, the station that used to run Helms’ editorials opposing desegregation, is now running editorial messages opposing resegregation. That’s how much Jim Goodmon has changed the station. (Does anybody remember when WRAL used to sign off at night by playing “Dixie” instead…
The State Democratic Party gets an A+ for rapid response this week. I blogged last week that the N&O overplayed Tom Fetzer’s questions about Governor Perdue’s campaign flights. The research rats at Democratic HQ then turned up questions about Pat McCrory’s campaign flights. That led to an N&O headline – the same size…
Up in Washington last weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference every time Scott Brown’s name was mentioned the conservative hordes let out a bellow of approval – but, then, two days later Brown voted with the Democrats in the Senate to end a filibuster against President Obama’s latest ‘Stimulus Bill’ and Democratic leader Harry…
President Obama may be setting up Republicans for a classic one-two punch. First, the left jab: an open, public “discussion” where he challenges Republicans to put their ideas on the table. That’s what they said they wanted, isn’t it? Then, the right uppercut: ramming a health-care bill through using something called “reconciliation.” …
PR types like to speculate about what they would advise Toyota and Tiger Woods to do in their times of trouble. (Imagine the fees!) For all the ridicule and criticism, I think Tiger made a good first step in his televised mea culpa. But Toyota still can’t get it right. The myth…
Senator Richard Burr wins this week’s hypocrisy award hands down. Formally entering his race for reelection, Burr said something needs to be done to break the “gridlock” in Congress. This, mind you, is the same man who has dutifully followed his party’s lead in gridlocking budget reform, health-care reform and anything else that…
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…