Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Back in 1984 when Governor Hunt fessed up to making political trips on the state airplane and reimbursed the state $180,000, Tom Ellis, the attorney running Jesse Helms’ campaign to defeat Hunt told me, You know, give a politician a free airplane and he’ll hang himself every time. It turns out – for…
The famous Boss Plunket of Tammany Hall, explaining his singular talent for getting the most out of politics (and what he called “honest graft”), told his biographer, ‘I just seen my opportunities and took ‘em.’ At first glance Boss Plunkett, who was a colorful New York Irish politician, and DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler, a…
I’m all for having regular guys and gals in high office. But this is too much. The New York Times reported this anecdote in a story about Federal Research Chair Ben Bernanke lobbying against bills aimed at the Fed: “At one recent meeting, Senator Sherrod Brown challenged Mr. Bernanke’s bona fides as a…
It turns out Craigan L. Gray, the MD and JD (lawyer) and newly appointed Director of Medicaid is pretty thin skinned. When Tim Rogers – head of the Association for Home and Hospice Care – asked Secretary Lanier Cansler to reconsider Gray’s cuts in a tiny Medicaid program that provides nurses to care…
Right now if you’re a Medicaid patient or are a nurse or a nurse’s aide who cares for a patient you’re facing hard times – your medical care’s being cut or your hours are being cut or your pay’s being cut, by Craigan Gray Medicaid Director at DHHS. But if you’re one of the…
The Big Dog’s got the scent. Democrats should pay attention. For all his faults, Bill Clinton has one of the best noses in politics. And this week he gave Senate Democrats exactly the right strategy for passing health-care reform: It’s the economy, stupid. That is, reform will help the economy by slowing…
I was never sure Cal Cunningham was totally committed to running for the Senate. Now I’m not sure he’s committed to sit it out. A Machiavellian part of me suspects his withdrawal could be a ploy aimed at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The DSCC has been waiting – it seems like forever…
Since he’s a former health care lobbyist I guess it’s not surprising Secretary Lanier Cansler has decided to run the Department of Health and Human Services as if, well, it was an HMO or an insurance company. Of course, the thing folks hate most about insurance companies is simple: When they go to…
Life as a moderate Democrat in North Carolina isn’t for the weak of heart. Like England in the ‘60s, it’s the Mods versus the Rockers. But these Rockers come at the Mods from both sides: the Obama disciples on the left and the Rush-Beck wrecking crew on the right. Larry Kissell voted against…
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…