Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Big Tobacco’s big defeat in Congress this month just goes to show that in politics there are no final victories. Turn the page back to 1994. That’s the year Congressman Henry Waxman hauled the top tobacco-company executives before Congress – lining them up and administering the oath like they were Mafia dons. …
It’s hard to imagine a better week – at least in North Carolina – for Republicans. The grand jury’s investigating Governor Easley about the Southport Marina. And Professor Mrs. Easley’s job at NCSU. And Easley’s real estate deal at the beach. And Easley’s free travel. And free vacations. Easley Contributors are testifying, Chancellors are testifying,…
I was talking this week with a very smart person who knows what is going on with health care reform in Washington. She said President Obama’s goal is to get a reform bill enacted into law by the end of October. But that depends on Senate Democrats getting 60 votes to force action. …
Governor Perdue must have decided that the only way to arrest her flagging poll numbers is to plant the flag for education. And for $1.5 billion in higher taxes. Laura Leslie at WUNC radio said Perdue is “fighting back” against legislative cuts with a “Jim Hunt-esque tour to pressure legislators to protect school funding.”…
Two readers – who otherwise praise the N&O’s coverage of Easley/Stategate – ask whether the newspaper is guilty of excessive end zone celebration. They especially took issue with John Drescher’s column Saturday criticizing Bob Jordan, the interim trustees’ chairman. One said, “I just think it had a little bit of sitting on the…
Tom Fetzer must have adequately addressed the most important issue on the minds of delegates at the state Republican convention this weekend: his sexual orientation. This obsession with whether someone is gay is one of the problems Republicans have. Another, judging from the recent war of words on our blog, is their anger. At…
When I was invited to talk about the state of N.C.State on this weekend’s Headline Saturday for WRAL and The N&O, I was prepared to get even more depressed about my alma mater. Instead, I left the studio this morning feeling good. The reason was the other panelist at the taping: Dr. Jim Martin,…
The Wolfpack Nation is angry. Angry at the Big Men On Campus who embarrassed N.C. State, angry at The News & Observer and angry at Mike and Mary Easley. Here is an up-to-the-minute guide to the venting: Jim Oblinger and Larry Neilsen. They proved, once again, that the coverup is always worse than…
George Wallace used to rail against âpointy-headed professors who canât park their bicycles straight.â The administrators at N.C. State couldnât get their stories straight. The result is national humiliation, the loss of three top leaders and piñata status in the middle of a state budget crisis. UNC President Erskine Bowles had it right…
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…
Jim Hunt would like James Talarico winning the Democratic primary in Texas. Like Talarico, the late…