Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
The Jim Baker report on Iraq is a stunning indictment of George Bush’s Iraq war. For that, I’m thankful. But it’s a dishwater-weak response. The report is like too many bipartisan, blue-ribbon reports: mush. The strategy it proposes doesn’t rise to the crisis it describes: “The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is…
Read MoreOrganized labor was a big winner in the 2006 elections. Not that it was on the ballot. But it strongly supported Democrats. And it will play a major role in the 2008 presidential race – as shown by John Edwards’ recruitment of David Bonior of Michigan to lead his campaign. Unions could also play a…
Read MoreThe next time you look up tenacity in the dictionary you may see House Speaker Jim Black’s picture beside the word. Black’s been hauled before the Board of Elections, the Grand Jury, the federal courts and his nominee for the lottery commission was convicted of fraud but, despite it all, as improbable as it sounds,…
Read MoreMy joy over Democratic victories in 2006 is tempered by my fear over what we might do to screw it all up in 2007. Politicians’ instinctive reaction to victory is too often hubris. When they win, they assume they have license to do everything they’ve ever dreamed of doing, regardless of whether the voters voted…
Read MoreThe latest Gallop Poll of the Democratic and Republican candidates says: Democrats Hillary Clinton 31% Barack Obama 19% John Edwards 10% Al Gore 9% John Kerry 7% Republicans Rudy Giuliani 28% John McCain 26% Condoleezza Rice 13% Newt Gingrich 7% Mitt Romney 5% Pollster Dick Morris (http://www.vote.com/) observed that the poll shows the ‘gender gap’…
Read MoreThe Iraq Security Group led by former Secretary of State Jim Baker is about to release itâs report, and despite all the window dressing about finding a ânew way forwardâ it looks like the bottom line is simple: Letâs get out of Iraq. Of course the politicians and diplomats arenât putting it quite that bluntly,…
Read MoreThomas Friedman wrote in The New York Times recently that Iraqis can’t be having a civil war because they’re not sufficiently organized to have one. But I suspect my fellow Democrats are. And next year’s Raleigh elections may be the first battle of that war. There are two very different schools of thought in the…
Read MoreCarter and I did a panel Sunday before a group of Southern journalists who are navigating their way through the brave new world of blogs and the Internet – and the impact on politics. One UNC professor asked this question: “Does the ‘new media’ make politics more negative and more superficial?” He cited the blog-…
Read MoreEthics are supposed to set standards for ‘virtuous’ behavior, so you wouldn’t expect ‘judicial ethics’ to result in an injustice. But that appears to have happened in the trial of two off duty Durham police officers charged with assaulting a short order cook at Blinco’s sports bar. Here’s what happened: When the prosecutor rested his…
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With a better General Assembly, Josh Stein could join Jim Hunt and Terry Sanford on North…
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Once upon a time, there was a great and powerful newspaper: The News & Observer. Everybody…
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The shouting, sign-waving and cane-wielding by congressional Democrats at the State of the Union isn’t a…
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