Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
The Democrats in Congress are pounding President Bush over the head and he’s punching right back. Speaker Pelosi says – but not in so many words – that Bush is an arrogant jerk. He says she’s for cutting off bullets to the troops in Iraq. Senator Harry Reid adds Bush thinks he’s king – when…
The Don Imus and Duke lacrosse cases had three things in common: race, money and media frenzy. Imus had all three factors against him, so he lost. The Duke players had two with them: money and, in the end, media. They won. From the start, the Duke case was justice by media. The DA convicted…
The history of presidential elections is filled with âflash in the panâ candidates â charismatic, articulate young leaders who wanted to take the country in a new direction, enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame and faded into oblivion. But none of them ever raised $25 million. Barack Obama has. In politics the golden rule is…
It was just one line in a News and Observer article. But, as far as I can tell, it’s first time it’s been reported Mayor Meeker’s son, David, works for downtown developer. (News and Observer; 4-9-07). Meeker’s son’s employer, Empire Properties, is “one of the largest landlords in downtown Raleigh.” (News and Observer; 7-18-04). It…
I once thought deep in his heart Charles Meeker might be a Francophile, who secretly wanted to turn Fayetteville Street into the Champs-Elysées. But, Iâve decided the Mayor doesnât want to turn downtown Raleigh into Paris at all. He wants to turn it into Charlotte. For years, while people have moved out of downtowns (for…
From the time Joe Sinsheimer first called for ex-Speaker Jim Black to step down, people asked me who I thought was paying Joe. Having known Joe for many years, I said: nobody. He’s much more dangerous than a paid operative. He’s driven by his conscience. And he has three qualities that are rare in politics:…
OnPoint Polling and Research of Raleigh released some numbers that stunned me. Not polling results, but demographics. According to OnPoint, here is how the active-voting population of North Carolina breaks down by age: 18-19 1% 20-29 5% 30-39 7% 40-49 23% 50-59 22% 60-69 24% 70-79 14% 80+ 5% In other words, only 13 percent…
Governor Mike Easley’s the leader of the Democratic Party, which has a proud heritage of empathy for the poor, downtrodden and for working people. That’s why the Governor’s new lottery proposal sounds unusual. Governor Easley wants to spend more on prizes to entice people – primarily the poor and downtrodden – into buying more lottery…
Nancy Pelosi, who has been redefining women’s roles in politics, is now also redefining the government. Even during the darkest days of the Cold War, when Ronald Reagan and ‘Tip’ O’Neil were fighting tooth and toenail, Speaker O’Neil didn’t go traipsing off to Moscow to negotiate his own foreign policy. In those days politics ended…
Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…
A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…
Gwyn and I just returned from a 12-day journey through 1,000 years of history in Germany…