Archive for 2010
The Most Mysterious Politics of All
Over the years I’ve watched Southern Politics and Irish Politics (in New York) and once even had a dose of Chicago politics but none of them were as byzantine as Italian Politics in Raleigh – for a week I’ve been trying to figure out if the Italians are surrendering or if they’re about to sneak…
Read MoreFictional Missiles in Cyberspace
I expect Andrew Breitbart was telling the unvarnished truth when he told CNN he did not mean to smear Shirley Sherrod on his blog – that he meant to blast the NAACP because it had blasted the Tea Party and Mrs. Sherrod’s wounding was the political equivalent of what’s euphemistically called ‘collateral damage’ over in…
Read MoreBasil Marceaux.com
Sometimes a candidate comes along who is so compelling that, even though he’s running for office in another state, I am compelled to bring him to your attention. Please meet Basil Marceaux.com. of Tennessee. He could be the next Alvin Green.
Read MoreConventional Politics
The State Democratic Party convention is in Fayetteville this weekend. If you go, you can see how much politics has changed in a lifetime. State party conventions used to be a big deal. Huge crowds, lots of enthusiasm and a good chance to take a party’s temperature for the upcoming elections. The latter…
Read MoreCapital Buzz
So let’s talk about what Raleigh’s buzzing about this week: Is there some kind of statutory deadline in the Mike Easley case this month – that is, tomorrow? Is something coming from the U.S. Attorney? Is this investigation ever going to end? Is George Holding holding on until President Obama’s second…
Read MoreCC’d
“Controlled choice” is all the buzz now in the Wake schools debate. This has the whiff of one of those oxymoronic (with the emphasis on “moron”) political/policy phrases that sounds great but never quite works out in practice. Remember George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism”?
Read MoreInside the Press Corps
My blog about the capital press corps – and how its coverage of the Alcoa story might have been influenced by UNC-TV’s Eszter Vajda – brought this response from Scott Mooneyham of The Insider/Capitol Press Association. I think it’s worth reprinting in full. Background: I had quoted a blog by Laura Leslie about how…
Read MoreBe Careful What You Wish For
A Republican lobbyist friend has some advice for GOP legislators if they win the House and Senate this year: demand a recount. “They’ll inherit the worst budget mess in history,” she says. Two years spent wrestling with that mess – and making the cuts that would be required to read their lips: no…
Read MoreThe Forgotten Man
Let’s pass on talking about politics today and talk about something I know nothing about: Economics. My friend Richard, who’s a banker, just sent me a book called The Forgotten Man about the Depression. Now, normally, I’d run from a book about economics but Ms. Amity Shlaes has written a fascinating story about New…
Read MoreWhat Do Voters Think?
Have I missed it? Or has somebody done – and released – a poll of Wake County voters on the school debate? Most people I run into take it as a matter of faith that the board’s new direction reflects a minority opinion in the county. True, it was the election for just…
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