|
|
|
Entries for 'Gary Pearce'
Gary Pearce posted on May 17, 2012 10:28
The breakfast talk turned to John Edwards’ trial – and to a recent PBS special on President Clinton. Someone asked: “Is George Holding going to go down in history as the Kenneth Starr of North Carolina politics?”
Starr will forever be remembered as the obsessed special prosecutor who produced a detailed, explicit examination of Clinton’s tawdry, seamy sex affair with Monica Lewinsky. In the end, the panting, near-pornographic report hurt Starr’s reputation more than Clinton’s.
So the question arises: What happens to Holding’s reputation if John Edwards gets off (pardon the expression) or gets a light penalty?
It was Holding who started the government’s Javert-like pursuit of Edwards. At the trial, it appears, the government spent several weeks and called a lot of witnesses to prove something that everybody knew: Edwards behaved badly.
Less clear is whether he broke the law, which is what our tax dollars are supposedly being spent to determine.
Even a conservative Republican like Paul Coble, who lost the 13th Congressional District nomination to Holding, questioned whether the whole thing was a waste of tax money.
Republican primary voters, presumably, think this was no place where Holding should have honored his vow to cut federal spending.
Holding will doubtless be in Congress next year. Less certain is what reputation he will take with him.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 16, 2012 14:02
Walter Dalton got good news this week: Public Policy Polling showed he had narrowed the gap with Pat McCrory. That’s the natural result of his primary-winning TV ads and the spotlight that comes with victory.
Then Dalton got bad news: A big Republican Governors Association TV buy attacking him.
But Dalton’s gun is out of bullets. He spent his money winning the primary. He can push back online and in the news, but he can’t even bring a knife to the TV gun fight.
This is normally when the Democratic Governors Association rides to the rescue. But there’s a hitch: Generalissimo David Parker and the Democratic Executive Committee. Will the DGA trust Parker with its money – or save it for another gunfight in another state?
Which raises a question: Why would the party chairman and executive committee sabotage the party’s gubernatorial nominee at a critical time?
For your answer, look no farther than Greensboro and the John Edwards trial: Never underestimate a politician’s greed for power and money.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 15, 2012 17:35
If President Obama doesn’t carry North Carolina in November, he can look back to two days on a weekend in May.
On Saturday came the David Parker disaster. Remember: the worst wounds in politics are self-inflicted.
Sunday, at the 3,000-member Upper Room Church of God in Christ, a black Pentecostal church in Raleigh, the Rev. Patrick Wooden (last seen on Page A1 of the N&O celebrating the passing of the gay-marriage amendment) told the Mother’s Day congregation that President Obama went “against God” when he endorsed same-sex marriage.
Obama carried North Carolina in 2008 by about 14,000 votes. That’s going to be hard this year in the face of Parker and Wooden.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 15, 2012 07:16
All kidding aside, here’s why Democrats fear the David Parker fiasco could sink the party this year:
Parker promised the party’s gubernatorial nominee he would step down. Then he didn’t.
So people in Washington who decide how much national campaign money flows through the Democratic Party to North Carolina ask a simple question: Can we trust David Parker?
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 14, 2012 16:08
A frustrated TAPster vents at both parties:
“The ‘check engine’ light is flashing on the dashboard of North Carolina politics, and a quick look under the hood shows the problem is more than a bad tank of gas.
“We are emerging (hopefully) from a generation of incompetent political leaders. Governor Perdue’s mindless comparison to Mississippi, Speaker Tillis’s inept management of his sex-craved staff, the NC Democratic Party’s self-immolation over the weekend and the succession of convicted and accused criminals have created a political world where there simply is no leadership. It’s all about political convenience and ease, not what’s good for the state. There’s some hope with Pat McCrory, Walter Dalton and others, but it will require political bravery and fundamental competence that is missing from today’s battlefield.
“That bravery is needed because we have three major political parties: crazy right, crazy left and the well-populated but largely ignored moderate middle. And, the loud message from voters who ousted Indiana’s Richard Lugar and Granville County’s Jim Crawford is that any conversation with the other party, any attempt to collaborate or any movement towards moderation means political death for the miscreant.
“Nothing happens when weak leaders are pulled to the fringes by an intolerant and hostile voting public, and plenty needs to happen.”
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 14, 2012 11:31
After I posted my blog on the Democratic Executive Committee’s meeting being a plot hatched by Art (“I Am Not An Heir”) Pope, a TAPster emailed me: “You're being facetious, right?” Surprised, I replied: “Of course.”
She wrote back: “I figured, but you'd be amazed how many of my rabidly Dem friends are posting it as literal proof of their longstanding suspicions about Pope. Oy.”
Oy, indeed.
Art got the joke, though. He emailed me: “They ain't seen anything yet. Wait until my next plot comes to fruition. It is already too late to stop it!”
Well, I think he was joking.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 13, 2012 10:54
There is only one logical explanation for what happened at the Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting: It was a vast right-wing conspiracy masterminded by the Dr. Evil of North Carolina politics, Art (“I Am Not An Heir”) Pope.
Here’s how the nefarious scheme worked:
Years ago, Pope saw that David Parker had run so many times he was bound to be elected party chair one day. Pope realized that Parker’s overweening ego and arrogance would make him a useful idiot.
Then Pope saw the usefulness of the Howard Dean-inspired netroots activists who flooded the party. He especially liked their contempt for any Democratic politician craven enough to get elected statewide – and for what Parker pilloried as “centrist consultants,” i.e., political professionals who try to get candidates elected in a state conservative enough to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages and civil unions by a 61-39 margin.
Once Pope had moved the pieces into place on the chessboard, he needed a triggering event. So he arranged the sexual harassment scandal involving Jay Parmley. Parmley saw the right-wingers’ hands behind it all, but everybody scoffed.
Then all Pope had to do was spring the trap. And his timing was perfect: four days after the primary and gay-marriage referendum and four months before the national Democratic convention.
His plot was almost foiled when 206 executive committee members refused to go along. But Pope’s dupes carried the day.
Now, as Democrats survey the ashes of their party, they can only say with dismay and grudging admiration: “Well played, Mr. Pope, well played.”
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 12, 2012 10:46
Contrary to how things looked after North Carolina passed the marriage amendment, Gay Politics Week may end up hurting Mitt Romney far more than President Obama.
It’s telling that Republicans didn’t pile onto Obama after Joe (Gabby) Biden forced him to come out of the closet.
Then the story exploded about Romney organizing a prep-school posse to terrorize a gay student.
What Romney did 50 years ago could hurt him far more than what Obama said last week.
Here’s why: Nobody was surprised by Obama’s announcement that he supports same-sex marriages. Most people figured he did, but wasn’t ready to say it. And most every voter had already factored that into their opinion of Obama.
But the Romney story hurts him two ways.
First, it contradicts one thing we thought we knew about Romney. We thought he was a decent, religious person. Instead, he was a teenaged bully. One who had to get a group of guys to help him pick on a helpless victim.
Second, it reinforces another thing we think we know about Romney: He’s a rich guy who doesn’t care who he hurts, so long as he gets what he wants. He didn’t like his classmate’s hair, so he cut it. He wanted to make millions of dollars, so he cut people’s jobs and ran companies into bankruptcy.
Voters don’t always pay a lot of attention to policy nuances. They pay a lot of attention to unguarded glimpses into candidates’ real character.
This week, we learned something new about the man who wants to be President. And it’s not pretty.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 11, 2012 08:21
A TAPster reminds me that Tuesday’s primaries reinforce the three rules of politics:
Rule 1: Money talks.
Rule 2: Never forget Rule 1.
Rule 3: There are no other rules in politics.
When Bob Etheridge conceded Tuesday night, he said he didn’t like raising money, but he sure enjoyed visiting 45 counties in the last few weeks of the campaign.
No, fundraising is no fun. But neither is making a concession speech.
Walter Dalton won because he raised the money. Linda Coleman won because SEANC and the SEIU plowed big money into her campaign. George Holding won because his family put hundreds of thousands of dollars into a super-PAC.
Do you see a pattern here?
Young people always ask how to get involved in politics. They want to write speeches, make policy and decide strategy. Here’s some advice: Learn to raise money. You’ll be the most valuable commodity in politics. And you’ll meet rich people who can help you in your next career.
[Click to read and post comments...]
Gary Pearce posted on May 10, 2012 10:17
I question Mary-Ann Baldwin’s sanity. But I hope she gets elected state Democratic Party chair. The party desperately needs someone who can raise hell, raise money and referee all the players this fall.
One of the worst political rumors I heard this week – and that covers a lot of ground – is that David Parker might try to get reelected chair Saturday. Presumably, he would finish the job he started of destroying the party’s chances this year.
Then Don Vaughan got into the race. But his membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council probably sinks his boat. Quitting ALEC now was too little, too late.
Baldwin would be a good face and voice for the party.
[Click to read and post comments...]
|
|
|