Archive for February 2007
Death and Taxes and Democrats
For decades Democrats have lived by two rules of political survival: Support the death penalty. Don’t raise taxes. So now Lieutenant Governor – and would-be Governor – Beverly Perdue calls for a death penalty moratorium. Though she hastens to say she still supports capital punishment. And John Edwards says he’ll raise taxes to pay for…
Read MoreBackstage Politics: The Way Things Change after the Election
Senator Claire McCaskill, the newly elected (with a boost from Michael J. Fox) Missouri Democrat, won “election last year with a populist campaign bashing special interest and corporate lobbyists.” (News and Observer; 1-29-07). That was before the election. After the election Senator McCaskill invited dozens of those same lobbyists “to a fundraiser: $1,000 per political…
Read MoreShameless Self-promotion
The News & Observer published a story last week about how blogs are changing local politics. It’s by Jesse James DeConto (you gotta love his name), and we point it out because it quotes me and mentions our blog. Click here to read it: http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/538855.html Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other…
Read MoreMysterious Mike
Why does Mike Easley do it? Why – with all his communications skills – does he work so hard at not communicating? As Governor, he commands a big microphone. But Mike won’t use the mike. Two recent examples: He spoke out publicly against the Duke lacrosse DA. But it turns out he spoke out last…
Read MoreDon’t Miss Friday’s Iraq News
It’s an old PR trick: Put out bad news on Friday. Hope it gets lost over the weekend. That’s what the Bush Administration did last Friday with the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. I can’t fault them. I used the same trick when I worked for Governor Hunt. But we don’t have to fall…
Read MoreJust a little Chat among Friends
We Democrats are chatty folks. Our presidential candidates launch their campaigns with web-side chats. Hillary sits on the couch for a chat. Then she flies around the country for more intimate chats recorded by forests of cameras. She invites us to join in: “Let the conversation began.” Actually, she and Bill have been having this…
Read MoreWhat If…
When President Bush met with House Republicans in a closed door session to defend his new troop deployment, he said, “I’m the decision-maker.” (News and Observer; 1-27-07). Only, when it was leaked to the press it sounded a bit like Al Haig charging into the White House press room after President Reagan was wounded and…
Read MoreOver Answering, Indeed!
It may be a coincidence and not the vaunted Clinton PR machine at work, but since Hillary announced there have been two attacks on John Edwards (see Gary’s post below: The Orange County White House.) and one on Barack Obama in the media. The attack on Edwards went like this: How can he build a…
Read MoreThe Words of Jim Webb
The most eloquent – and effective – Democratic spokesman today may be a former Marine and Reagan Cabinet member: Jim Webb. If you missed the Virginia Senator’s response to Bush’s State of the Union speech, you can see it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVXMU43Qhow Webb eviscerated Bush on Iraq and the economy. He hit the perfect tone…
Read MoreThe Curious Affair of the House Historian
It seemed peculiar: After former Speaker Jim Black had the State House pay one of his political appointees $80,000 to write a ‘history’ of the State House, he refused to make it public. Compared to the other House scandals – Lottery Commissioner Kevin Geddings’ trial, allegations of bribes, illegal lobbying – the ‘curious affair of…
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