Archive for 2007
The Female Mystique
I must admit the primordial male in me is having a little trouble coping with all the gushing over ‘the first female Speaker of the House.’ It seems to me we are having another pop-culture moment – a media feeding frenzy not as intense as like Tom Cruise’s wedding or Angelina Jolie’s baby – but…
Read MoreTrees and Earmarks
Here are two stories from the newspaper about how government works – or doesn’t work. Trees It took three years for Raleigh to approve Mayor Meeker’s tree ordinance. Two more years have passed since then, and, now, the city is getting ready to take another look at the thirty-three section ordinance. So, with the new…
Read MoreWill the Center Hold?
American politics oscillates between centrism and polarization. Two straws in the wind suggest that centrism is coming back: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gerald Ford. A hobbling (physically, anyway) Schwarzenegger said at his inauguration last week that centrist “does not mean watered down or warmed over, it means well-balanced and well-grounded.” In 2005, he said: “Like Paul…
Read MoreQuote of the Day
When Mayor Meeker announced he was running for reelection he told the press he considered running for Senate but decided against it. “In a fast growing city like Raleigh,” he said, “there’s more for a mayor to do than a junior member of Congress.” News and Observer columnist, Dennis Rogers, had the last word. “Of…
Read MoreDeja vu “All Over Again”
Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue just rolled out an ‘old chestnut’ as she launches her campaign for Governor. She says she wants to appoint a new government ‘efficiency commission’. It’s hard to say whether the Lt. Governor is an eternal optimist of a hard-bitten cynic. The last three governors all had ‘efficiency commissions’ of their own,…
Read MoreA “Surge” versus a “Bump”
President Bush’s much heralded ‘surge’ in Iraq has withered down to a ‘bump.’ Instead of sending forty-thousand more soldiers to Baghdad, according to the State Department we’re planning to send fifteen or twenty-thousand. Three or four combat brigades. Why not three or four divisions? If sending more soldiers to Iraq is valid logic, why not…
Read MoreA New Direction: Home
“A new direction” is the Bush Administration’s latest grasp for an Iraq message. But there are only two directions: In deeper Or out. And Bush is headed the wrong way. To comment, send us an email to comment@talkingaboutpolitics.com.
Read MoreFirst Madam Speaker, Then Madam President?
My wife and daughter were happy to see Speaker Pelosi sworn in. I’m sure a lot of women felt the same way. So many, in fact, that we could see Madam President sworn in two years from now. Dick Morris – who may or may not be an expert on women – has written that…
Read MoreCommon Sense and Lacrosse
After Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong took the oath of office for a new term, apparently, the press was complaining about not being allowed to attend the ceremony, asking if it violated the Open Meetings laws. Judge Orlando Hudson, who swore in Nifong, then became the first government official in quite a while to say…
Read MoreBackstage Politics: Meeker on Senators vs. Mayors
While Judge Hudson was making common sense, Mayor Meeker was headed in the opposite direction. The Mayor told the News and Observer (1-3-07) he has “considered” running for the United States Senate against Elizabeth Dole, but decided there is more a mayor in a bustling city like Raleigh can do than a Senator. So he’s…
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