Archive for November 2009
Comeback Cal?
I was never sure Cal Cunningham was totally committed to running for the Senate. Now I’m not sure he’s committed to sit it out. A Machiavellian part of me suspects his withdrawal could be a ploy aimed at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The DSCC has been waiting – it seems like forever…
Read MoreThe Looniest Department: Turning DHHS into an HMO
Since he’s a former health care lobbyist I guess it’s not surprising Secretary Lanier Cansler has decided to run the Department of Health and Human Services as if, well, it was an HMO or an insurance company. Of course, the thing folks hate most about insurance companies is simple: When they go to…
Read MoreMods and Rockers
Life as a moderate Democrat in North Carolina isn’t for the weak of heart. Like England in the ‘60s, it’s the Mods versus the Rockers. But these Rockers come at the Mods from both sides: the Obama disciples on the left and the Rush-Beck wrecking crew on the right. Larry Kissell voted against…
Read MoreThe Looniest Department: Putting Infants in Nursing Homes?
They’re a lot of things going on at DHHS that are just plain odd, even for a state agency. For instance, Governor Perdue put a health care lobbyist in charge of DHHS’ budget – which includes granting billions in health care contracts. Then the lobbyist – Secretary Lanier Cansler – put a gynecologist in…
Read MoreHow to Survive in 2010
My old friend and North Carolina native Harrison Hickman, a Washington pollster, has written “a 2010 survival guide for Democrats” He writes that, “Survival is possible even in the worst of climates, as many Democrats in 1984 and 1994, and many Republicans in 1986 and 2008 have shown.” Here’s his first prescription: …
Read MoreThe Looniest Department in State Government
Over the summer I did TV ads and Internet videos for the Association for Hospice and Home Care and, in the process, got a close up look at the inner-workings of the Department of Health and Human Services – which has to be the looniest department in state government. I guess the best example…
Read MoreGetting it Backwards
Over at the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Lanier Cansler has been lamenting that he’s got to cut $4 billion or $1 billion (the number seems to change from day to day) from his department’s budget. When you think about it it’s an odd thing – but the liberals in the Perdue…
Read MoreThe Virginia Dilemma
Democrat Creigh Deeds’ disastrous campaign for governor of Virginia may give North Carolina Democrats a foretaste of 2010. Politico.com wrote: “Faced with the choice of running as an unapologetic Democrat in a state trending toward his party or keeping his distance from Washington in the fashion of a generation of Southern Democrats, Creigh…
Read MorePost Election News
Since Election Night the pundits on Fox and CNN and MSNBC have been furiously pontificating, the Democrats declaring, Well, it’s not really all that bad, and Republicans arguing back the Democrats got drubbed and voters repudiated Obama. But what really happened was a typical odd-year election. President Obama hasn’t ended the…
Read MoreGet Out of Jail
Governor Perdue didn’t need this flap about dangerous killers being let out of prison. She’s done everything she can think of to protect herself politically – even saying she’ll go to jail before she lets them out. That’s going a bit far, but it tells you how worried her team is. Republicans…
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