Commence Firing

It’s predictable that some Democrats will implicate Sarah Palin and the Tea Party in the Arizona shootings.   It’s predictable that Republicans will accuse those Democrats of seeking to exploit a tragedy perpetrated by a nut.   The unfortunate truth is that in the history of our politics, as Rap Brown once said, violence is…

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Unintended Consequences

To cut spending Republican leaders in the General Assembly, the News and Observer reported the other day, are considering allowing Governor Perdue’s Cabinet Secretaries to decide what to cut in their departments.   In other words the legislature will decide that, say, the Department of Transportation budget must cut $200 million to balance the budget,…

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Not Everybody Loved Marc

A veteran of the legislature’s hallways and byways took exception to my sympathetic and OBX-centric view of Marc Basnight.   Even the Charlotte Observer gushed, “It’s a testament to his place in N.C. politics that even his political adversaries spoke glowingly of him.”    Here’s the legislative vet’s dissenting view:   “Leaders from other areas of the…

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A Second Rate Power?

Instead of one of those periodic calamities where the economy stumbles then rights itself it looks like this time America’s economic engine may have ruptured and faces a long, slow convalescence. That takes a decade. Or, maybe, doesn’t happen at all.   At a meeting of economists and businessmen and politicians this week UNC-President Erskine…

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Burr for Veep?

Maybe there was more than I realized behind Senator Richard Burr’s vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”   Last week, I gave him credit for doing the right thing. But an astute Burr-watcher – not a partisan either way – noted that Burr took a different tack on what was arguably the key vote:…

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Perdue Upside Down

Bev Perdue’s poll numbers have been upside down – meaning her ‘unpopularity’ is greater than her ‘popularity’ – almost since the day she took office.   Twenty-seven years ago Jesse Helms faced similar ‘upside down’ poll numbers; his pollster Arthur Finkelstein gently explained the root of the problem was what he called a ‘character issue.’…

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Marc of OBX

Let others talk about what Marc Basnight did for the university system, clean water, open records, the Democratic Party, etc., etc.   Those of us who love and live on the Outer Banks have selfish reasons to thank him.   When Governor Hunt put Marc on the Board of Transportation in 1977, getting to Nags…

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The Wait Is Almost Over

We’ve waited nearly 30 years, but it’s finally here.   Thirty years ago this month, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. He said government was the problem, not the solution. He promised that – finally – someone would really, really cut government spending.   We’ve waited. And waited. And waited.   Reagan didn’t cut anything big. Nor…

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Homeless Blue Dogs?

The N&O front-pager about “North Carolina’s three conservative Democrats” – Congressmen Heath Shuler, Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre – asks whether there’s a place for Blue Dogs in today’s Democratic Party.   For perspective, I turn as always to my work on Jim Hunt’s biography. (I can’t help it; I spent four years on it.…

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