Maureen Dowd Dancing in the Streets

Maureen Dowd the doyen of liberal columnists, the epitome of kindhearted tolerance, emoting sensitivity from her fingertips, let out a screech like a loon the other day – howling about anyone who dared to criticize the demonstrators dancing in the streets celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death, roaring like an enraged Cassandra, “I don’t want closure.…

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Loophole Closing

I said: Who ever heard of Republicans saying increasing fees $150 million isn’t a tax?                                       And the former legislator sitting across the table said: You missed the real tax increase.   I blinked: Come again?   It turns out for years private colleges – like Campbell and Queens and Peace and Meredith – haven’t…

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The Sins of Ruffin Poole

The fall of Ruffin Poole is an old story in politics, one familiar to readers of All the King’s Men.   An idealistic young man (and it’s always a man) goes into politics, hooks up with a winning politician and ends up next to the seat of power.   It’s a heady wine. Suddenly people want…

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The WakeMed Wars

The lobbying war between WakeMed’s Plebes and UNC Hospital’s Aristocrats in the legislature just took a wild turn at the Aristocrats’ expense.   So far the Plebes have been set on cutting UNC’s $44 million state tax subsidy but then, last week, Plebe chieftain Bill Atkinson surprised everyone by announcing he wanted to buy Raleigh’s…

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Inmate Labor Pains

What would Jim Gardner say?   The silver-haired, golden-tongued GOP gubernatorial candidate had a great issue in 1992, when he was running against Jim Hunt: “Make prisoners work – and work hard,” he said in his TV spots.   He was outraged that hardened criminals were idling away their time “watching TV and working out.”…

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The Oldest Profession

Over in the State House Republicans hurrahed when five Democrats voted for Speaker Thom Tillis’ budget – at last it looked like Tillis had the votes to override one of Governor Perdue’s vetoes.   But flowers bloom then quickly fade.   Before the sun set the five Democrats made it perfectly clear to the press…

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The WakeMed Wars

Back in the salad days of the Roman Republic every now and then an absolutely vicious war would break out between the Roman Aristocrats and the Plebes and it looks like we’ve got a similar tussle on our hands here in Wake County.   Between two hospitals.   Heart surgeries are among the most profitable…

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Dangerous Business

We now have clear evidence that political blogging is hazardous to the health of the body politic.   Under the Dome led this morning with my blog speculating that the legislature would be in session until December.   It was a joke. I was being facetious. (Well, partly facetious. I was serious about legislators being…

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The Terror of Winning…

Bev Perdue and Phil Berger are beginning to sound a bit like a couple whose marriage is on the rocks – she says she’s “disgusted” with him and he’s hunkered down like a harassed husband grumbling she’s done nothing but say, “Do it my way – that’s the only way that I’ll accept.”   What…

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A Reese Hart Story

Back in the 1970s, the AP had a legislative reporter in Raleigh named Reese Hart. In those days, AP, UPI and all the major newspapers generated a flood of stories about daily legislative developments. The N&O, where I worked, had a couple of pages every day devoted to the minutiae of bill introductions, committee meetings…

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