The Grinch Who Stole Gingrich

It’s going to be too funny if Newt Gingrich, who took negative politics to a new level in the 1990s, is undone now by negative politics. That’s karma.   If his swoon continues in Iowa, the only way Iowans can pull off their quadrennial surprise is to give a victory to Ron Paul or Rick…

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Laser-Guided Missiles

We defeated Libya with laser-guided missiles that, NATO said, never ever blew up anyone but the bad guys. It sounded too good to be true – and it was. Now, NATO admits, those laser-guided missiles killed a fair number of civilians – which isn’t a shock. But does leave one loose end.   It may…

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Berger’s Bullying

It didn’t take Republican legislative leaders long to learn the high-handed ways that they used to complain about when Marc Basnight and Tony Rand were running the Senate. Witness Senator Berger’s threat to wreak vengeance on six cities that appealed the legislature’s curbs on involuntary annexations.   There’s just something about being in power, especially…

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Pure Spin

Last month, the state’s economy didn’t grow and create new jobs but unemployment went down. How is that possible?   Well, look at it this way: Imagine you’re a politician running for reelection and you’re praying your policies work and unemployment drops but the Labor Department just insists on putting out pesky figures that make…

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The Last Word

After he read the stories in the News and Observer about the hospital war in Raleigh between Wake Med and UNC Health Care, a retired health care administrator wrote in the newspaper that years ago Mayo Clinic founder William J. Mayo had said, “The best interest of the patient is the only interest to be…

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Have a Merry One

Our annual orgy of spending and consumption is nearly at an end. A day of peace and stillness beckons.   Not that I’m going to get all holier-than-thou. An orgy of spending and consumption is exactly what our economy needs.   But a question nags when you see cars lined up at the malls, shoppers…

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Submarine Maneuvers

Twenty years ago SBI agent and blood-splatter expert Duane Deaver withheld evidence in a murder trial in Raleigh and an innocent man went to prison.   Later, in a murder trial in Johnston County a federal judge ruled that Deaver had given “false and misleading testimony.”   Then a few days ago Judge Orlando Hudson…

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Super Irony

Democrats have fretted over the emergence of Super PACs, fearing that their big money and negative ads will help Republicans. But, so far, Republicans are the leading victims of Super PACs.   Newt Gingrich has been savaged by them. Mitt Romney feigns innocence while his millionaire friends dump a truckload of negatives on Newt. One…

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Looking for a Miracle

Since last spring, like hopeful school girls, conservatives have been falling in and out of love with Michele Bachmann, with Rick Perry, with Herman Cain. Now we’re asking breathlessly, Is Newt the one? – followed by a harsher question, asked with a hint of desperation, Is there anyone else?   It wasn’t hard for Newt…

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A Christmas Gift

On behalf of all Democrats, I thank Speaker Boehner and House Republicans for their unexpected and unbelievably generous Christmas gift.   Of course, their gift for the country as a whole is more like a lump of coal. They want to give 160 million Americans a tax increase, cut off unemployment benefits and nip the…

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