Archive for March 2013
Fighting Fracking
Opponents of fracking in North Carolina may have two powerful allies: the free market and politics. John Murawski wrote in The News & Observer that “booming shale gas production in the Northeast” could give energy developers one less reason “to take financial risks to explore North Carolina’s virgin gas deposits in Lee, Moore and…
Read MoreThe Leaked Plan – Part II
The poll young Sean Kosofsky and Jessica Laurenz took told them three stories: That President Obama’s mantra – ‘Democrats are for middle class families while Republicans are for the rich’ – had permeated the political atmosphere across North Carolina. That President Obama’s plan to expand Medicaid – the plan Republicans in the state legislature just…
Read MoreThe Singer or the Song
Senator Phil Berger says national Republicans have a messenger problem, not a message problem. Democrats might well hope he believes that. After attending CPAC – the right-wing Woodstock – Berger told Travis Fain at the Greensboro News & Record: “It’s not just a communication problem. Sometimes it’s the individual messengers … (and) some folks…
Read MoreThe Leaked Plan – Part I
In his novel Intruder in the Dust, William Faulkner wrote if you have something outside the ordinary to do and it’s got to be done quickly, don’t waste time on the men – go get the women and children. Thirty-seven years ago, here in North Carolina, we built Ronald Reagan’s first Presidential campaign around women…
Read MoreUndo and Recycle
A TAPster and veteran of the Raleigh scene says “undoing” and “recycling” are the GOP trademarks thus far. Last week, he noted: “The GOP focused on un-doing the deal on the Dix property, un-doing the state’s renewable energy policy and un-doing other done deals like the death penalty moratorium. “In their zeal to…
Read MoreGot Tickets?
A long-time Raleigh lobbyist recalls the days when legislators helped themselves to ACC tournament tickets – courtesy of lobbyists and special interests. Every year about this time, the demand was so strong that lobbyists felt like Ticketmaster or StubHub. One mountain legislator – a Democrat, I should add – was especially insistent. He…
Read MoreBest in Blogs
Carter and I finally got elected to something ourselves – sort of. Talking About Politics was named one of the best North Carolina political blogs by The Fix at the Washington Post. Best of all, we were nominated by readers. We thank you. Also named from here: @NCCapitol; Progressive Pulse; Watauga Watch; The…
Read MoreSaturday Mail
Washington may be about to give us an answer on one of the longest running philosophical debates since Eve bit the apple: Are humans rational creatures? For months, just about every politician in Washington – Republican Congressmen, Democratic Senators, President Obama, Speaker John Boehner – has been talking about how much they want to…
Read MoreFast and Mean
Two months in, two things are striking about the Republican regime in Raleigh: how fast they move and how mean they seem. This is a recipe for a Democratic revival, if – and it’s a big if – Democrats get their act together. Too many politicos – Democrats and Republicans – assume that…
Read MoreWatch What They Do, Not What They Say
Congressman Walter Jones is an old-fashioned soft-spoken Southerner – so when I saw he’d put a statement on Twitter, I thought, What the heck? I clicked and landed on a statement (Walter had made) that explained just about everything anyone needs to know about the Sequester in one-page. Last month up in Washington President…
Read More