Shutdown Politics

The shutdown showdown shows how much worse politics is today than in the 1990s. And it was bad then.   Back then, Newt Gingrich shut down the government because…well, nobody can remember why. Except he was mad that President Clinton made him sit in the back of Air Force One. And Newt wanted to show…

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A History Lesson

It’s an old American saga: The President has a program he’s in love with but can’t muster the votes in Congress to fund it. So he doesn’t get his program.   That’s the way it’s been for over two centuries.   So why, now, isn’t the story coming out of Washington simply, “The President fails…

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The Answer…

Yesterday I asked why the three camps in Washington – the House Republican Bigwigs in Washington, the House Republican Conservatives in Washington, and President Obama –couldn’t sit down and make a list of the government departments they can agree to keep open and then fund them this week to avoid an absolute government shutdown.  …

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Millennial Politics

Today I suspend Republican-bashing to recommend a provocative political analysis.   Titled “Will Disillusioned Millennials Bring an End to the Reagan-Clinton Era?,” it’s from a professor and Daily Beast contributor named Peter Beinart. It’s long, and it’s worth reading.   Here’s my best shot at a short recap:   For decades now, politics has been…

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Friends Falling Out

The Governor, it appears, looking at his ailing poll numbers, figured the legislature had landed him in the soup, so it was only prudent to put some distance between himself and the Republican skunks in the General Assembly.   Of course, it’s also sometimes difficult to trace the origin of a smell and to legislators it appears…

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Transparency

A TAPster writes: “At least the Republicans were right when they said they would lead a transparent government. It’s pretty easy to see through their BS.”

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A Three-Tribe War

With thick smoke clouds billowing out of the Capitol it’s hard to see who’s winning the latest war in Washington – plus, it isn’t a simple us versus them war: It’s a three tribe melee (with two camps of Republicans fighting Obama and each other at the same time).   At first, a couple of…

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Wos-ectomy?

That’s what one TAPster suggests Governor McCrory needs. The question is whether the legislature will perform the procedure.   When the legislature adjourned, the Governor worried that the honorables were dragging down his approval ratings. So he vetoed a couple of bills. That didn’t work out.   Now, GOP legislators worry that the Governor and…

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Skating Across Ice

A few days ago I wrote how Secretary Aldona Wos, who’d landed in the briar patch, would be wise to step up and start telling her side of the story.   Last Friday she did.   Now, listening to Dr. Wos is interesting. One moment she’s skating effortlessly across a sheet of rhetorical ice using…

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Wos in Charge

Governor McCrory has to hope that Aldona Wos and the high-paid operatives around her pull off a miracle at DHHS. Because he clearly can’t fire her.   Wos is the most powerful person in Raleigh today. Back in January, it looked like Budget Czar Art Pope was. Then, during the legislature, it was Senator Phil…

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