Archive for 2013
The 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 MoreUNC PR
Why does a university with so many journalism and PR grads get such bad PR in media outlets where lots of UNC grads work? After Dan Kane’s report in The News & Observer Sunday – not to mention this weekend’s games – those grads might ask: Why did they hire a Duke guy for…
Read MoreA Good Read
If you want to know how local and state politics, TV news and Raleigh’s whole media/political world got to be the way it is, here’s the book for you. It’s “I Never Promised Not to Tell,” a tell-almost-all by Grady Jefferys, a veteran writer-ad man-journalist-consultant who was there, as he says, “When Television and…
Read MoreWhite House Tours
President Obama just announced the Sequester spending cuts are so terrible he has no choice but to cancel White House tours;—that upset House Speaker John Boehner who immediately cried foul, saying Obama was grandstanding and he (Boehner) had kept the Capitol tours running and Obama could have done the same thing – which is no…
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