Holding teachers and state employees hostage
Yesterday, Republicans wrote a Democratic political ad. They’re holding teachers and state employees raises hostage unless Democrats drop their bid to expand Medicaid and give health care to the working poor. That’s just cold. I don’t know who in the GOP thought that...
Gerrymandering makes hypocrites on both sides
On Monday, the three-judge panel hearing North Carolina’s redistricting cases handed down two consequential decisions in the span of a few minutes. The first upheld the new legislative maps drawn by the general assembly. The second required the legislature to draw new...
RIP Kay Hagan
Former Senator Kay Hagan died yesterday. Since 2016, she suffered from the results of a debilitating tick-borne illness that left her with limited speech and mobility. A long term resident of Greensboro, she was 66 years old. Hagan was born in Shelby but grew up in...
The budget debate lays bare the parties’ values
The North Carolina Senate announced that it might try to override Roy Cooper’s budget veto this afternoon. They’ll take a vote if they think they’ve got the support. Democrats, for their part, have taken to social media calling for their caucus to stay strong, using...
Will our Senators be heroes or zeroes?
In the coming months, we’ll see some true Republican heroes, people who stand with the constitution and the rule of law. We saw it during the Watergate hearings, most notably Republican Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, who famously asked, “What did the President...
On redistricting, Republicans should hedge their bets
Yesterday, the federal courts said that state courts should decide the gerrymandering suit brought against North Carolina’s Congressional districts. Given the outcome of a similar suit involving legislative districts, expect new Congressional districts in 2020. Also...
A case for Warren
This morning, the New York Times has a piece on establishment Democrats fretting about the primary and Biden’s weaknesses, in particular. They’re all looking for a centrist savior to sweep in and save the party. It’s not going to happen. The establishment needs to...
A North Carolina Senator’s conundrum
A National Journal article this weekend listed Senator Thom Tillis as the incumbent US Senator with the lowest approval rating. The piece says that Democrats’ path to taking back the Senate is becoming increasingly clear and that North Carolina will be front and...
The wheels off the bus
You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. -- Abraham Lincoln Yesterday feels like the day that the wheels came off the GOP Trump bus. The morning started earnest enough with the...
Dear Republicans, what the hell?
Dear Republicans, What the hell? Are you really going to stick with a clearly incompetent and corrupt conman at the expense of the rule of law and our standing in the world? Did you read that letter he sent to Erdogan? Are you listening to what his own advisors are...
