Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Republicans Can't Resist Extremism
Though we've ground our teeth down to nubs over President Obama's lack of real leadership and Rahm Emanuel's backroom deal-making and Congressional Democrats' wussiness, we have not bought into the cable news chatter that 2010 will put Republicans back in charge of everything legislative, including the state of North Carolina. Finally, we find another NC analyst who seems to agree with us, Gary Pearce:So what could keep 2010 from being a Republican year? The answer: Republicans....
Republicans' stridency, negativity and hypocrisy today stun me. But they don't bother me. I hope they keep it up. It's the Democrats' best hope.
We doubt seriously that Mr. Pearce had Virginia Foxx specifically in mind when he wrote those sentences, but she certainly comes to mind when we read them.
Labels: Gary Pearce, Republican "brand", Virginia Foxx
Saturday, January 03, 2009
We're relying (at the moment, at least) on former Dems operative Gary Pearce for a run-down on our new governor's first cabinet picks. Pearce's summation appears in his opening sentence: "all kinds of interesting twists."
Labels: Beverly Perdue, Gary Pearce
Thursday, October 30, 2008
It Wasn't an Idle Threat
Kay Hagan is suing Elizabeth Dole for the she's-an-atheist TV ad, as she promised to do yesterday if the ad wasn't taken off the air. Dole responded, "Up yours," so Hagan says she's going to the law. She has 20 days to file the libel complaint, so we'll have to wait. It's the principle of the thing, no matter how the election is decided. Looks like defamation to us (though our law degree is a bit dusty), and Dole ought to pay the piper for that particular tune she chose to play.
In the meantime, Gary Pearce recaps political libel suits from the recent past in NC. In 1988, Jim Gardner beat Tony Rand for lieutenant governor. Rand later sued Gardner over an ad that associated Rand with drug dealers, and Rand apparently won a big settlement from Gardner. Pearce says "apparently" since the case was sealed as part of the settlement.
After the election of 2000, Attorney General Roy Cooper was accused of libeling an opponent. A suit resulted, but once again any settlement is shielded from public view
Following the election of 2002, Carolyn Grant filed a similar suit against Congressman Brad Miller following Miller's first win of his seat in the 13th Congressional Dist. Miller made accusations that Grant took $40,000 from her son's college fund to buy a car. According to the Fox News candidate profile of Miller, Grant was given the right to pursue the lawsuit, but she dropped it in 2006, not, according to Pearce, before Miller was forced to spend a lot of money defending himself.
In the meantime, Gary Pearce recaps political libel suits from the recent past in NC. In 1988, Jim Gardner beat Tony Rand for lieutenant governor. Rand later sued Gardner over an ad that associated Rand with drug dealers, and Rand apparently won a big settlement from Gardner. Pearce says "apparently" since the case was sealed as part of the settlement.
After the election of 2000, Attorney General Roy Cooper was accused of libeling an opponent. A suit resulted, but once again any settlement is shielded from public view
Following the election of 2002, Carolyn Grant filed a similar suit against Congressman Brad Miller following Miller's first win of his seat in the 13th Congressional Dist. Miller made accusations that Grant took $40,000 from her son's college fund to buy a car. According to the Fox News candidate profile of Miller, Grant was given the right to pursue the lawsuit, but she dropped it in 2006, not, according to Pearce, before Miller was forced to spend a lot of money defending himself.
Labels: Elizabeth Dole, Gary Pearce, Kay Hagan
Monday, October 06, 2008
Obama in Asheville Yesterday
The Asheville Citizen-Times says there were 28,000 people there. Many were from Watauga County, including Bricca Sweet, who spoke to the crowd as one of North Carolina's original Obama "organizing fellows." (Bricca's personal essay about why she switched her party affiliation from the Republican to Democratic party was published in last Friday's Watauga Democrat.)The Citizen-Times article speculates on the Obama effect on western N.C., which has been dependably Republican (except for Watauga and Buncombe and sometimes Jackson counties). The writer notes that the past habit of North Carolina statewide Democratic candidates to be on the opposite side of the state when a Democratic presidential candidate drops by seems to have flipped this year ("Democrats whose names will be below Obama's on the ballot want to be seen at his rallies").
"I think the perception is that [Obama] is really helping, amazing as it is," said Gary Pearce, Democratic analyst and formerly political guru to Gov. Jim Hunt.
Labels: Barack Obama, Bricca Sweet, Gary Pearce
