Dubai is one of the seven princedoms of United Arab Emirates (UAE). It bars Israeli citizens from setting food in its country. It “bans all products made in Israel and even ones with parts made in Israel.” Half the 9/11 hijackers flew to the United States from Dubai. And $234,500 of the $300,000 wired to the hijackers came from Dubai banks. (New York Post; 3-23-07).

Why does this matter to Hillary?

Dubai’s best friend in the United States may be her husband. Since Bill Clinton left office he has been paid over a million dollars for making speeches in Dubai. He has also been paid $10 million as an advisor and board member of a company involved in a mega-million dollar joint venture with the Dubai government. Dubai has contributed millions to Clinton’s Presidential Library – and Clinton’s foundation in turn has sponsored a Dubai Scholars program at the American University in Dubai. (As former Clinton advisor Dick Morris wrote in the New York Post, “The Clinton Foundation wouldn’t sponsor a program in America that banned Israeli students. It shouldn’t sponsor one in Dubai, either.”)

In addition, Hillary’s campaign has its own ties to Dubai’s government. Her campaign spokesman, Howard Wolfson, was a principle in the Glover Park Group when it lobbied for the Dubai’s bid to manage American ports a year ago.

The Clinton PR machine is one of the most lethal entities on earth. Can you imagine what it would say if Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, or even Barack Obama’s spouse had received millions from an anti-Semitic government that served as a conduit for wiring cash to terrorists?

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An interesting fight is shaping up over real estate transfer taxes.  It has implications for a lot of municipal elections this year, including Raleigh’s.

Opponents – Realtors and homebuilders – label the idea the “home tax.”  Their website – http://www.itsabadidea.org/ – says: “Bills now being considered in the State Legislature would force the home sellers to pay a 1% sales tax. Taxing the equity in our homes - it's a bad idea.”

One well-targeted touch in their campaign:  They’ve put up small signs in Raleigh – two of them in key locations:

• Along Peace Street on the way to the Legislative Building from Finch’s, a popular legislative breakfast stop.

• Near the K&W Cafeteria in Cameron Village, where more legislators are eating since lobbyist-paid meals were restricted.

Supporters will counter, probably like they did in the Raleigh elections two years ago.  Their message will be that developers are making a lot of money, so they ought to help pay for roads, schools, parks and other improvements – through transfer taxes and impact fees.

The campaign that frames this issue first and best will win.  The legislative fight may tell us which side is smarter and better-funded.

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For an interesting story on a newspaper being covered by a newspaper, go to the Independent Weekly’s story about ongoing changes at The News & Observer. 

Here’s the link: http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A48019

The N&O editors sound just like government or corporate officials sound when they’re caught in an uncomfortable situation they have a hard time explaining.

If you’ve ever been in that position – and not liked the way the story came out – you’ll enjoy reading the same thing happening to the N&O.

My free and unsolicited advice to the N&O:

• Just admit you don’t know exactly how you’re going to muddle through the brave new worlds of chain ownership and New Media.

• But say that your goal is the same as always: give our readers the news the best and quickest and most accurate way possible. 

• Don’t keep saying you have a plan, when you can’t say what the plan is.

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Obsessions can be two-edged swords, like Ahab’s pursuit of the white whale. Mayor Meeker’s obsession is unusual. He’s fixated on downtown. His current goal is to transform Hillsborough Street into an enclave of wide-sidewalks, English-style round-abouts and strolling pedestrians. But he has one problem. The ‘head shops’ and tattoo parlors along Hillsborough Street are not quite up to his standards.

But he also has a solution. He just persuaded the City Council vote to give businesses grants of up to $10,000 to redo their facades. It’s part of the Mayor’s “Façade Rehabilitation Program.”

Now, even if you agree with Charles Meeker about lining the pockets of businesses with taxpayers’ money, you have to admit how he picks those businesses is peculiar. It’s not based on need. Or providing new jobs. It’s based on one thing: Geography. One patch of Raleigh is the ‘Promised Land.’ If you live or work there you get a subsidy. If you don’t, you don’t.

With one hand the Mayor piles regulations and taxes on businesses across Raleigh – with the other he exempts businesses downtown. A shop on Hillsborough Street a ten-thousand dollar subsidy; a shop on Capital Boulevard gets nothing. It’s a double-standard. In practice, Mayor Meeker has one set of rules for his friends (downtown) and another for everyone else.

The two Republicans on Council can do little or nothing to change that policy, but the Mayors allies – the five Democrats – can. They can say to Charles Meeker, We need one Raleigh. Not two.

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Conventional Wisdom says the 2008 Presidential nominations will be decided by money.  Especially with a de facto nationwide primary looming in early February.

CW (that’s “conventional wisdom,” not Carter Wrenn) says a campaign will have to raise $100 million this year to be viable next year.

CW says this Saturday, March 31, is a critical campaign threshold.  A campaign has to report a big number raised this quarter to be taken seriously.

I say CW has an uncanny way of being wrong – especially about presidential contests.  And it may be wrong here.

Consider an alternative scenario.  Consider the information-flooded world we live in.  Cable and bloggers running 24/7.  Campaigns scrambling to master every new nuance of message and communications. 

For the information-hungry, it’s a feast.  Even for the information-resistant, it’s impossible to avoid.

Look at how John McCain’s campaign has faltered and Rudy Giuliani’s has flourished in the media circus.

Look at how pervasive coverage has been of Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer and John Edwards’ continuing candidacy.

In most campaigns, paid media is all-powerful.  That’s because relatively few people are exposed to news coverage in Governors’ and Senate races. 

But that’s not the case in presidential races.  Information is so overwhelming – and people’s interest so much higher – that paid media may not be as powerful.

CW says the prospect of a Super-Duper National Tuesday schedule of 20-plus state primaries February 5 will make money the overwhelming factor.

Maybe not.  A nationwide media tsunami could overwhelm big money.  If a candidate catches that tide, there may not be enough money to stop him or her.

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David Stockman lied to the American people about the federal budget a quarter-century ago.  This week, he got indicted for doing essentially the same thing to investors.

As Ronald Reagan’s budget director, Stockman promised that we could cut taxes and balance the budget.  It didn’t turn out that way.

Stockman later admitted to a reporter: “None of us know what’s going on with these numbers.”

Now he has been indicted for misleading investors about the deteriorating financial condition of auto-parts maker Collins & Aikman, where he was CEO.

He must have figured that if he got away with it in Washington he could get away with it in business.

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Cancer is cruel.  Politics is cruel.  John and Elizabeth Edwards now must live at the intersection of both.

Much of the reaction to her cancer falls along predictable political lines.  Supporters see admirable courage and determination.  Opponents see breathtaking ambition and denial.

The most misguided criticism is that John Edwards is pressing ahead because of personal ambition.  No, the ambition, drive and determination come from Elizabeth Edwards too.

What do the critics suggest, anyway?  That the Edwardses curl up in a ball and quit?  Some couples might.  Not this one.

Do the same critics suggest that Kay Yow should have quit coaching at N.C. State this season?  That Butch Davis should step down at UNC?

They say the cancer is incurable.  It is also capricious.  Who knows what toll it will exact on the Edwards campaign?

You don’t have to be a cynic to expect that his opponents – or at least their operatives and supporters – will suggest to undecided Democrats that Edwards’ campaign is not a reliable long-term investment.

Such is the cruelty of politics.

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President Bush says there was “nothing improper” about the U.S. Attorney firings.  Strictly speaking, he’s right.  U.S. Attorneys come and go with every administration.

Karl Rove says of the whole flap:  “It’s all a lot of politics.”  He’s right: A lot of politics by the Bush Administration.

Bush likes to pose as the principled leader unaffected by polls and political considerations.  The same way he posed as a military pilot and proclaimed “mission accomplished” in Iraq.  In truth, the Bush White House is all politics, all the time.

The administration, starting with the Vice President, was so paranoid about political enemies they blew the cover of an American intelligence agent.  Suppose Clinton had done that.  The Republicans would have impeached him again.

The U.S. Attorneys weren’t being screened for effectiveness, but for “loyalty to the President.”  And apparently for their responsiveness to Republicans who wanted Democrats investigated and prosecuted.

It doesn’t excuse what former Speaker Jim Black did, but it makes you wonder what marching orders the U.S. Attorneys in North Carolina got from their political higher-ups in Washington.

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Rudy Giuliani continues his own version of a surge, widening his lead over John McCain again in the latest polls. A Republican frontrunner who supports tax-funded abortion and gay rights is unusual – it’s a little like waking up and finding the red states have taken on a bluish tinge – and a lot of conservative are hoping it’s just a matter of time until Giuliani, like McCain, fades.  

But Giuliani’s campaign is not – and may never be – about issues. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say there are two types of candidates: Issues candidates and character candidates. Reagan was an example of an issue candidate. Dwight Eisenhower was an example of a character candidate. No one even knew if Ike was a Democrat or Republican before he ran for President. But he was the hero of D-Day. General Eisenhower had character.

Rudy Giuliani is the hero of 9-11. Like Ike, it’s who he is – not where he stands –that matters. Because of his character Giuliani has a 72% favorable (to a 12% unfavorable) with Republicans and his stands on gay-rights and abortion, so far, haven’t hurt him.

It would be gratifying to believe one of the lesser known candidates – like Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore or former Senator Fred Thompson – could emerge from the pack to give Republicans a more conservative choice. But to paraphrase Bill Clinton, this election, It’s the war, stupid – and when it comes to the war Giuliani’s character matters. With John McCain fading, Rudy Giuliani may be building steam to swept to the Republican nomination.

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With great ballyhoo (and a keen eye for the fast buck) Hollywood has announced it has discovered Jesus’ tomb. It has also found Jesus’ wife and son – who didn’t exist until now except in fiction.

But just as Hollywood was getting up a head of steam Good Morning America (3-6-07) did them one better.  The movies found Jesus’ crypt; television found Jesus himself alive and well in the suburbs of Puerto Rico. Television’s Jesus turns out to be a San Juan tele-evangelist who says – with a straight face – he’s the Second Coming Incarnate.

If television were mocking Hollywood the irony of finding Jesus in San Juan would be pretty rich. But the ones being mocked are the Christians. It turns out they’ve been snookered by a Puerto Rican con man and they’ve been wrong about Jesus for two thousand years.

Let’s step back a moment and consider Hollywood mogul James Cameron’s Last Tomb of Jesus from a different perspective. Obviously, Christians are fair game.  But what about Muslims? Can anyone imagine Hollywood making a documentary that ‘proves’ Mohammad was a fakir? No. To attack Mohammad would be bigoted, ethnically biased and disrespectful of Muslims’ deepest religious beliefs.

With Hollywood’s help we have done something completely unique in history.  This may be the first time – since time immemorial – when a nation has denigrated its own peoples’ religious beliefs, while demanding that other religions be treated with respect and reverence.  We mock Christ but honor Mohammed.  This is no small feat.  It turns faith on its head.

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The 2008 Presidential campaign has been described as a freak show, a demolition derby and a two-year exercise in the politics of personal destruction.  The race is already being decried by the high-minded journalistic and academic elite for its length, cost and brutality.

Baloney.

What we actually have here is the perfect process for picking a President.  Here’s why:

• The race turns candidates and their aides into sleep-deprived, caffeine-crazed zombies forced to make critical decisions while fatigued and distracted.  Just like in the White House.

• Every step you take and every sound you make is instantly accessible to the world on the Internet.  Just like in the White House.

• Your enemies comb through your entire life, public and private, mining for nuggets of dirt and putting a magnifying glass to every flaw.  Just like in the White House.

• The other party stops at nothing to defame you, distort your ideas and destroy your life.  Just like in the White House.

• The media cynically turns every proposal you make inside out for exaggerations and inconsistency – and questions the motivation behind everyone who gives you a campaign contribution.  Just like in the White House.

The question may be why anyone would want to be in the White House.  Former Presidents do OK after they leave.  They make lots of money.  They escape the press.  They eventually achieve elder-statesmanship.  They get nice libraries glorifying them.

Not so much the people who work for them.  They’re lucky to get out without being indicted and owing a fortune in legal bills.

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Here’s the latest example of Mayor Meeker’s double standard.  Concord-Empire Davie Street, LLC wants to build a mixed-use development downtown and it wants the mayor to build a parking deck to help.  John Kane also wants the city to build a deck to help his new project at North Hills.

The Mayor gave Kane’s project the thumbs down.

He told Concord-Empire yes – the city will build a nine level parking deck for them.

Now, why does a condominium project in one part of Raleigh warrant a government subsidy while one in another does not?  The answer is the same reason restaurants, supermarkets and hotels downtown receive government subsidies while others do not: Mayor Meeker’s double standard.

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Last year, when he was warming up for his run for Governor, State Treasurer Richard Moore blasted pay-day lenders by saying, “A civilized society does not allow these kinds of interest charges.”

A year later, the News and Observer reported that when Moore said those words he had $11 million in state pension funds invested in those same uncivilized pay-day lenders.             

That sounds hypocritical but Moore apparently didn’t mean to be vilifying pay-day lenders on one hand and investing in them on the other. Instead, his staff explained, he had no idea he had invested state funds in pay-day lenders until he read about it in the Charlotte Observer.

The problem – for Moore – is that opens another can of worms.  He had $7.7 million invested in CompuCredit of Atlanta.  That’s a sizeable amount.  Shouldn’t he have known CompuCredit was a pay-day lender?  Maybe the State Treasurer doesn’t need to know who he invests state money in.  Maybe in the big picture it’s enough to leave the decisions to the money management whiz-kids he hires in New York and San Francisco to handle the state’s pension portfolios.  But, on the other hand, you have to wonder – while Moore’s running for Governor – who’s minding the store?

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The 2004 Presidential campaign brought politics Internet fundraising, 529s and “swift-boating.” 

You ain’t seen nothing yet.

For a taste of what’s to come this time, go to YouTube and see the “Hillary 1984” ad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWvHbOoG3tI.

It’s clever, creative and cutting.  It goes right to the heart of Hillary’s weakness with younger, Blog Democrats.  To them, she’s Microsoft.  Obama is Apple.

The ad echoes the “Mac versus PC” ads Apple is running, featuring Steve Jobs and Bill Gates look-a-likes.

Obama’s campaign says it had nothing to do with the 1984 ad.  The creator, for now, is unknown.

But it’s the second time an Obama supporter has put a hole in Hillary’s battleship – without Obama getting wet.  First it was David Geffen’s criticism of Bill and Hill.  Now it’s somebody with enough money and savvy to make an impressive attack ad.

The ad is running “only” on the Internet.  But it’s been viewed over 600,000 times (as of this morning).

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It’s easy to understand President Bush’s stand on the war in Iraq. He says: Let’s fight it out until we win.

It’s also easy to understand the anti-war Democrats’ stand. They say: The war is wrong. Let’s get out. Now.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stand is puzzling. She says: The war is wrong. But let’s stay in two more years. Isn’t that like saying abusing your wife is wrong – and you should stop in two years? Logically, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. But politics has a logic all its own.

Speaker Pelosi rode a tide of anti-war sentiment into office, but she knows while pulling out of Iraq is popular now it may unpopular once we see the consequences of defeat – like the slaughter of our allies in Baghdad. In that light pulling out of Iraq in two years – just before the election in the fall of 2008 – makes sense. Democrats get credit for ending the war before the election. But they won’t have to face the consequences until after. 

It's a triumph of politics over logic.

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A blog I wrote about Mayor Meeker’s focus on downtown stirred up some heated comments.  So I have another question.

A reader regularly forwards me copies of an online publication from the city called the “Livable Streets Newsletter.”  And it’s all about downtown.  You would think the only livable streets in Raleigh are downtown.

My question: Does the city have any publication for any part of Raleigh other than downtown?  Please let me know if there is.  I somehow missed it.

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Debates between presidential candidates about issues can be pretty vicious. But they’re mild compared to campaigns where one candidate decides to attack the other’s character. Rudy Giuliani is the leading Republican candidate for President because of the character he displayed when the terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, so, inevitably, as he begins his presidential campaign, his character is about to go under the political microscope.

The Democrats are having a good time poking fun at Republicans, generally, on family values, saying that between them the three leading Democratic candidates for President have never had a divorce – while the three leading Republicans have been married eight times. The barbs got a little more pointed when they’re aimed at Giuliani.

When he was a young man Giuliani married his second cousin. Fourteen years later, when he annulled the marriage he claimed he hadn’t known they were cousins.  When he ran for mayor, Democrats had a field day asking how that could be possible. When Giuliani announced his second divorce at a press conference – which apparently caught his wife by surprise – she retorted that he was having an affair with a staffer.  After his divorce, the New York tabloids covered Giuliani’s courtship of his third wife, well, exactly the way you’d expect tabloids to cover Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt.

Giuliani’s strength as a candidate is based on the public character he displayed on 9-11. But presidential candidates can’t put their public character in one compartment and their private life in another. Everything is political fodder.  Mayor Giuliani had better strap on his helmet.

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Back when he was a Democrat, former Senator Lauch Faircloth used to say there were two things he didn’t understand: electricity and Republicans.  I still don’t understand either one.

I especially don’t understand the Republican presidential contest:

• John McCain seems to be shrinking before our very eyes.  The strong, straight-talking, independent maverick of 2004 now seems old, tired, beaten-down and reduced to pandering to everybody he stood up to before.

• Rudy Giuliani – a twice-divorced, stereotypical New Yorker who supported abortion rights and gays – is the front-runner.

• No true-blue conservative has mobilized the Ronald Reagan/Religious Right/Values Voters who have been the strength and energy of the party’s electoral successes since 1980.

Meanwhile, Republican Governors in two big states – Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Charlie Crist in Florida – have turned into bipartisan-talking, global-warming-bashing moderates.

A poll in The New York Times this week revealed the Republicans’ angst – and the risks for their front runners, McCain, Giuliani and Mitt Romney:

• 40 percent of Republicans think a Democrat will win the White House in 2008.  Only 12 percent of Democrats think a Republican will win.

• 60 percent of Republicans aren’t happy with their choices for President.

Republicans are still looking for more information.  That’s bad for McCain and Giuliani:

• 41 percent said they don’t know enough about Giuliani.  Wait until they see the pictures of him in drag.  Or the clip where he says poor women should have a right to tax-funded abortions.  That was exactly Jim Hunt’s position when he was Governor.

• 50 percent said they don’t know enough about McCain!  And he’s been on stage forever – and run for President before.  Maybe they haven’t figured out which is the real McCain.

So there is an opening for a social conservative.  But can Mitt Romney be it?  He may be too squishy on abortion and gays, although he has changed his tune lately. 

Romney’s real problem is religion:  51 percent of Republicans say they don’t think America is ready for a Mormon.

That is their polite way of saying they won’t vote for a Mormon.

Here is my bracketology for the Republican race:

• Rudy versus Rudy: Can 9/11 Rudy overcome closet liberal/Rudy?  I just don’t think the true believers will buy it.

• McCain versus McCain: Too tired and too untrustworthy for the true believers.  Out in the first round.

• Romney versus Religion: Romney has to give a JFK-like Houston speech.  My guess is he’s no JFK, but grovels enough to be acceptable. 

• The Smurfs: Somebody emerges from the Huckabee-Brownbeck pack to give Romney a run to the Right.

In the end, I predict Romney wins – then loses to Hillary in the general election.

I hope I’m right.  Because if Rudy wins the nomination, he could win the election. 

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Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker must decide whether he wants to be mayor of all Raleigh – or just part.

Tom Fetzer got elected mayor in the 90s by mobilizing North Raleigh against Inside the Beltline.  With Carter Wrenn’s help, Fetzer tapped into a feeling that the city was spending too much money downtown and paying too little attention to the rest of the city.

A lot of North Raleigh folks feel that way today.

They see millions of tax dollars being spent downtown – a place many of them rarely go.

They see good things happening in their part of the city – at North Hills and around Crabtree Valley.  All of that comes from private, not public, investment. 

But that investment doesn’t seem welcome to the Mayor and some other Council members. 

• The Mayor opposes special financing for a North Hills parking deck, for example, then wants downtown developers exempted from open-space requirements.

• There always seems to be tax money available for downtown projects, but not for North Raleigh.

Council member Jessie Taliaferro – who proves you can be a good Democrat and a good North Raleigh resident – says park and recreation sites there “are bursting at the seams.”

There is a historical cultural and political divide at work here.

Inside the Beltline, Raleigh is a heavily Democratic city.  A lot of residents work for government.

Outside the Beltline, the population is more business-oriented, more likely to be from somewhere else (often the North) and more Republican.

The result can be two separate worlds.  Believe me, I know both of them.

I’m old enough to remember Raleigh before the Beltline.  I once lived in the most Democratic neighborhood in the city (Cameron Park), and now I live in the most Republican (North Ridge). 

There is a big gap.  The Mayor needs to help close it, not widen it.  If he doesn’t, he may face a tough reelection fight this year.  Even if he wins, he may find himself increasingly in the minority the next two years.

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It is hard not to feel sympathy for a seventy-one year old man whose world has come crashing down around him as completely as Jim Black’s. Allies who not long ago defended him at the tops of their voices have abandoned him, the Attorney General is demanding he repay the state $30,000 in legal fees, and the Republicans are out to strip him of his pension.

Here is some unsolicited – and probably unwanted – advice.

First, former Speaker Black may have a brilliant attorney, but his lawyer saying the money he took in bribes ‘meant nothing to Black’ – or that Black needs a vacation in the Bahamas’s – isn’t helpful.

Second, Black made mistakes. He plead guilty to offering Michael Decker a bribe. But he is also one of the victims of the corruption endemic in North Carolina politics. He can’t wipe the slate clean. But by cooperating with prosecutors he can put the memory of taking cash from chiropractors in men’s rooms behind him.

What happens to the terrorists when you occupy a big country like Iraq with too few troops?

When you have a ‘surge’ the terrorist go to the provinces.

In Diyala, thirty miles from Baghdad, the American commander put it this way, “You’ve got more than 20,000 more American troops pouring into Baghdad – so the insurgents are going to go somewhere.” His casualties have doubled since the surge. (N&O; 2-17-07).

The Civitas Institutes latest poll was bad news for North Carolina’s two most prominent trial lawyers-politicians. Right here in his home state John Edwards finds himself in a dead head with Hillary Clinton.

                                    Hillary Clinton            22%

                                    John Edwards             24%

                                    Barach Obama           22%

In politics, when the folks at home – who know you best – start voting for someone else it’s time to find a new occupation.

The Republicans’ most prominent trial lawyer, Salisbury Attorney Bill Graham, got some teeth gnashing news too. Graham spent a million dollars on issue ads last year to get a head start in his race for Governor. According to the Civitas Poll, he needs to spend around five million more.

                                    Bill Graham                10%

                                    Patrick Ballantine      15%

                                    Bob Orr                          8%

                                    Fred Smith                    3%

Here’s an idea for Graham: Think of all the things you can do with five million dollars. You can buy a villa in the south of France and live on the Riviera for the next eight years – instead of in a cold, damp Victorian ‘Gingerbread House’ on Blount Street.

ABC News reports that the Veterans Administration came up with a plan two years ago to make sure that American troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan get the medical care they need.  It was called “seamless transition.”  The purpose: Don’t let injured troops fall through the cracks when the military turns them over to the VA for continuing care.

Then President Bush appointed Jim Nicholson Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Nicholson’s background: former Chairman of the Republican National Committee and Ambassador to the Vatican. 

A political hack, in other words.

Once Nicholson came in, the “seamless transition plan” fell through the cracks.  Nothing happened.  Wounded men and women not only couldn’t get medical care, they couldn’t get the time of day from the VA bureaucracy.

Asked on camera what happened to the plan, Nicholson looked stumped.  Finally he admitted he didn’t know what it was.

We shouldn’t be surprised.  This is, after all, the same administration that promised Katrina relief.

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The newspapers have blasted Richard Moore’s shaking down state pension fund managers for campaign contributions. Moore’s response: He’s pulling the ‘old bait and switch.’

Moore, spewing statistics, claims it doesn’t matter how much he’s raised. All that matters, he says, is how the funds have performed. Which according to him is just dandy.  Moore calculated ‘what the market value of pension funds would have been over the last six years if the assets were invested as they were under former Treasurer Harlan Boyles’ leadership.’ Voi-la, he says, we made $4 billion.

But what’s to say Boyles wouldn’t have changed his investment strategy over six years as market conditions changed? If Boyles were here to defend himself he might say, Voi-la, we made six billion. 

Worse from Moore’s perspective, according to the News and Observer, his investment strategy has resulted in lower return for North Carolina than the average of pension funds nationwide. So much for hoo-doing the numbers. 

Can’t Richard Moore see just an itty-bitty conflict of interest in paying money managers $116 million, then soliciting $700,000 in campaign contributions from them? No. Is he going to stop? No. What consequences does he face? None.

The only elected officials with the power to hold Moore accountable are Democrats and Moore’s version of pay-to-play doesn’t seem to bother the Governor anymore than Jim Black’s did.

But there’s a silver lining in this cloud. If Moore’s fellow Democrats remain silent long enough, he may actually win the Democratic primary for Governor – then Republicans will have plenty of fodder for TV ads in the next election.

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No politician in Congress is going to dare to propose a draft. The Democrats would impeach President Bush if he even brought it up. But looking back the President made a big mistake by not proposing a draft years ago. He wouldn’t have gotten in this mess if he had. He’d have known right then and there that the American people weren’t going to support him if he got us into a long war – rather than the little military brush-up we expected.

Not having a draft meant – and I don’t mean this unkindly – most of us were spectators – not participants – in the war. Someone else was doing the fighting.

It’s a pretty good bet in a few months – or sooner – the Democrats in Congress are going to pull the plug on the war in Iraq. But the war on terrorism will go on. So, maybe a little debate on the draft wouldn’t be a bad idea. After all, the minute I get the idea my daughters may be drafted any ongoing illusions I may have about civil rights for detainees or using overwhelming force to get the war over, quickly, are going right out the window. How about you?

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There’s a sad sequel to Mayor Meeker’s failed obsession with Lite-Rail. The News and Observer reports the Mayor’s Triangle Transit Authority is having a tough time keeping its fleet of buses afloat. The TTA has maintenance problems. Big maintenance problems. Problems so bad the City has filed a lawsuit to make the bus makers take back the buses.

Then the TTA needs $12.5 million to buy new buses.

There is a moral to this story: Remember the mock-up of a Lite-Rail train engine the TTA built in a downtown warehouse as a PR stunt? And the millions it spent promoting Lite-Rail? Maybe they should have spent the money on better buses. There’s a second moral: Maybe the TTA, which can’t keep the buses running, wasn’t the best choice to run a billion dollar railroad.

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When Jim Hunt was Governor no one could open a Seven-Eleven without Hunt adding a new page to his new job recruitment statistics. By the time Governor Hunt left office he’d announced so many new jobs – some promised, some real – the unemployed were in a state of shock. He also made “Smart Start” North Carolina’s most legendary advertising slogan, replacing ‘Plop-plop, fiz-fiz, oh what a relief it is’ and ‘Where’s the beef.’

But when it comes to juggling of numbers Governor-for-life Hunt can’t hold a candle to Mike Easley.

The NC Budget and Center is a very liberal organization. It lavishes praise on Democrats – with barely a kind word for Republicans. So when they say the Governor is all wet – well, it’s kind of like your best friend saying you’re full of baloney.

The Governor brags his new tax plan will eliminate taxes on 545,000 needy North Carolinians.

Not so, says the Budget and Tax Counter. The real number, it says, is 66,000. (They also say most of the people the Governor claims he is eliminating taxes on don’t pay them already.)

The Governor also boasts he’s going to cut taxes in half for another 629,000 North Carolinians. Not so, the Center says. The Governor wildly exaggerated his numbers by 200,000 people.

Finally, the Governor says his plan will cut taxes on a third of the people in North Carolina for only $63 million. 

The Center says he underestimated the costs by 600%.

How did the Governor answer all this criticism? He and his “senior fiscal advisor” have vanished from sight. But, in the meantime, his office is stoutly standing by his numbers. (News and Observer; 3-6-07).

The Governor probably has his eyes fixed on a completely different kind of numbers. Poll numbers. He’s had his PR machine working overtime for weeks telling everyone in sight he’s eliminating taxes on a third of North Carolina. His mathematics may be all wet, but his poll numbers are sure to soar.

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At first I thought it might be shock, or embarrassment, or not wanting to kick a fellow when he’s down: Democrats, led by Governor Easley, were silent as stones about Jim Black’s bribery conviction.

Then I asked a friend who knows legislators, ‘Why aren’t Democrats howling from the rooftops in outrage at Jim Black rather than shuffling their feet and saying lamely, Let’s put it all behind us.” He laughed and said something like, ‘Fool. Don’t you know Jim Black is cooperating with the prosecutors? No Democrat wants to get on his bad side right now.’    

I guess he has a point. Suppose you were a Democratic legislator and knew something about, say, how the Democrats got two Republican Senators to take a walk on the key lottery vote. When you were asked about Black’s bribery conviction, Let’s forget about the whole thing, might be a pretty prudent answer.

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The massed armadas of political correctness have descended on the head of a hapless social studies teacher at Enloe High.

Robert Escamilla, the ACLU says, has strayed and must be pummeled. His crime: Inviting an Egyptian Christian – who was tortured in Egypt for his beliefs – to speak to his class. The greater crime: The evangelist has some ‘unkind’ things to say about Islam.

Enloe High School has several thousand students. A dozen Islamic parents are outraged, Muslim organizations from sea to shining sea are protesting, the ACLU is investigating, the school board is reviewing, and two legal-eagles, one a professor at Duke and the other a scholar at a non-profit, say they wouldn’t touch Escamilla’s case with a ten foot pole.

Somebody even dug up one of Escamilla’s former students to pour fuel on the fire. Horror of horrors, the student reports, this is not Escamilla’s first transgression. He once dared to quote the New Testament in school. “It was very plain,” the student told the News and Observer. “If you were not a Christian you were bound for hell.” (I would assume Muslims would say Christians have very little chance of ever reaching the 400 virgins in their version of paradise, too.)

What precisely did the awful terrible Egyptian Christian tell the lambs at Enloe about Islam? He said Muhammad “enslaved people, abused women and taught Muslims to terrorize non-Muslims and force them into Islam.”

Would the ACLU debate the accuracy of that statement? No. But they’d rather those facts not be debated in a public school.

We have developed a peculiar ethic. Christians are fair game but when, say, the Pope criticizes a Muslim all hell breaks loose and the ACLU goes on a rampage. (Who ever heard of the ACLU suing a Muslim?)

Hopefully the School Board will relegate this flap to the dustbin where it belongs. But if not young Mr. Escamilla may need a lawyer. I know several – in either party – who are eyeing higher office who would be glad for the opportunity to defend him.

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Suppose Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld & Co. had spent less time plotting revenge against critics of their pre-war intelligence hype – and more time making sure wounded troops received decent medical care:

• Scooter Libby wouldn’t be a convicted perjurer.

• Brave men and women wouldn’t have suffered so tragically.

• And this administration’s reputation for competence and trustworthiness wouldn’t be in tatters.

You reap what you sow.

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I’m thankful for Ann Coulter.  Every time she opens her mouth, she hurts Republicans and conservatives with the general voting public.

This weekend she slimed John Edwards with the “faggot” slur at a national conservative conference in Washington.  Tellingly, no Republican has summoned the decency or courage to call her down.

I’ve had a little experience with this sort of thing.  In 1984, a newspaper publisher named Bob Windsor accused Jim Hunt of being gay.  It was ugly, but it didn’t change any votes.

Florida’s new bachelor governor, Republican Charlie Crist, has been a target of whispers, but it hasn’t hurt him.

Democrats can’t be too self-righteous about this.  Some years back, a few of my Democratic friends in North Carolina spent many an hour plotting how to “out” one Republican candidate they thought was gay. 

Here’s my message to all the politicos who are obsessed with their opponents’ sexuality: Get over it.  Voters don’t care.  In fact, they’re more likely to wonder what your hangup is.

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A men’s room is not a safe place to be if they’re in it with Jim Black or a chiropractor. But there’s still one unanswered question. While all this money was floating around between Black and Michael Decker and chiropractors and optometrists where were all the other Democrats? I don’t mean why weren’t they in the men’s room; I mean why weren’t they asking some hard questions about the scandals.

After all, Democrats had plenty of reason to suspect something was out of kilter. They’ve known for years about the $46,000 state job Black gave Decker’s son. And they’ve known about Black’s unflagging efforts to help video poker operators. They sat and voted for Black’s bills to help chiropractors and optometrists. So why didn’t one of them stand up and say, The House Ethics Committee needs to investigate the job for Decker’s son. Was it a bribe or not? Instead, for over two years as the scandal unfolded Democrats marched in lock step behind Black. If it had been up to them – from the Governor on down – to root out corruption in the State House, Jim Black would be serving his fifth term as Speaker. Instead of cooperating with prosecutors.

It is not hard to watch a seventy-one year old mans world come crashing down around him and feel sympathy. But what about the Democratic Party as an institution? Faced with allegations of corruption within their own ranks, like ostriches, Democratic leaders stuck their heads in the sand.

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Mayor Meeker just stood City government on its head. For six years, he’s been on a spending spree, giving taxpayer subsidies to all types of corporations – hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. Now, suddenly, he’s stopped. Or, at least, he’s finally found one corporation he doesn’t want to subsidize.

The Mayor and his bosom-buddy-allies on the Council, Russell Stephenson and Thomas Crowder, usually don’t think twice about spending money. But without blinking they told North Hills developer John Kane no. The city is not going to subsidize for his parking deck.

Even more ironic: Republicans Philip Isley and Tommy Craven – who you’d expect to be more frugal – are leading the charge for Kane (Maybe they got confused and just automatically voted opposite the Mayor.)

The whole thing has turned into a sort of cat fight.

The Mayor, waxing eloquent, opined that if the city subsidized North Hills it might end up short of cash for police and fire protection. (Huh? Wasn’t that true when the Mayor spent $20 million on a downtown hotel?)

Councilman Isley retorted that the Mayor ‘just doesn’t like North Hills.’ (Or maybe North Raleigh in general.)

That, of course, raised Meeker’s hackles. He huffed he wants to pass out subsidies based on need, which sounds fine, except the Mayor’s idea of need means any business within five blocks of Fayetteville Street.

I happen to agree with Mayor Meeker about the North Hills subsidies. But after he spent millions building parking decks for businesses downtown it’s hard not to believe he wouldn’t build one for John Kane too – if North Hills East was on Fayetteville Street.

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Richard Moore’s reaction to his Forbes hit was fast and aggressive.  Beverly Perdue’s campaign needs to wake up.

This was much like the Hillary-Obama exchange over David Geffen: an early look at which campaign is on its game and which isn’t.

Coverage of the Forbes article clearly hurt Moore, the State Treasurer and would-be Governor.  And will continue to hurt him.  But he and his campaign showed an ability to block a punch and land a counterpunch to Lieutenant Governor Perdue.

Here was the Moore strategy:

• Discredit Forbes.  The magazine criticized Moore for taking campaign money from investment houses that do business with his office.  Moore’s counterattack: Forbes doesn’t like me because I’m standing up for the little guy against Wall Street.  A nice pivot, albeit one that won’t totally free him of the pay-for-play smell.

• Attack Perdue for “attack politics.”  Moore consultant Jay Reiff sent out an email criticizing Perdue because her finance director Peter Reichard sent out an email calling attention to the Forbes piece.  That was a mistake by Perdue’s campaign.  They could have spread the dirt with a bit more subtlety.

• Slime Perdue.  Reiff’s email highlighted Perdue’s own “pay to play” record, citing highways, rest homes and the Ferry Division.

• Defend your record.  Moore quickly held a press briefing to boast about his investment record.  And he got good coverage.

All in all, Moore made a strong recovery from a hard hit.  He’ll still pay a price for his Wall Street fundraising.  But he proved he can take a punch – and land one.

Give this round to him and Reiff.  And watch what Perdue’s team does now.

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Iraq Contracts

There is a silver lining report in every dark cloud – even electing a Democratic Congress. Federal investigators report $10 billion – and probably a lot more – has been squandered in Iraq on contractor overcharges, unsupported expenses and payments for work never done. The bottom line, they say, is no accountability and no oversight. Who’s in charge of that? Well, the Departments of State and Defense, which the Republican Congress was – shall we say – less than enthusiastic to investigate. (After all what Republican Congressman worth his salt wants to grill Condoleezza Rice?) The Democrats have no such qualms. They know a good scandal when they see one. They’re already holding hearings.

Our Allies

The new crisis in the war in Afghanistan is peculiar: Our allies, the Pakistani’s, have granted the Taliban and Al-Qaeda a safe-haven in their mountains and told our troops to keep out. The Taliban is flourishing and President Bush, anticipating a spring offensive, has asked our NATO allies to send help. Our old friends the French and Germans said they’d be glad to lend a hand as long as their soldiers were stationed in quiet provinces out of harms way – leaving the Americans to do the fighting. As Winston Churchill said of the French in another war, ‘The only thing worse than fighting a war with allies is fighting one without them.’ 

Freedom of Speech

Speaking of the Germans, they just dealt with a 67 year old “Holocaust denier” by throwing him in prison for five years (N&O; 2-16-07). Now, granted, anyone who denies the holocaust is a nut. But here in the United States we laugh at our nuts. In Germany they throw them in jail.

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Well, Mayor Meeker cracked the whip, twisted a few arms and the City Council snapped back into line and voted for his roundabouts. It even voted to spend twice as much as he asked for.

“It’s a new day,” Meeker proclaimed, “for Hillsborough Street.”

But just a few blocks away it’s not a new day. In South Park, at the corner of Bragg and South East Streets, the News and Observer reports, “Residents watch despairingly as drug sales flourish, alcohol is openly consumed on the street and prostitutes ply their trade morning, noon, and night.”

Last fall two young men were killed in the neighborhood in what police called a “gang-related” shooting. (News and Observer; 11-12-06).

 “It is the best of times for some and the worst of times for others,” says Raleigh City Councilman James West who represents South Park.

Charles Meeker has a strange case of Myopia. He’s poured hundreds of millions into his downtown enclave, but can’t see a few blocks away to South Park. Think that’s unfair? Consider this: What would the Mayor’s reaction be if the drug pushers and prostitutes relocated to Hillsborough Street?

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Hollywood director James Cameron (Titanic and Terminator) has discovered proof that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a son – and you can watch it all on the Discovery Channel. Even the statistician who has proved beyond a scientific doubt that the ossuaries found in a tomb in Israel belong to Jesus, his wife, and son – proving the Resurrection and most of the New Testament a hoax. (News and Observer; 2-27-07).

This statistician is a man with very little doubt. Based on the combination of ten names in the tomb he is certain – he says the chances he is right are 1000 to 1 – Hollywood has found Jesus’ ossuary. Think about that: The statistician would have to know the population of Israel two thousand years ago and the number of men and women named Jesus, Joseph, Mary, Judah, Matthew and other names from the Bible to compute that scientific fact. Never let it be said that science – of Hollywood either – lets a fact stand in the way.

There’s just one problem – other than that the respected curator of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem calls “The Last Tomb of Jesus” a fantasy. Jesus’ bones are already resting in an ossuary (with Jesus son of Joseph carved on it) on display in Fort Lauderdale. Right next to the crypt holding Elvis.

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The Democrats’ new poster boy for the pay-to-play scandals is State Treasurer Richard Moore. In a scalding exposé Forbes Magazine tells how Moore, who solely controls the state’s $73 billion retirement fund, is bankrolling his campaign for Governor.  Here's a copy of the Forbes article.

            Moore’s version of pay-to-play works like this: In effect he says to investment fund managers, I’ll give you state money to invest and pay you fees – and by the way wouldn’t you like to contribute to my campaign for Governor?

            In just six years – since he took office – the amount Moore pays in fees has soared a staggering six fold – to $116 million a year.

            Moore is unapologetic. He told Forbes, “I didn’t set up the rules, but I play by the rules. We do not have a culture of pay-to-play in the treasure’s office in the state of North Carolina.” No. It’s not a culture. It’s a way of life.

            Here’s an example.

            Eugene McDonald is a member of Moore’s five-person “investment committee.” He helped Moore persuade the legislature to allow him to invest more heavily in hedge and private equity funds. After the legislature agreed, Moore handed Quellos Asset Management in Seattle $400 million to invest. Quellos’ investment chief: Eugene McDonald.

            Moore’s explanation sounded a lot like Jim Black on why he appointed Kevin Geddings to the Lottery Board. First Moore said McDonald didn’t join Quellos until after the fund got state pension money. That turned out not to be true. Next Moore hedged, saying, unabashedly, he hadn’t known McDonald worked for Quellos, but it wouldn’t have made any difference.

            Moore has paid Quellos a whopping $6.1 million in fees, and, of course, Quellos’ executives have contributed generously to his campaign. How did Quellos investments do?

“It earned North Carolina a middling 7% annually (versus 11% for the SAP 500) the past three years,” Forbes reports. The hedge and equity funds Moore pushed have “returned 2.3% annually against a benchmark of 7.7%.”

But twenty-eight of the “lavishly paid funds’ managers” have given $211,700 to Moore’s campaign.

            How did the rest of the states investments do? It’s hard to tell. Moore is supposed to provide the legislature “with a state-mandated report detailing his managers’ results each year.” He hasn’t done it in six years.

            Jim Black took $29,000 from chiropractors in men’s rooms. Compared to Richard Moore he’s is a piker.

            The state legislature should invite Moore and his contributors/money managers to a hearing in Raleigh, put them under oath and turn on the TV lights. Then the Governor and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House can drive a spike through the heart of pay-to-play by impeaching Richard Moore.

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