Four big waste management corporations – three from out of state – want to put waste dumps of the Mount Everest variety in eastern North Carolina. Then they want to haul garbage here from other states. Each of the dumps is near the coast. One is in the middle of a flood plain.

It seems odd that not one leading politician has raised a voice against making North Carolina the home of New York’s garbage. But none had. Until Senator Basnight spoke out. Senator Basnight has sponsored legislation to pass a moratorium to stop the four dumps.

When I read about his proposal in the newspaper, I thought, Well, what politician in his right mind is going to vote against that?

It turns out, for one, Speaker of the House Jim Black is against it.

Speaker Black’s reasoning is unusual. He’s not saying he’s against the Basnight moratorium outright. Instead, he says he’s against it for a ‘technical’ reason. Because Basnight put his ‘moratorium’ in the State Budget as a ‘special provision.’ Speaker Black says there’s no place for ‘special provisions’ in the budget anymore. He told the press:

“You all have promoted sunshine. I’m trying to do things differently around here.”

But, in fact, this isn’t ‘sunshine,’ it’s more of the same old business as usual in the State House.

There are no less than a dozen lobbyists working for the corporations who want to build these dumps. One is Davis Horne, Governor Easley’s campaign treasurer. How much difference is there between Speaker Black’s finance director, Meredith Norris, lobbying for a lottery company and Governor Easley’s treasurer/fundraiser lobbying for a trash dump company that is trying to get state environmental permits?

Even though Black says he’s fighting for ‘sunshine,’ when you think about it he’s the one going along with the lobbyists and Basnight’s the one telling them no.

Here’s a little speculation based on the political scuttlebutt going around the state legislature. One of these dumps is to be built in the tiny hamlet of Navassa in Brunswick County. Navassa has a population of 479 people. 86% of its citizens are African Americans. The town used to be in the District of Representative Thomas Wright – one of the leaders of the Black Caucus in the State House.

According to the scuttlebutt Wright supported Navassa annexing the land to build the dump in Brunswick County over the objections of almost all its neighbors. (10,000 homeowners have formed a coalition opposing the dump and the County Commissioners passed a resolution opposing it.)

Today, the leaders of the Black Caucus in the House are opposing Basnight’s moratorium. And with all the scandals besieging Black, he’s not about to tell a powerful group of House legislators no.

Ronald Reagan once said, “Looking at backstage politics is like looking at civilization with its pants down.” This is backstage politics at its worst. Out-of-state trash companies pick four small, poor, rural North Carolina counties for huge waste dumps. They hire a battalion of lobbyists to grease the skids in Raleigh and wire up the governor, the State House and State Senate. And it worked, except for Marc Basnight. 

If Speaker Black really means it when he says he objects to Basnight’s moratorium because it is a ‘special provision’ there is a simple way for him to solve that problem. He can immediately pass the moratorium as a stand-alone bill in the House. Then, he can send the bill to the Senate, where my guess is Marc Basnight will pass it in a heartbeat.

Then the Speaker can join Senator Basnight in saying no to the lobbyists. Which only leaves one question. Where does Governor Easley stand? Is he in favor of a moratorium, or not?

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This is a piece of advice that I hope finds its way to my Congressman, Brad Miller. 

Brad, Americans love happy warriors.  Think Roosevelt, Clinton, Kennedy and, yes, Reagan.

We do not go for mopers and whiners.  Think Dole (Bob), Hoover and Carter. 

This week, Brad, I talked to two friends who attended recent fundraisers for you – one here and one in Washington.

Both described you the same way: morose, dejected and droopy-faced over the terrible things Vernon Robinson is saying about you. 

Get over it.  Put on your fighting armor and a big smile.  Stop whining and start fighting.

Because Americans also respect a public figure who’s not afraid of a confrontation – especially when it’s about something important. 

Elections really aren’t about issues.  They’re about personalities.

And winning personalities win.

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Last week there was an outbreak of new taxes in Wake County. Both the Raleigh City Council and the County Commissioners voted to hike taxes the same day.

Lead by Mayor Meeker the City Council voted to increase property taxes 9%. On top of that if the School Bond – which the Mayor supports – passes, property taxes will go up another 11%. That’s a 20% tax increase for Raleigh homeowners. And if you own a car in addition to a home you’ll also pay a new $5 registration fee.

Republican Councilman Phil Isley proposed cutting the city’s $513 million budget just 3% as an alternative to raising taxes. The Mayor and the Democrats on the Council rolled right over him.

Let’s look at a little bit of the spending the Mayor didn’t want to cut: $134,000 for the ballet, $50,000 for the symphony, $43,000 for the museum, $2 million for three roundabouts on Hillsborough Street and, oh yes, $150,000 to lure the Jehovah’s Witnesses Convention to the RBC Center.

The County Commissioners also voted to raise county property taxes the same day. The county property tax hike is 5%. Add on the School Bond tax increase – which six of seven commissioners supported – of 8% and the total county property tax hike could come to 13%.

And finally, this week, the ‘Growth Panel’ the County Commissioners appointed voted to recommend a new sales tax increase, a new real estate tax (when you sell your home) and raising property taxes through more frequent assessments.

Somewhere during Mayor Meeker’s third term Raleigh and Wake County have crossed an invisible line where the momentum for higher taxes and runaway spending has achieved critical mass. The voices calling for ‘more, more, more’ have drowned out the voices calling for any form of fiscal restraint. We seem to have entered a kind of ‘Twilight Zone’ where there are no consequences for wasteful spending and no repercussions for raising taxes.

I wonder if that will change in the next election?

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I remember Ralph Reed as a baby-faced, holier-than-thou aide to Jesse Helms in the 1984 Hunt-Helms Senate race.  Reed went on to run Pat Robertson’s Moral Majority.  Now he’s running for lieutenant governor of Georgia.

In the meantime, it appears he rang up some big profits from a suspect source.

A bipartisan Senate report has documented that Reed’s consulting firm took more than $5.3 million in payments from an influence-peddling operation run by corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The apparent source of the money? Indian tribes running casinos.

And what was Reed paid to do?  Lobby to keep other Indian tribes from running casinos.

But Reed released a statement that showed he has lost none of his old holier-than-thou.  He said he agreed to help Abramoff only after receiving assurances “that I would not be paid with funds derived from gambling.”

So, the report found, payments to Reed were made through third parties in what appeared to be an effort to disguise the fact that the money was from Indian tribes with large casino operations, according to The New York Times.

Reed claimed the report vindicates his innocence.

Maybe so.

But here’s an email Reed sent to Abramoff: “I need to start humping in corporate accounts!  - I’m counting on you to help me with some contacts.”

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A few days ago the state threatened to fire the company – computer giant ACS – it gave the biggest state contract (installing a new Medicaid claims system) to a year ago. That‘s a $171 million contract and, right now, after working on it a year ACS is a year behind schedule. When the company asked the State to pay it an additional $40 million – over its original contract – the State threatened to fire ACS and cancel the whole deal.

But now, the State and ACS have agreed to ‘a cooling off’ period to let their dispute simmer a while.

This may turn out to be one of the biggest contract fiascos in state history.

A year ago, when the State awarded the contract to ACS – taking it from the previous claims processor, EDS – it boasted the new contract was going to save taxpayers millions. It was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Today, EDS is still processing the claims and, I guess, if the State cancels ACS contract the millions the State has paid them over the past year will have been wasted.

One footnote, the contract was awarded to ACS by the State Department of Health and Human Services while former legislator, Lanier Cansler, was Deputy Secretary of the Department. Today, Cansler is a consultant for ACS.

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Republicans in Washington claim their border-state hearings on illegal immigrants this summer are not a ploy to kill a reform bill.

I believe them. 

The hearings are a ploy to win the November elections.

Immigration demagogy is Step Two of the Republican Survival Handbook this fall.  (Step One is accusing Democrats of wanting to lose Iraq.)

It may work.  And I hope it does.

Here’s why.

Back in 1964, Lyndon Johnson said his Civil Rights Act would cost Democrats the South for a generation.

He was right. 

Now Republicans are playing race politics again.  But Democrats should just be patient.

Wait until the millions of Hispanic-American children reach voting age.

Until then, remind them and their families which party wanted to give them a chance to stay in America – and which party wanted to throw them out and build a wall.

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I thought John Kerry had done all the damage he could do to the Democratic Party in 2004.

But no.

Now he insists on being the “cut and run” face of the Democratic Party on Iraq.  He angered even fellow Senate Democrats by calling for pulling out this year.

Kerry was for the war before he was against it, you will remember.

He learned one lesson from 2004: He let Howard Dean steal the antiwar wing of the party from him.  He’ll never let that happen again.

Unfortunately, he may take the whole party down with him this year.

Some of my Democratic friends are mad at me about this.  One told me this week: “This isn’t helping Bush.  His favorable rating is up only a tick – to maybe 31 percent.”

That’s right.  But that’s not the point.  Bush won’t be on the ballot – not ever again.

What may be up for a national referendum this fall is the Democratic position on Iraq (cut and run) versus the Republican position (we oppose retreat and defeat). 

If that happens – I believe – Democrats lose.

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The News and Observer reports (06-13-06) that congressmen and their staffs have taken $50 million in gifts from private organizations. How? By accepting free trips to everywhere from Jakarta to Cancun. How many trips? 23,000 over the last five years.

North Carolina congressmen and their staffs took a million dollars in ‘gifts’. For 470 trips. Congressman Howard Coble’s chief of staff, Ed McDonald, who accepted $34,000 in ‘gifts’, explained his 24 trips this way: “Members of Congress and their staffs need to know what’s going on in the world.” McDonald learned what’s going on in Rabat and Casablanca in Morocco.

Rep. Mel Watt of Charlotte took $88,000 in gifts, more than any other North Carolina congressman. Watt took 22 trips over five and a half years. He learned what was going on in Barcelona, Cancun (one of the world’s trouble spots), Havana and Lausanne, Switzerland. That’s not unlike a free vacation every three months. Watt told The News and Observer, “I’m not apologizing for a single trip I ever took…”

Maybe there is someone out there somewhere paying to send congressmen to Paris or Barcelona out of the goodness of their heart. But was the “Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association,” which spent $31,000 to give ‘gifts’ to N.C. congressmen (or their staffs), interested in trade bills? Was the “Nuclear Energy Institute,” which gave congressmen gifts of $60,000 (12 trips at $5000 each), interested in legislation? Its spokesman told The News and Observer, “We’re always going to try to convince Congress of the worthwhileness of what we’re pushing.”

I am sure some of these ‘gifts’ did pay for educational trips. But congressmen vote on bills that effect Chinese trade, nuclear energy and even Morocco and it’s hard to see how giving a congressman free airplane tickets and hotel accommodations is much different from just writing him a check. Fifty million in ‘gifts’ is a staggering amount. Many congressmen don’t think constituents will care because no taxpayers’ money was spent. But someday someone is going to connect the dots between those trips and votes in the House. Then Congress may find itself facing a bigger scandal than Jack Abramoff flying a couple of congressmen to Scotland to play golf.

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The News and Observer reports when the City Council met last week to consider the new budget and a property tax increase plenty of folks showed up “with their hands out” wanting city funds for their organizations (News and Observer, 06-07-06).

Legal Aid needs $35,000 more this year, the Symphony Orchestra wants $100,000 and the Raleigh City Museum is “looking at paying another $1,400 a month to keep its digs in the Briggs Hardware Building downtown.” So the museum wants $125,000 this year – an extra $25,000.

Small change you say? Just a pittance out of the city’s $511 million budget? But which of these items would you vote to raise property taxes to pay for if you were on the City Council?

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The Charlotte Observer (6-11-06) reports Governor Easley brought a piece of North Carolina ocean front paradise on Bogue Sound at the entrance of a 75-slip marina near Emerald Isle. And he got a deal.

According to the Observer, Easley bought the lot “last year for $549,880.” Which was just 3 percent above its assessed tax value. The Observer also “found 49 adjacent waterfront lots in the development sold for on average of 20% above tax value; some were as much as 36 percent higher.”

And that’s not all.

The Observer reports the Governor has appointed his “broker, the projects developer, and the man who helped finance the development” to high-profile state boards. 

The Governor appointed McQueen Campbell, his broker, to the North Carolina State University Board of Trustees in 2001. He also appointed Campbell’s father to the State Board of Transportation.

While Easley’s purchase was pending he appointed developer “Randy Allen to the State Wildlife Resources Commission.”

And he appointed investor Larry Wilson of Wilmington, who helped finance the development, to the Transportation Board in 2001.

The Observer reports developers like to “snare celebrities to help sell pricey developments.” And Ronnie Watson, an Emerald Isle realtor adds, “I’m sure they used his name to help them sell the property.”

Perhaps they did.

But the Governor is doing business with people he appoints to powerful state boards like the Board of Transportation. Maybe everyone involved is pure as the driven snow. But given the other recent scandals it would have been refreshing if the Governor had said, ‘You know, this just doesn’t look right.’ And passed up the deal.

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The ground can shift quickly in politics.  And I believe it has – on both the state and national levels.

Here was the conventional wisdom not long ago – like, last week:

• A national tsunami will hit the Republicans in November.

• Jim Black’s ethical troubles will sink North Carolina Democrats in November. 

But I believe the conventional wisdom now is shifting to:

• The Iraq/terrorism issue may save Republicans. 

• Voters don’t care about Black’s problems.

On Iraq, Republicans in Congress moved quickly to put Democrats on the defensive after Bush’s first good week in a long while.   

(Note they used the exact term I predicted: “cut and run.”)

Republicans clearly think this wins for them this year.

On Black, Democratic consultants tell me polling shows that voters outside of Raleigh don’t know or care about Black’s ethics issues.

They say the campaign is about education and health care – winning Democratic issues.

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Not long ago when Democrat leaders in the State House were testifying before the State Board of Elections they said optometrists giving blank checks (with the amount filled in but the recipient’s name blank) to Speaker Jim Black – for him to distribute to candidates – was fine. There was not one thing wrong with it. It had gone on for years. After the hearings House Democrats gave Black a resounding vote of confidence, saying he had done nothing wrong.

Guess what? Now House Democrats have passed a law to make this practice – which they defended a few weeks ago – illegal. In other words, first they said blank checks were fine. Now they say they should be illegal. That’s political dexterity.

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After weeks of lobbing grenades – on video poker, eye exams and the teapot museum – at their fellow Democrats in the House the state Senate just lobbed one at Governor Easley.

For years, going back to the days of Governor Hunt, the governor has been chairman of the N.C. Progress Board which reports to the public on the state’s progress on education, the economy and the environment. But that may be about to change (Charlotte Observer, 06-11-06).

Democrats in the Senate have just passed legislation to strip the governor of his chairmanship and a quarter of his appointments to the board. Now whoever heard of a Democratic state Senate removing a Democratic governor as chairman of a state board? Watching the state Senate just gets more and more interesting.

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Gas prices are rising again and gas tax revenues to the state are soaring but it appears some local officials – including Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker – are supporting toll roads in Wake County. The tolls would cost drivers $600 million to complete parts of the Triangle Parkway and I-540.

So now in Wake County we have school bonds, property tax increases and toll roads under consideration.

At the same time local government is spending an additional $9 million to operate a landfill because it did not take the low bid, $40 million for an underground parking garage, $20 million for a downtown hotel and taxpayers are still pouring money into the Triangle Transit Authority even after the authority itself admits is can not qualify for federal funding to put ‘Lite-Rail’ in the triangle.

No politician is ever likely to suggest raising taxes or charging a toll to pay for a downtown hotel. Instead they spend the ready cash on the hotel then propose to raise the taxes for school bonds and charge tolls to pay for roads.

Who do they think they are fooling?

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Last year, after seeking bids the state took its $171 million Medicaid billing contract – its biggest contract – away from EDS and gave it to rival ACS (both of Texas).

EDS sued and said among other things that the bids weren’t handled fairly and ACS couldn’t deliver what it promised. The state fought EDS tooth and nail and won.

Guess what?

Department of Health and Human Service Secretary, Carmen Hooker Odom, just told ACS she may “cancel the contract in 10 days because of missed deadlines.” The new computer system was supposed to be completed next month. Instead it is more than a year behind schedule (News and Observer, 06-07-06).

Worse, ACS wants another $42 million to finish the job. The state refused and now state officials say work on the system has suddenly slowed and “ACS has ceased to substantially perform its obligations.”

This is the company the state fought tooth and toenail to give the contract to.

ACS blames the state for the whole problem. According to them, “If they’re not approving documents, they’re causing a situation that is impossible…. If one party is keeping the other party from performing, the party that’s at fault has to pay damages.” Apparently ACS thinks a fair settlement would be for the state to pay it another $42 million and the state disagrees.

That sounds like a fertile breeding ground for another lawsuit.

So we have EDS still running the state Medicaid billing system and ACS building a new system that is a year (and $42 million) behind schedule. EDS has already sued the state and ACS may end up suing.

What more can happen?

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Republicans just held their bi-annual State Convention. I spoke to a friend who attended. He has been active in politics for years and he’s pretty glum about Republican chances in the election this fall. He’s looking at the national trends and remembering 1994, 1982, and 1974 when one party (Republicans in ’94 and Democrats in ’82 and ’74) swept the elections.

He shared his concern with a Party leader who said he was wrong, dead wrong, that there isn’t any question Republicans will gain seats in the Legislature this fall the only question is how many.

Maybe the ‘pay to play’ scandals are going to sweep Republicans into office in across the state November. But national trends are almost always more powerful – and have more impact on voters – than state trends. And right now Republican pollsters, nationally, are pretty nervous. They’re watching a tsunami building and they’re worried about it.

Of course, one of the intriguing facts about politics is trends can change in a heartbeat. But if a tsunami is heading Republicans’ way the solution is not to ignore it. If Republican candidates here in North Carolina are going to rise above the national trend they need to hold the Democrats accountable for the ‘pay to play’ scandals. But, so far it is the newspapers who are doing that not Republican legislators.

The House Democrats passed their version of ‘Reform’ to clean up the scandals. The Senate Democrats have said what they think is wrong with it. Now the House and Senate Republicans need to make their voices heard. The Republicans need to take the lead in this debate.

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 “Liberals hunt down heretics, while conservatives happily chase converts.”

Michael Kinsley, as quoted by Joe Klein

I don’t know whether Kinsley is right.  It seems to me that right-wingers have spent a fair amount of time since 1964 hunting down heretics.

But I’m only concerned with us liberals – or progressives, or whatever we’re supposed to call ourselves these days.

Because we now have a new tool for tracking down and trashing heretics: the blogs.

Internet communication seems to bring out the worst in people.

If you thought Carter and I said ugly things back in the Hunt-Helms race in 1984, your ears and eyes would be burning if you read the ugly things said daily on blogs.

And they bring out the worst in liberals.

Ask Hillary Clinton.  She’s so used to being bashed by liberal blogs that she didn’t go to the big bloggers’ bash in Las Vegas last week.  She probably feels like the victim of a vast left-wing conspiracy.

The bloggers are a real force in Democratic politics today.  Just what we need: one more interest group for our candidates to kowtow to.

After all, the bloggers made Howard Dean what he is today.

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A few days ago one of Gary’s friends, who supports Mayor Meeker, took the time to write Talking About Politics about a blog I did criticizing the mayor’s runaway spending. (See Gary’s blog 06/05/06.) Gary’s friend didn’t exactly defend the mayor’s spending (except for his Lite-Rail boondoggle). Instead he said politically it didn’t matter because Meeker’s most likely Republican opponent (he didn’t say who that is) in the next election voted for the same spending.

Well, yes, he’s right, if Democrats get to pick the Republican candidate who runs against Meeker that will solve the mayor’s problems politically. But what if Republicans nominate someone like Tom Fetzer?

Gary’s friend also disagreed with Gary (not with me), warning that Mayor Meeker has ignored parts of Raleigh “away from downtown.” But I don’t recall any Convention Centers, hotels, underground parking garages, five star restaurants or upscale supermarkets being funded with taxpayers’ money anywhere but downtown.

Finally, Gary’s friend says in the next election Republicans will be vulnerable after they vote for property tax increases instead of supporting a real increase in impact fees (the tax on new homes just went up 78%, but apparently that isn’t a ‘real’ increase to Mayor Meeker).

But Republicans haven’t voted to increase property taxes. So that’s a straw man too.

What Mayor Meeker’s supporters seem to be telling themselves is that Republicans will run a candidate against the mayor who supports all of Meeker’s runaway spending and wants to raise property taxes to boot. So Meeker’s a shoo-in to win reelection.

But how likely is it that Republicans will nominate a candidate to the left of Charles Meeker?

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Close counts in horseshoes, not politics.  But it doesn’t bode well for immigrants.

That’s my reading of the special election for Duke Cunningham’s congressional seat, left vacant when the Dukester admitted to some impressive bribe-taking.

When the Republican candidate got in real trouble, he waved the bloody flag: keep out the immigrants.

He even attacked President Bush as soft on illegals.

It barely worked, but it worked.

With desperate Republicans all over the map, look for more of them to flog the illegal-immigrant issue.

How long will it take Robin Hayes and Charlie Taylor here in North Carolina?

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The State House passed a ‘Reform’ bill to clean up government by limiting lobbyists’ gifts to legislators. How much good has it done?

The newspapers report spotting five legislators attending the Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup finals.

According to the News and Observer (6-10-06) Democrat Representative Jim Harrell – who voluntarily signed a list to put lobbyists on notice not to give him gifts – watched the hockey game from a “suite leased to the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives.” Leaving aside the question of why the “Co-Ops” need to lease a suite at a hockey game the value of Harrell’s ticket is worth between $120 -$300.

How did Harrell reconcile this with his pledge not to take gifts?  He says it isn’t a gift as defined by the House. Why? Because he only pledged not to take gifts that were dropped off at his legislative office. Harrell said: “The ticket was not.”

I’m not kidding.

I tried to think of one gift that could only be dropped off at his office. I couldn’t. Can you?

The News and Observer also reports Representatives Nelson Dollar (R), Phil Haire (D), and Ed McMahan (R), were invited to the suite (at least they did not sign the no gifts pledge). And the Winston-Salem Journal reports Representative Bonner Stiller was there too (Winston Salem Journal, 6-11-06).

Paul O’Connor, columnist for the Journal wrote he “asked Stiller if he’d paid for his ticket. He said, ‘Yeah, in my electric bill.’ Then he laughed.”

O’Connor continues: “I asked if he’d reimbursed the co-ops for the ticket. He didn’t answer. So I mentioned I’d seen him at a game a few nights earlier. And here’s the funny thing: He couldn’t recall whether he’d ever been in that seat before.”

O’Connor adds that Stiller voted to raise the limit on gifts legislators must report from $200 to $1,000. So, unless the Senate changes the House bill, Representative Stiller wouldn’t even have to report his tickets.

That’s the kind of job House Democrats have done to clean up the ‘pay to play’ scandals.

Maybe the next time the Hurricanes play the Republican Party ought to send a TV camera and shoot footage – not of the game but of the legislators. It might look fine in a television ad this fall.

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The School Board wants to pass a billion dollar bond and raise taxes, the City Manager wants to raise taxes, county officials say the county may have to raise taxes. So it’s puzzling the County Commissioners just voted not to award the contract to run a new landfill in Holly Springs to the lowest bidder.

Santek Environmental, which made the low bid, was recommended “by a committee of technical advisors, approved by a committee of town managers and recommended by county staffers” (News and Observer, 6/9/06). The County Commissioners ran roughshod over their recommendations and awarded the contract to Waste Industries even though its bid was “$9.4 million more expensive.”

Five County Commissioners voted for the more expensive contract, two voted against it (Kenn Gardner and Tony Gurley). Speaking for the majority, Commissioner Betty Lou Ward said, “With a company that’s here in town [Waste Industries], any time you have a problem you can sit down and have lunch with the CEO and work something out.”

That could turn out to be a $9.4 million lunch.

How can commissioners expect voters to approve school bonds and tax increases on one hand when they see commissioners spending an extra $9 million with the other?

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This was the headline in The News & Observer Monday:

“Taxes, fees on the rise in Triangle.”

This is why progressive Democrats need to look before they leap.

The story added:

“Raleigh gets a double whammy from the city and Wake County.”

This is where polls can fool you.  A quick-and-dirty poll could lead you to think Raleigh voters are all for the various tax and fee increases being discussed – for schools, for city water and for city taxes.

But I saw something different in polls last year.  Almost all the intensity of feeling was AGAINST taxes and spending.

If the City Council is not careful this year, it will gift-wrap a strategy for a less-progressive candidate next year.  His message would be:

“School bonds.  School taxes.  Higher water fees.  Higher garbage fees.  Hundreds of millions of dollars downtown for a civic center, parking deck and hotel subsidy.  A billion dollars for a light rail boondoggle. Had enough? 

“It’s time somebody stood up to the big spenders in City Hall.  Elect me and I’ll do it.”

It could work.

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The news that American troops killed terrorist leader al-Zarqawi in Iraq should be a wake-up call to those Democrats who are busy measuring new drapes for the Speaker’s Office in Washington.

The lesson:

• Note that Bush went on national TV at 7:30 (the real prime time) to take credit.

• Remember that events happen fast.  And they’re beyond your control.

• Next time – like, say, October – it could be Osama.

• Bush, Rove & Co. know that this issue can go from being their biggest problem to their biggest opportunity overnight.

• The American people aren’t ready to “cut and run.”  They never are.

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Raleigh’s Appearance Ayatollahs are at it again.

Three companies that plan downtown office towers want to put their logos on the buildings.  And, since the buildings are bigger, they want the city to allow bigger signs – 2.5 times the size allowed today.

Sounds reasonable to me.  After all, the city moved heaven and earth (and a lot of tax money) to attract companies downtown.  And I don’t see how a big sign is any worse a sight than a big building.

But I’m not an architect.  And the two architects on the City Council – Russ Stephenson and Thomas Crowder – say no.

According to The News & Observer, Crowder said the current code is adequate and that commercialism should not drive city planning. "A building's architecture should be its iconic signature, not signage," he said.

I guess he would feel different if he were in the sign business instead of the architecture business.

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My despair deepens over the Wake County school bonds.

I see no sign that county leaders understand the public-opinion mountain they have to climb to pass a $1 billion bond issue this fall.

In fact, the signs are bad.  Starting with the big announcement that two big names will head the campaign: Bill Atkinson, president of WakeMed hospital, and Ann Goodnight, who runs the “education and arts-minded” Goodnight Educational Foundation and is the wife of SAS software gazillionaire Jim Goodnight.

Nothing wrong with Atkinson and Goodnight.  They’re fine folks.

But 30 years in politics taught me to worry when a candidate spent more time worrying about which big names would be his campaign chairs – instead of what he was going to say to the voters.

Few voters care what Bill Atkinson or Ann Goodnight say about the schools.  In fact, if I was a mean-minded opponent, I would point out that the Goodnights started their own costly private academy in Cary.

Voters care about how the bonds will affect their kids and their pocketbooks.  And not necessarily in that order.

The best thing Atkinson and Goodnight can do is raise several million dollars to run a professional campaign.

And that campaign better start with some serious public opinion research. 

That means focus groups and polls.

That means listening to people before you start preaching to them.

God gave you two ears and one mouth for a good reason.  Use them that way.

Otherwise, these bonds – as I have said before on this site – are going down, down, down.

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When an issue is popular just try to get between a politician and the limelight and you take your life in your hands.

But when politicians start appointing task forces and committees to promote issues look out – it’s a sure sign the issue is unpopular. Otherwise, the politicians would be leading the charge themselves, instead of telling someone else to do it.

Local political leaders are supporting a committee, Friends of Wake County, to promote a property tax increase to pay for a billion dollar school bond. Bill Atkinson, the head of Wake Med Hospital, and Ann Goodnight, philanthropist and wife of SAS founder Jim Goodnight, have been chosen to lead the committee.

County Commission Chairman Tony Gurley praised Atkinson and Goodnight, saying they were picked because they are “well respected by business leaders and others in the community.” (News and Observer, 5/26/06). They are. But Gurley might well have added Atkinson and Goodnight are being offered as lambs to the slaughter because local politicians would much rather have Friends of Wake County leading the fight to increase property taxes – instead of doing it themselves.

Why? Because the Chamber of Commerce poll, the News and Observer/WRAL TV poll, and a poll by a non profit foundation all show voters overwhelmingly rejecting any bond that includes a tax increase.

The problem with the bonds isn’t that voters don’t support schools. The problem is they see elected officials spending millions – and hundreds of millions – on Convention Centers, parking decks and downtown hotels and they ask themselves, Why shouldn’t that money be spent on schools rather than raising taxes?

When politicians – like Mayor Meeker – have so much money they can afford to pay for a $200 million Convention Center, voters naturally wonder if it is really necessary to raise taxes to pay for schools.

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That’s an idea from Ben Stein.  You remember Ben: the boring teacher intoning “Bueller … Bueller … Bueller” in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Stein is also a funny, acerbic conservative writer who I enjoy reading and disagreeing with usually.

But he has a good idea:

Yes, raise the gas tax, as some environmentalists say.  Maybe we’ll start saving fossil fuels and cooling the globe.

But use the money for an explicit, earmarked purpose: giving American military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan the equipment, armor and support they need.

Good one, Ben.

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Last week I got an email from an old friend who is active in Raleigh politics.  He took issue with my recent analysis of city politics – and my warning that Mayor Meeker’s spending policies could present a problem for Raleigh Democrats.

I’m not going to use my friend’s name, because he didn’t say whether I could.  But I do want to pass on his comments.

He began:

“Gary - You are right that spending does always make an easy target, but you and Carter failed to note that the most likely Republican candidate for
Mayor has voted for most of that spending you cited, except the light
rail, which polls in the 70's in the city, and with Gas Prices, is
likely to garner more support.  I'm not sure being against that is a
winner inside the City.  Really not good to sell your city down the
river when you are trying to compete with other communities for federal transportation dollars.”

I assume he is referring to Philip Isley as the most likely Republican candidate for mayor.  And he’s right: Isley has a record to defend.

My critic addresses city spending on downtown projects:

“You are also wrong about ignoring areas away from downtown.  Last year,
over 85% of the City's capital budget was spent outside the beltline.
Folks in Wakefield have been quite supportive of the Mayor.  That said,
there is more happening downtown from private investment than anytime
since WWII.  That is a higher tax base that has been spurred by the City's investments.”

Next he turns to why John Odom lost his race for City Council:

“As to why Odom lost, you analysis is short here as well.  If impact fees
did not have significant impact on Russ Stephenson's win, then how do
you explain how close Paul Anderson came against Tommy Craven in a
heavily Republican district turning out a third less of the African American vote in that district than had turned out the previous cycle.”

One quibble: I don’t and didn’t deny that impact fees had a political impact.  They did.  I just said Odom made a mistake by running a turnout campaign when Republicans are 35 percent of turnout.

My friend concludes:

“I do know what is a real loser.  Failing to support a real increase in
impact fees, and then voting for a four cent tax hike.  It's not all
about  impact fees, but that is our best counter to Republican
demagoguery on taxes.

“I appreciate the advice, but instead of consistently doing Carter's work
for him, and carrying the development community’s water, you might
actually try and help our side by pointing out the short sightedness of our opposition.”

Actually, I’ve spent 30 years in politics pointing out the short-sightedness of our Republican opposition.  And I’ve often found it helpful to point out the short-sightedness of our Democratic friends first.

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John Edwards, who has made a political career of standing up on issues – like poverty – that are virtually non-controversial has found one more.

Edwards is for: Home.

He is publishing a book Home: The Blueprints of our Lives, which features profiles of the homes of Bob Dole, John Glenn, Maya Lin, Jake Gyllenhall and John Mellencamp. And he is about to launch a fifty city radio and a ten city television blitz to promote his new cause.

Now who on earth is going to disagree with John Edwards about the virtues of ‘Home’?

There is nothing wrong with John Edwards – or anyone else – lamenting poverty or praising the virtues of ‘Home.’

But John Edwards is running for President and we face real, controversial issues like immigration, terrorism and the War in Iraq. Isn’t it time he put his PR machine to work on one of them?

The problem with Edwards can be summed up in one word: Timid.

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Here’s a wise use of our education lottery money.

The Executive Director of the State Lottery is going to climb into a hot air balloon and sail it over the Raleigh beltline with two banners flapping in the wind promoting ‘Powerball.’ The cost of this PR stunt is $6,200.

In the meantime, while the lottery is spending money on balloons and banners, the Wake County School Board says it desperately needs a billion dollars to build schools.

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Hugh Morton, who died this week, was one of the most maddeningly persistent men I ever met.

He was also one of the sweetest souls I ever knew.

Hugh about drove me crazy when he pushed and pushed to get Jim Hunt and Jesse Helms together to save the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.  He got it done.

Years later, when we took our children to Grandfather Mountain, we ran into Hugh.

He made a great fuss over James and Maggie.  He insisted on taking us inside Mildred the Bear’s cage.  He took beautiful pictures of us all – with the bear.  Later we got the prints in the mail.

When we read that Hugh died, the kids remembered that day.  I remember a big old guy with a big heart.

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…is the way the Senate Democrats are hammering House Speaker Jim Black.

Marc Basnight, the Senate leader, is one of the all-time North Carolina political powerhouses, wheeler-dealers. He is also interesting. Because he has the ability to surprise.

Basnight’s surprise this year is all the punches the Senate is throwing at House Speaker Black.

First, before the Senators even got settled into their new chairs and caught their breaths, Basnight whipped a bill through the Senate to ban video-poker. Jim Black has been video poker’s protector in the legislature.

Next, Basnight whipped through a bill repealing another of Black’s pet projects: the requirement that children have eye exams before entering the first grade. Black has been criticized for his bill because he is an optometrist and, obviously, optometrists benefit from the requirement.

Lastly, just in case anyone thought all this was a coincidence Basnight whipped out a budget that cut pork-barrel spending. Specifically, the Senate cut out $400,000 in pork-barrel funds for the Sparta Teapot Museum – another Black sponsored project. Black has been criticized for receiving contributions from museum supporters.

Now, Senator Julia Boseman has introduced a bill to repeal another measure Black has been criticized about for inserting in last year’s budget: requiring insurers to treat chiropractors the same as family physicians when it comes to insurance co-payments.

Finally, Basnight and the Senate appear to be taking a stronger stand on “Ethics Reform” – to clean up the ‘pay to play’ scandals – than Black and the House. The House has sullenly offered lip service to reforms, but in fact it has done very little. Basnight and the Senate just turned thumbs down on the House’s watered down reform bill and say they are drafting a stronger bill of their own.

I would never have expected Marc Basnight, the iron-fisted kingpin of the State Senate, to be leading a crusade for “Ethics Reform.” But the Governor has done very little. And the House has done less. (Unfortunately, even House Republicans went along with the Democrats watered down reform bill.) By comparison, Basnight and the Senate have passed bills to address three specific ‘pay to play’ abuses and, right now, it seems the only ones pushing for tougher ‘Ethics Reforms’ are Basnight and the Senate Democrats.

In many ways it seems out of character. But, right now, Marc Basnight has emerged as an ‘Ethics Reformer.’ More power to him.

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N.C. State University is going to spend $3.5 million to build a 12,300 square foot ‘house’ for its chancellor (News and Observer, 5/21/06).

Similar ‘McMansions’ have been built at UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Charlotte and Appalachian State University.

There’s a lot to be proud of about NCSU but it’s a shame they’re trying to match other colleges by building their chancellor a new mansion. There may be a dozen arguments for it – like the mansion can host fundraising receptions to entertain wealthy donors – but building opulent mansions seems to fundamentally conflict with the mission of State Universities.

First, it makes taxpayers wonder about educator’s priorities. Was there no greater need for that $3.5 million? Second, the very lavishness of it seems inappropriate for a public institution. Naturally, when voters are asked to support more spending for State Universities they are going to look at that $3.5 million mansion and ask themselves, Was that really necessary?

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The TTA can’t get the first dollar out of Washington to build its lite-rail boondoggle. But Mayor Meeker and the Raleigh City Council have voted to approve a TTA station on five acres at the State Fairgrounds.

There’s no lite-rail. There’s no funding coming from Washington for lite-rail. But taxpayers are buying land for the station anyway.

Maybe what the city should really do is take the TTA’s budget and build a school on that five acres.

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