Say What?
"Earth to John: The National Enquirer now officially has more credibility than you do." - Gary Pearce, Democratic campaign consultant and former adviser to Democrat John Edwards' 1998 Senate campaign, regarding John Edwards' confession to an affair. (Talking About Politics, August 13, 2008)
"I just don't have any confidence in these people to make decisions involving my money." - Greg Dundler, a local property owner and taxpayer, describing the actions of the Roanoke Rapids city leaders regarding the Parton Entertainment Complex. News & Observer, August 1, 2008
"To cut off debate on the most important piece of legislation that this body enacts, it seems to me is a miscarriage of everything that democracy stands for." - Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger, criticizing the Senate Democratic leadership for refusing to accept Republican amendments and for cutting off debate of the 2008 state budget bill, June 19, 2008
"Babe Ruth would not be happy with this record - they all struck out."- Sen. David Hoyle, remarking on the failure of local real estate transfer tax referendums across the state (Under the Dome, June 12, 2008). Since last November, 20 referendums in 20 different counties failed to gain the approval of voters, leading the Senate Finance Committee, which Hoyle co-chairs, to recommend repeal of the local option for the tax. "Sooner or later, it is going to impact the budget and people's lives." - Sen. Steve Goss, discussing rising inflation during legislative talks regarding the 2008-09 state budget. As reported by the Insider, May 22, 2008. Goss apparently has a clear understanding of the obvious.
"I chunked it." - Governor Mike Easley, on the fate of a note he'd received from former DHHS Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom regarding the state of the current mental health system. "When I read something, unless it's charts or something or budgetary stuff ... I get rid of it." "You'd have thought I murdered somebody, wouldn't ya?" - Rep. Thomas Wright, expressing his surprise at the swarm of media surrounding him upon his release after turning himself in to Wake County authorities on felony charges involving swindling taxpayers and campaign contributors, December 14, 2007. Wright was convicted in 2008 and is currently residing, probably with murderers, in a state prison. "Their business plan had no chance of survival." - Michael Boyd, president of a "If government has done something good, then the people need to know about it ... and if government has done something bad, then the people still need to know about it so they can demand that it be fixed." - Jim Shepherd, former DHHS Public Information Officer, 1989. Comments are recounted from a speech by Debbie Crane, who was fired from DHHS by Governor Mike Easley on March 4, 2008, apparently for her propensity for transparency.
