newsobserver.com projects - Cass Ballenger - Comments

Re: Ballenger's visit with Chavez

cmitchz — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:25:00 -0400

Was it as well known in April 2001 that Chavez is an America-hating fringe lefty?

Certainly he was known for his socialism, or should have been to a US Rep, although Chavez has advanced state control over his people since then. But he wasn't yet the clown face of third world anti-Americanism that he is today, for whatever that may be worth.

Re: Ballenger's visit with Chavez

maxlynda — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:04:43 -0400

I rise to defend former Congressman Cass Ballenger for having committed hospitality.

Playing host to Mr. Chavez is certainly not the sort of conduct one would normally expect of a God-fearing, card-carrying Republican conservative, which Mr. Ballenger most assuredly is and has been for lo these four-plus decades.

At the same time, it may be as difficult for those unfamiliar with his record of service to imagine that the self-same Mr. Ballenger was once a God-fearing, card-carrying Democratic moderate with his moon in the manufacture of plastic bags and his family foundation dedicated to the care of the deserving, grateful poor.

Be that as it may, Mr. Ballenger is what he is, and always has been. If Republicans can forgive him for having once embraced the principles of the Democratic Party, surely they can be as generous in appreciating his welcoming attitude toward a guest in his home, even one as smarmingly ignoble as Mr. Chavez, the jerk.

I should add that I have also enjoyed many an evening of conviviality at the Ballenger home, whatever you may think of it.

Max Veale

Re: Ballenger's visit with Chavez

CitizenOpinionated — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:04:43 -0400

Plus there is a difference when it is the President of the United States of America as opposed to a mere representative...

So what was the point of this post Ryan????

Re: Ballenger's visit with Chavez

CitizenOpinionated — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:03:46 -0400

Wow - this shows desperation by Ryan to help out the liberals' PR efforts.

Re: Sinsheimer's award

Proctor — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:58:14 -0400

The North Carolina Press Association can now give itself a nice pat on the back and check in for another nice long "Rip Van Wink at the News" nap. It would be nice to say that the press got half of this story right, but it's more like a third.

This nasty and accusatory web site emerged as the substitute for statewide press inquiries into the true circumstances of the entire struggle for leadership of the North Carolina House of Representatives during the last part of the speakership of Jim Black. It didn't possibly occur to the press that perhaps a Republican state legislator actually wanted to switch parties for reasons other than receiving eventual financial support in the campaign arena.

They key part of the background story which went completely unreported by such leading dailies at The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer was and is the extraordinary hostility and certain retaliatory action promised to any Republican legislator who expresses anything more than a passing interest in cooperating with Democratic representatives and senators in the General Assembly for progress toward bi-partisan solutions to the problems facing North Carolina today. The press couldn't bring itself to at least consider the fact that not all the maneuvering in matters of across-the-aisle political consultation is controlled by the Democratic Party.

You could not then and still cannot today find a Capitol Press Corps reporter from a print or broadcast news organization willing to talk with state Republican insiders on just what personal and political penalties can be meted out to an individual Republican lawmaker who wishes to move beyond in-the-loop GOP oversight and regimentation of its own ranks in order to make a bold step toward creating even a temporary bi-partisan alliance with a legislator from the other party to move ahead on the agenda of the day.

Thus we are left with a virtual "winner-take-all" attitude toward the partisan conduct of legislative affairs which leaves the eventual minority party after any given election wondering just what it takes to get a paragraph or two inserted into a bill under current consideration in committee or on the floor. And oh, just remember how many editorials you have read decrying this way of running the General Assembly of the Old North State.

So to get yourself a blogspot award from the N.C. Press Association, just remember: be one-sided, provocative and rude in regard to the person or organization you are opposing and thus by providing the press with a reprise of the Rip Van Wink at the News, carry home the plaudits and kudos which otherwise wouls have accrued to reporters and editorial writers willing to look more deeply into the politics of the Capital City.

Then at the very end, the FBI went unchallenged editorially by the North Carolina press by coming out with a flip statement to the effect that a federal facility like Butner in this state cannot really be considered for serving a prison sentence and also providing timely and appropriate medical services in a case whose merits for that service are clear and obvious. No, North Carolina is just "a throw-away state" and not on equal footing with the other states in the Union, because "real states" like West Virginia and Pennsylvania are the ones which can meet the exigencies and responsibilities of the situation.

What we are seeing is the demotion of the ranking of state government in North Carolina vis-a-vis state governments in the other 49 states in the Union so that the practitioners of national partisan politics will have some extra political footballs to kick around, with some federal judicial officials having the luxury of practicing their place-kicking throughout the year.

David McKnight--Durham