Pearce: Perdue's commission won't help

Correct. Bev is backed by the good ole boys. She represents their interests, will continue their networks, and will ensure the same old turfs protected.

She won't rock their boat.

They'll still tell lurid jokes about her behind her back, but they'll turn right around and pat her on the head, as they have for years, because she'll never threaten their institution with an independent thought, much less an independent program.

I wouldn't trust any governor, past, present or foreseeable future, with a line-item veto.

James

But another commission won't help anything. Pearce is right about that. Commissions will only take us so far, bold leadership is what will be required to put north carolina on top. Line item veto power for the governor would be a perfect tool in the right hands.
And, btw, Bev Perdue IS the old guard.

Politics aside, Mr. Pearce badly misses the boat with regard to the substance of the matter. Perdue isn't talking about cutting that budget, she's talking about saving money in some areas so it can be reallocated to others.

More to the point, what's wrong with staff reductions in state government? I work with global businesses that reduce long-term operating costs by 1% every year. They generally use technology and supply-chain investments to automate certain activities that used to be done with pure people power. And they almost always use attrition instead of layoffs to reduce payroll. Quality improves, performance improves, service improves. Sure it takes an initial investment, but the long term benefits are clear and well-documented.

The job of state government is not to employ people. It is to serve people. If that can be done better by having a leaner organization backed by effective technology and innovation, then so be it.

There comes a time when members of the old guard need to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they're still serving a useful purpose. In my view, people who think that the Democratic Party shouldn't be continually focused on efficiency and performance in government are part of the problem.

Perdue's plan isn't perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than "we-can't-do-better" hand-wringing from people who don't understand the nature of performance improvements in modern organizations.

So Gary Pearce is now criticizing the BRAC budget reform idea as a Republican idea. Yet his boy Richard Moore still supports it at the federal level. And Moore opposes it at the state level only because Bev Perdue is leading on it. Pearce and Moore need to regroup and get their stories straight...

And this is exactly what I fear will happen if Bev Perdue is elected governor, more of the same. Now, that might not be an entirely bad thing. Governor Easley has had a pretty good run. But Bev Perdue will not be the bold leader that this state needs.
I think Richard Moore is much more of a Sanford or Hunt type of leader and Bev Perdue is more of a Mike Easley figure. Again, not a bad thing necessarily, but not what I, and a lot of NC Democrats are looking for in this upcoming election.