D.G. Martin

William Friday has been dead a year now, and we still don’t know how we are going to get along without him.  He was a living monument to all that is, or was, right with our state. Optimism, confidence in the basic goodness of...

What is the first rule of politics? “Follow the money,” says Mickey, a character in Robert Inman’s new book, “The Governor’s Lady.” It is a rule that we might overlook in a time when our...

What advice would author Pat Conroy’s late mother give President Obama in dealing with congressional Republicans over the government shutdown and debt ceiling crises? We get a clue in Conroy’s latest book, “The Death of...

How could it be worse? We ask ourselves this question as our government’s ability to lead our country disintegrates and we are mostly helpless to keep it from happening. Funny, though, that this concern can evaporate in...

President Barack Obama and Governor Pat McCrory are in the same box. Criticized by their opponents for being radical and divisive, they are, at the same time, dismissed by partisans in their own political parties as too moderate...

“Aren’t you writing about politics anymore?” a newspaper editor asked me the other day. I stuttered because I have been writing more about books than politics lately. The editor continued, “Are you a little gun-shy from that...