WakeMed, already armed with veteran PR consultants with Democratic ties, has recruited some Republican firepower.

Tom Fetzer, who plans to step down as chairman of the state GOP next month, has taken WakeMed as his first consulting client. "Hopefully there will be others," he said.

Last month, WakeMed launched a PR and political fight with its Chapel Hill rival, the UNC Health Care System. WakeMed officials have accused UNC Health of using its taxpayer support to pay for "predatory" expansion and disrupt the Wake County medical market.

To assist with its UNC Health dispute, WakeMed officials previously hired Gary Pearce and Joyce Fitzpatrick, who are well-connected public relations consultants.

Adding Fetzer gives WakeMed more political muscle on the right. 

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta is not objecting to schools showing President Barack Obama's second annual back-to-school speech on Tuesday.

As noted in today's article, Margiotta had objected last year to the speech being shown in school and unsuccessfully tried to get his fellow school board members to vote on the issue. Margiotta, then in the board minority, had said "we just don't need political figures to take over our schools."

But Margiotta said that, based on how innocuous last year's speech was, he's not objecting this time.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR LINK TO TEXT OF OBAMA'S SPEECH ON TUESDAY

Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, said through a spokeswoman, Chrissy Pearson, that the acts by
Poole have "contributed to the overall distrust of our state leaders."

She said Perdue has been working to make changes to restore confidence in government.

"She is looking for swift justice," Pearson said. "And she looks forward to the case coming to an end."

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NCGOP Chairman Tom Fetzer made the following statement concerning the plea agreement reached today by former Easley aide Ruffin Poole:

"Mike Easley put North Carolina state government up for the sale to the highest bidder and Ruffin Poole was his lead auctioneer.  From board appointments to coastal permits, it appears everything had a price and Ruffin Poole was always there to close the deal.  The same people whose names were littered throughout the Easley hearings and the Ruffin Poole indictment were prominent players in the Perdue for Governor Campaign and her current administration.  As we move forward with yet another scandal centered around North Carolina Democrat politicians, we must ask the State Board of Elections if citizens will have to wait until after Governor Perdue is out of office before the proper questions are asked.  Until then, we must collectively hold our laughter as we are expected to believe that the same people who corrupted the Easley administration with airplane flights and bundled contributions somehow had totally pure motives when engaging in the same activity with the Perdue campaign.”

Critics of the new Wake County school board majority and conservative businessman Art Pope struck the state GOP headquarters today.

A banner was hung up this afternoon in front of the building which read “POPE BOUGHT THIS BUILDING, POPE BOUGHT THE BOARD, 3/23: DO NOT BUY IT." The banner has since been removed.

Critics of the new school board majority have increasingly argued that Pope "bought" the school board through his campaign donations to the county GOP and his support of conservative groups such as Americans for Prosperity, Civitas Institute and the John Locke Foundation.

As part of his visit with The N&O editorial board, state GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer pointed out that Americans need to remember that our sovereignty lies not with our government but with us, and he said that being an American comes with important duties and requires harder work than most realize.

He also said that we tend to overanalyze every nuance of every election and that he has come to an important realization: the ground game rules.

Here are excerpts of his talking of these things:

State GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer met today with members of The N&O's editorial board and other reporters and editors. Fetzer, who said several times that he's tired of political fighting and weary of labels, predicts good things for Republicans in 2010, including a big re-election win for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.

Fetzer said he takes no glee in what has happened to former Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, but he did say that the Democratic dominance of state politics for 100 years is one thing to blame. Competition, he said, keeps politics honest. And he said nobody likes to see good people ruined. He traced North Carolina's political troubles back to when the State Constitution was amended to allow the governor two terms instead of one and said it's time to change that back.

Fetzer rejected the notion that conservative Republicans have to move to the center to get elected and said his party needs to do a better job of explaining the GOP tent rather than enlarging it. If people better understood what limited government means, they would embrace it.

Here are some excerpts of Fetzer talking about Easley and about the current troubles of Gov. Bev Perdue.