Monsieur Meeker speaks

Bonjour, y'all.

Well, whatever Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said to the crowd over the weekend in Compiegne, France, for its Armistice Day celebration, it was probably a bit more dignified.

But Meeker did pull out his middle school French skills to give a brief talk during the event.

Meeker was invited last spring to be the U.S. representative at the small city's celebration. Compiegne is one of Raleigh's sister cities. He gave a short speech in French.

"I worked on it, and people acted as if they understood it," said Meeker, who attended with his wife, Anne McLaurin.

Meeker, who paid for the trip with his own money, said the experience at events marking the end of World War I was moving. The armistice between the Allies and Germany was signed in Compiegne on Nov. 11, 1918.

"The U.S. flag and National Anthem are always performed first, given the importance of saving northern Europe," Meeker said. "It really is a moving experience to be appreciated like that all these years later."

MUSICAL CHAIRS: Who will lead the Wake County Board of Commissioners in 2007?

The answer will be one of the first signs of how the new lineup will get along over the next two years.

In recent memory, a commissioner has been chairman for a year and then been replaced by the former vice chairman.

In a conspicuous show of bipartisanship, Republican Chairman Tony Gurley chose Democrat Harold Webb as his vice chairman this year.

That would put a Democrat in charge of a board that is 4-3 in favor of Republicans next year.

Another possibility is that incoming Commissioner Paul Coble will lobby for the job, reasoning that a member of the Republican majority should lead the board instead.

If that happened, it would be a sign of increasing partisanship.

Commissioners will vote on the new chairman and vice chairman at their meeting Dec. 4.

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For more political scuttlebutt and chatter, check out the WakePol blog at blogs.newsobserver. com/wakepol/.

POLITICAL TRAIL

•WESTERN WAKE REPUBLICAN CLUB: The Western Wake Republican Club will meet Monday at Fox & Hound, 111 Shannon Oaks Circle, Cary. Dinner will be available from 6 to 7 p.m., and the meeting begins at 7 p.m.

On the agenda is "thanking all the Republican candidates who ran for office" and a planning discussion.

For more information about Western Wake Republicans, visit www.westernwakegop.org, and for the Wake County GOP, visit www.wakegop.org. For other inquiries, call Vinnie DeBenedetto at 363-1967.

POLITICALLY SPEAKING

"It's a good thing he waited until after the election to kill an innocent animal."

(-- Commissioner Tony Gurley, commenting on recently re-elected Wake Commissioner Joe Bryan, who was showing off pictures of an eight-point buck he shot while hunting in eastern Wake County last weekend.)