Eight years ago, if you asked who the most powerful politicians in North Carolina were, you?d have gotten a list looking pretty much like this:

? Gov. Mike Easley
? Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue
? U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms
? U.S. Sen. John Edwards
? Speaker of the House Jim Black
? House Majority Leader Joe Hackney
? Senate leader Marc Basnight
? Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand
? Senate Majority Whip Frank Ballance
? Longest-serving state senator R.C. Soles

Today, Black and Ballance are convicted felons, Easley and Soles are under investigation, Edwards is a national laughingstock and under investigation, and Perdue is the most unpopular governor in modern North Carolina history. Hackney, Basnight, and Rand are still in power but in 2010 will probably face their most-competitive election cycle since 1994.

And the late Sen. Helms was highly praised from the stage at the recent U2 concert in Raleigh.

Set the politics aside and just think about how fortunes can be reversed, tables can be turned, and big heads can deflate. Humility is a virtue and the future is always uncertain.