theCLog

Well, that’s one way to spend Memorial Day …

Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C. said Monday she has a better perspective on the harsh conditions in Afghanistan as she visited the Middle East on her first oversees trip since taking office this year.

Hagan said she was able to spend two days in Afghanistan over the Memorial Day weekend, visiting with U.S. troops and talking with senior officials from both countries. The trip was not disclosed until Monday for security reasons, and she called to speak with reporters from an undisclosed location in the region.

Read more at Charlotte.com.

A ride over the poppy fields:

Bookmark It

First, Sen. Kay Hagan said U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding, a Republican appointed by George W. Bush and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina — the one who’s investigating John Edwards and former N.C. Gov. Mike Easley — would be replaced in weeks.

However, after reportedly speaking to the White House she’s now OK with Holding sticking around until he’s finished investigating the former senator with the well-paid ex-girlfriend and the well-traveled ex-governor with the well-paid wife.

But, there’s more: Hagan created a panel to screen possible replacements for Holding. Tuesday, one of them quit and drove over to Easley’s house for a visit. Odd.

And, the saga continues. Mary Easley, the well-paid wife in question, is holding a press conference today at 11 a.m.

Republican U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding appears to have kept his job, extending his control over federal investigations of North Carolina’s two highest-profile Democrats of the past decade.

In a reversal from a few days ago, Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan said Wednesday that Holding should remain until investigations of former Gov. Mike Easley and former Sen. John Edwards are completed. She announced her decision after consulting with the White House.

…

Hagan’s new stance came a day after the resignation of one member of a three-person screening panel that she established to winnow candidates for the top prosecutors and judicial positions in North Carolina.

Locke Clifford, a criminal defense lawyer from Greensboro, stepped down Tuesday but did not cite a reason. Clifford has not returned calls or made comments. Clifford’s vehicle was at the home of Mike and Mary Easley in Raleigh late Tuesday afternoon.

Read more at Charlotte.com.

Bookmark It

Instead of fighting for an industry that’s doing its best to foster addictions, kill customers and ruin lives, why not focus some attention on new industries that will carry North Carolina in the future?

U.S. senators began debate Tuesday on legislation that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarettes, an idea that has the strong backing of public health advocates across the country.

Standing in their way were the two senators from North Carolina.

Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Kay Hagan teamed up for the first significant issue in their short time together in the Senate, offering arguments to weaken a popular bill that, they fear, could decimate a historic industry in their state.

Read the rest of this article at Charlotte.com.

Your health vs. the tobacco industry:

Bookmark It

We reported on May 5 that U.S. Senator Richard “Tobacco Dick” Burr could be in trouble in his 2010 re-election campaign. The North Carolina legislator, according to polls, is seen by many as lackluster and too beholden to the tobacco industry. Election expert Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com predicted that Burr’s seat was very vulnerable in 2010, but on the condition that N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper run against him in the general election. Well, that ain’t happenin’, as Cooper announced Friday afternoon that he is not interested in being a U.S. Senator. Cooper’s decision means the Democrats no longer have a consensus candidate, and will be hard-pressed to find someone to jump into the race in time to raise the necessary cash. The only bright spot for anti-Burr voters is that the same thing was said last year about Kay Hagan’s chances, who is now, as you know, a U.S. Senator, after having beaten Liddy Dole like a drum in November 2008.

Bookmark It

You may not have heard about it, but there are two proposed amendments before the N.C. legislature to ban same-sex marriages. The proposals have been stuck in committee, and after today’s newly announced poll results on the subject, that may be where the anti-gay legislation stays.

An Elon University poll released today asked North Carolina adults about their view on same-sex marriage, and the results are unexpectedly good news for progressive forces in the state. When asked whether they would support or oppose an amendment to the North Carolina constitution that would prevent same sex marriages, 50.4 percent of respondents said they were opposed. Support for an amendment stood at 43.3 percent, with the rest undecided or refusing to answer.

Here are more detailed results: Strongly Oppose, 21.2 percent; Oppose, 29.2 percent; Strongly Support, 24.5 percent; Support, 18.8 percent.

So far, media stories have reported the poll results as “stunning” or “unexpectedly liberal,” as if the state didn’t just go for Obama four months ago while also electing a Democratic woman as governor, and another one as U.S. Senator. That senator, Kay Hagan was, you may remember, accused by her opponent, then-incumbent Liddy Dole, of promoting “San Francisco values,” and Hagan still managed to bury Dole.

Looks like times have changed in North Carolina a bit quicker than some people realize, or want to admit. It’s about time.

Bookmark It

I’m happy to say that in the end, the people didn’t fall for it. They didn’t fall for the horrible ads, in which Dole’s campaigners cut-and-pasted words from different speeches to make Kay Hagan say, “There is no God!” They didn’t fall for the ads comparing Hagan to a little barking terrier, before moving on to how well respected Dole is in Washington.

Last week I wrote a blog saying that if there was a God, he would strike down Elizabeth Dole for that ridiculous ad claiming Hagan’s campaign was using “Godless money,” whatever that is. From the looks of her things duringher concession speech last night, Dole just might have been struck by lightning.

On Monday night, I braved pouring rain, a longer line than any voting location could hold and crazy pro-lifers with photoshopped pictures of babies looking just like the ones who rang my doorbell on Friday night, all to hear Barack Obama speak at UNCC. I got a special surprise to hear Kay Hagan speak first to the huge crowds settling into the muddy fields in front of Duke Centennial Hall. She gave a great speech and I was surprised at the amount of people truly cheering her on, not just waiting around for the big guy to get there. The biggest response to Hagan came when she told the crowd to help her send Dole a new pair of ruby red slippers to send her back to Kansas. Thinking of this moment gave me a great feeling to hear her tell her supporters back in Greensboro last night that she was looking for a new pair of slippers, because she gave hers away. A nice way of rubbing it in to the woman who spent the last weeks of her campaign, and probably her political career, desperately slandering Kay Hagan’s name.

Bookmark It

Sen. Elizabeth Dole has already smeared herself by releasing that infamous “Godless” Kay Hagan attack ad, but now she’s digging herself into an even deeper hole by continuing that dumb-ass argument. Check out her latest ad:

Bookmark It

What has this race come to?!?! Elizabeth Dole released an attack ad Wednesday morning calling Kay Hagan an atheist, saying she attended a secret fundraiser held by the Godless Americans PAC and showed atheists talking about their views. The worst part of the ad comes at the end when the holier-than-thou narrator asks the question, “What did Hagan promise in return?” followed by a voice that’s supposed to sound like Hagan’s sort of moaning, “There is no God!” as if she’s already beginning her descent to hell.

(more…)

Bookmark It

Throughout the campaign, Kay Hagan has said she wants to give Elizabeth Dole a pair of Ruby Red Slippers so she can click her heels three times and go back to Kansas with her husband, Bob, according to a release sent from Hagan’s campaign.

Before a June Red Slipper event, a supporter said:

“Liddy Dole has consistently voted against the better interests of the people of North Carolina, who she was elected to represent,” said Grace Liem, a Cabarrus County supporter. “She seems to think that she was elected to support her party rather than the common, working folk. Kay Hagan has consistently voted in the North Carolina Senate in the best interests of North Carolina from children’s health care to military matters. She has proven her mettle and I am proud to work on getting her elected.”

I think it’s cute that Hagan and her supports have started designing these red shoes for Dole, but isn’t there a more creative way to show people that it’s time for Dole to go? Maybe by focusing on some real issues? With the economy as bad as it is, politicians don’t have to play these political games. They can just hit voters with the truth: The country went to hell on the Senator’s watch. Do your part and vote her out.

Voters aren’t stupid — well, not all of them. There are those people who voted for President Bush twice.

Bookmark It