howard coble

Rightwing cheerleading for common criminals is nothing new, but it does come as a bit of a surprise to see that good ol' Howard Coble has signed on to a bill honoring the latest darling of the dark side, the wiretapping crook named James O'Keefe. Many thanks and a hat tip to Dave Ribar.

Just in case you haven't had your fill of lunatics jumping into elections because god wants them to, Mark Binker has another story.

On Howard Coble: “He has no fight left in him…I like the man, but if wins, he’s going to Washington and he’s not going to fight. We’re in too critical of a time not to fight…”

Hinson said Coble needs to be more confrontational, both in his rhetoric and in the bills that he has filed. “I think he’ll sit back and vote. I don’t think he’ll stand up and introduce anything that will be controversial,” Hinson said.

Coble has been in office since 1984 and rarely faced a primary challenge over his career. I asked Hinson what makes her think she can win:

“I prayed about it and it’s right for me to do this and that’s the reason I say if the people want me, I’ve done everything I can do,” Hinson said.

The US House passed a bill yesterday opening the door a crack for the FDA to get involved in regulating cigarettes. At issue are additives in cigarettes that are designed to make smoking more appealing to young people. Binker pulls out this amazing section of the bill, and does us the favor of translating it, too.

The editors of The Pilot in Southern Pines has made, in my opinion, the right choice in recommending that Democratic and Unaffiliated voters that vote in the Democratic Primary in NC-06 choose Jay Ovittore as their candidate to face Howard Coble in November, who they believe it will be "hard to dislodge".

Veritas.

This Latin word for Truth is dead, but is its meaning? It very definition implies an honesty we rarely see in our own lives let alone in politics.

I don't know if I moderated or liberalized the debate in Asheboro tonight, but at least I can say I didn't 'conserve' it.

I bought a stopwatch at the mall and was at our new 2008 Randolph County Democratic Party HQ at 6:15. Our people already had the sound system set up, and the candidates all three arrived by 6:45 for a 7PM start. We 'drew straws' for the starting and ending statement order.

I've been worrying about controlling the chaos as moderator of the 6th District debate tomorrow night, so here are some groundrules I'm proposing after a night's research.

They're based on the usual "Presidential Debate" procedures established in 1988 when the League of Women Voters revived national political debating. No debate this year has really followed any standard format, mainly because they started out with large numbers of candidates which diminished through the process, so the time for responses has grown proportionately.

Any one is welcome to give me feed back here- these Ground Rules aren't carved in stone, and I haven't emailed them to the candidates or journalists yet (read it here first!) The debate will begin with each candidate having two (2) minutes to make a short opening statement, the order being determined in advance by draw.