Tim Funk

I was amused to discover in your newspaper today that most people in North Carolina don't hate you. According to a new poll, only two out of every ten people in our state think you suck, whereas six out of ten have a more favorable impression. The others don't seem to care about you one way or the other. You can put me in the latter camp.

That said, the reporter who wrote the story about the poll got a little frisky with his fantasies, adding a personal comment about your mayors.

O-No! has been all a'twitter lately prognosticating the possibilities of Senator Dull calling it quits. The Raleigh edition had this story last week, and the Charlotte edition weighs in today, with Mr. Tim Funk doing the honors. The stories are virtually identical, which makes it hard to understand why O-No! paid to have it written twice.

But it's a good story all the same, because it asks the senior Senator to answer a very important question: why doesn't she care about North Carolina? Naturally, her first instinct when confronted with that question is to lie:

I asked Dole if she thought N.C. voters would be OK with her spending so much of her time this year jetting around the country on behalf of GOP Senate candidates.

"I've certainly not heard people objecting to it ... I think they understand that it's important to keep the (Republican) majority if we want to continue to see the policies that have benefited folks and families -- like tax relief," she said. "In addition, I think people understand that being in the (Senate GOP) leadership means that you've had an opportunity to discuss issues that are important to North Carolina."

Lest you think I do nothing but pick on poor newspaper reporters, I've decided to take another approach today. I'm going to show a couple some love. The first, Joanie Morris of the Salisbury Post really earned it. The second, Tim Funk, of The Charlotte Observer is going to get some love for a much better job in portraying Larry's campaign.

After the hatchet job last week of GOP shill, Tim Whitmire, seeing some good strong reporting is refreshing. On a side note, I find myself chuckling over the fact that Whitmire's piece was picked up by only a handful of papers or news sites and only one was in-market. Voters in Fort Wayne, Indiana will probably be wondering who the hell Larry Kissell is and why they can't vote for him as will voters in Myrtle Beach and Hampton Roads, VA. Only WCNC (Channel 6 News) had the piece printed on their web site. The paper of record in North Carolina still has not picked up on the story. The Art Pope Digest in Raleigh carried it, though - big, BIG surprise.

More on the flip...

Quick, guess who said this last week:

"I still believe there was credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction, and of connections between the Iraqi government and al-Qaida."

Is the suspense killing you? Do you imagine that this evidence of delusion came from some looney tune like Karl Rove or Donnie Rumsfeld? Well, I have news for you. These words came from our own junior moron in the Senate, Dick Burr. I'm not talking two years ago. Or even two months ago. I'm talking LAST FREAKIN' WEEK, hot on the heels of our own government's conclusive findings that there were NO connections between Iraq and al-Qaida.