Under the Dome

I guess we now know who's paying for all this non-campaign activity.

State Rep. Bill Faison loaned his campaign account $500,000 as he continues to dodge the question of whether he will challenge Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue in a primary battle or seek another higher office. For months, Faison, an Orange County Democrat, has traveled the state meeting with Democrats and touting an economic plan that includes a sales tax hike -- spark speculation that he would seek higher office.

Amid Perdue's campaign troubles, Faison also questioned whether she was best suited to represent the party. At an event Wednesday morning, he distributed a six-page memo that appeared much like a campaign platform. Faison said the money would go to support Democrats, but he refused to provide specifics. "I think it's important to show a commitment to the process. And to win back the legislature and keep the governor's office blue," he later told Dome.

Amid Perdue's campaign troubles? Sounds like just a teensy bit of water-carrying from the new guy at the N&O. According to the Faison non-campaign, Perdue hasn't even declared her intentions, let alone begun campaigning.

The plot sickens.

Great reporting by the Dome's J.B. Frank on the colossal incompetence of Thom Tillis and Phil Berger in recruiting new business. Regardless of what you think about corporate incentives (I'm against them), Tillis and Berger played both ends against the middle, allowing their petty personal agendas to trump jobs for North Carolina. These guys are just like Republicans everywhere: willing to sacrifice the economy to score political points. It's sickening.

Sen. Richard Burr last week co-sponsored a bill to overhaul the Medicaid program, overturn the federal health care plan and give states new flexibility to design their own health insurance program for the poor. [snip]
The Medicaid Improvement and State Empowerment Act would repeal the national health care law passed last year by Congress with the backing of President Barack Obama. It would provide money to the states to run their own programs.

Ah yes. Nothing like the smell of chickenshit in the morning. Burr doesn't have the backbone to take a principled stand on anything. If he's against entitlement programs and all in favor of states having more freedom, why not just cut states off completely?

This post brought to you via Under the Dome at the Charlotte Observer.

Today I'm not writing about Richard Burr, although the three adjectives certainly apply to him. No, in this case, I'm writing about a post from Under the Dome. I confess that my expectations for political reporting in North Carolina can hardly get much lower, but when I read stuff like this, even that low bar drops a few notches.

The Republican spin machine was working overtime after Tuesday night's Senate debate. “Tonight, Richard Burr proved once again that he is the right person to lead North Carolina,” declared state Republican Party chairman Tom Fetzer in a release from the state GOP.

Chimed in the National Republican Senatorial Committee: “Tonight's debate served as yet another reminder that Marshall's liberal views are out of touch with mainstream North Carolinians and the Tar Heel State cannot afford her rubber stamp support for President Obama's reckless economic agenda in Washington.”

And from the Democratic spin machine? Nada.

One gets the impression of a helpless cowbird chick in a nest, mouth wide open waiting for any passing bird to drop a pre-digested worm into its mouth.

One of the state's leading political gossip columns today is reporting that State Auditor Beth Wood is under attack by anonymous cowards.

Wood was responding to questions about an anonymous tip Dome received, saying that Wood had two executive assistants babysit a child at the office during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Wood acknowledged she had the daughter of a friend in the office, but no one was asked to baby sit. She said the tip was another in a series of unfounded attacks against her.

Steve Harrison's post on the front page links to an article by Rob Christensen on the main N&O website.

It's always risky business to talk about the challenges facing rival political blogs, especially in the middle of the summer when our traffic is in the toilet and people seem mostly sick of partisan hackery. But Gary Pearce this week opines about the downward spiral of the Dome, attributing the decline to a lack of constantly updated content. Since Beckwith left, says Pearce, the residual crew has not settled into a crank-it-out routine, and the fall-off in new posts has been palpable.

As some of you may know, I've been a frequent visitor and fan of the Under the Dome blog at the N&O since its inception. Indeed, I doubt there is another person who has done more to promote their site with links and commentary than I have. In recent months, though, the growth of right-wing vitriol there has been both alarming and off-putting. The same thing has been happening at Talking About Politics and WRAL News.

After two years of political blogging, O-No! had a changing of the guard this weekend with the departure of Ryan Teague Beckwith. He left to take a new job in DC, shifting "Under the Dome" fully in the direction of a group blog. According to Beckwith, Rob Christensen, Lynn Bonner, Mark Johnson, Ben Niolet, Jane Stancill and Bill Krueger will take over responsibilities for feeding the machine.

But misses the main point, which is this:

Senator Richard Burr acted on insider information in his own self interest first, not in the interest of his constituents or the nation.