UPDATED: The Senate Race: Substance and Style

For instance, "border" parties where Jim holds rallies/fundraisers/meet'n'greets at the border of four counties. Invite all the Democratic establishment and/or anyone who wants to come from the four counties and talk about the problems common to them all.

One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The first version of this got eaten by the internet. The tubes were clogged.

I disagree because I believe that a Senator is elected to serve every constiuent. They arent elected to serve the people who live in Raleigh and Charlotte just as much as they arent elected to serve the people who live in DC and spend millions lobbying them. They arent elected to serve the people in Greensboro more than the people in Avery county.

Right now Elizabeth Dole represents huge corporations and George Bush. She doesnt represent the people of this state. I want a Senator who will represent everyone who lives here, no matter where they live.

And A, which 4 counties arent worth his time so that you could justify him visiting 96 instead of 100?

"Keep the Faith"

if only because you're there.

I'd encourage you to contact both campaigns and extend the invitation.

I would love to bring him around to see Jim speak in Moore County. Maybe I could even get to meet "icloud" there! ;-)

North Carolina. Turning the South Blue!

Some smaller counties, like Lee County (my home turf--and hey, Neal could hit Moore and Lee all in one day) also allow for more free media than you bigger counties. Neal can get front page coverage in smaller newspapers just for visiting for an hour; you bigger counties might give him a mention in the Local section somewhere. Also, if Neal, Hagan, or whomever plays it right, they can "double-dip" with the Dem running for the House in that area and make it a noteworthy gathering. Erskine Bowles meet with Etheridge here in Lee County and had a great turnout, for example (yeah, yeah, I know that Erskine is not the best example since he lost, but you get my drift).

We are not calling Kay Hagan a torturer. Heh

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

When Kay comes by for a live blog session here, don't forget to ask her this very question and explain how disappointing the answer was. If she parses her answer here, call bullshit immediately.

North Carolina. Turning the South Blue!

I think Tony Rand and David Hoyle remain very much in the small circle of power that Basnight leads. There is no question about Kay's inside status. Without having a strong impression of what Kay would be like were she to move from that circle to a new one, I have to admit to a certain distrust of the insiders of late.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
-Edmund Burke

#1 Basnight wasnt running this most recent show as far as I can tell. It was very clear that Rand had a much bigger hand than in years past.
#2 We wont know if she argued one way or the other because she was complicit in making sure that all budget decisions made by the senate were made behind closed doors.
#3 Schumer is dead wrong on this. I wouldnt be surprised to find out that Kay is confused on the issue because she is probably smart enough to realize where most Americans stand, but with all the top people at the DSCC giving the finger to the American People and the Constitution I am sure she is getting some bad advice.

"Keep the Faith"

Basnight had all kinds of personal issues, from family illnesses to his restaurant burning down, and so on. He spent a lot of time away from the Senate.

Tony Rand was running the show. I've already stated what I think of him, but just to sum up...

WORST. DEMOCRAT. IN. NORTH. CAROLINA.

between this statement:

This Senate race is a contest to see is Sen Hagan or Sen Dole or whomever is the best to represent North Carolina for the next six years.

and this one:

Do not tip your hand when you do not have to.

you need to find out if your nanny shook you too vigorously as a baby.

How in the name of all that's holy are voters supposed to figure out who will be the best representative if answers have to be pried out of the mouths of reluctant candidates?

We can recognize this behavior for what it is, but please don't condone it.

This may not be one of those times.

You seem to think politics as usual is still a viable strategy. That may be the case, but then again, it may not be. Things are changing fast and many people in America are really fed up with the same old same old.

We all know Dole will vote for torture. Will her opponent do the same?

Does having a position on that fundamental moral issue qualify as "grandness" in your book? If it does, that's pretty damn sad.

by the late, great Walter B. Jones, from whose loins sprang forth the current Walter Freedom Fries I'll-change-my- affiliation-so-as-to-better-get-elected Jones, has good advice for politicians seeking to truly represent their constituency? Or are you thinking that the rules played by one of the most famous "good old boys" of all times are the rules by which the game should be played?

Your statement that "the public will have forgotten about the AG vote" by the time is incorrect. NC Democrats will vote up or down on Hagan's quest for the Senate in May. It won't be forgotten - because there are a lot of people already talking about it - and not just on the blogs.

Playing the game "don't tip your hand when you do not have to" is old-school, back-room game playing politics. Hagan needs to move away from that kind of thinking because her candidacy - rightly or not - already has the stench of that emanating from it. And if there's one thing voters in NC do not want any more of, it's old-school, back-room game playing politics.

She could have handled the question more gracefully - as she could have handled her entrance into the primary race. She could have said: "I haven't heard all the testimony, so I can't say how I would vote on the AG nominee. However, I think what you're really asking me is "Is waterboarding torture?" The answer to that question should be obvious to all Americans. It is torture, and it is unacceptable." That would have saved her from questioning a sitting senator's vote (although she's going to have to be willing to do that if she has a hope of winning if she makes it past the primary) and would still allow her to get her voice on record with the millions of Americans who want to hear reassurances that the people we elect in November will not tolerate torture.

But instead, her answer sounds equivocating and as if she purposely ducked the question. Ducking questions and passing judgment off to a "sitting senator" who has done nothing but make bad decisions for 6 years is not a good start to a campaign that already faltered coming out of the gate.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not personally against Kay Hagan. I want the best Democrat possible to go up against Dole next November. She's not showing me a lot of strength so far.

and running for office

I was wrong.

One thing I learned long ago is to defer to the judgment of people who seem to know more about stuff than I do. For example, when I'm the one person saying X and everyone around me is saying Y, I'll usually rethink my position - unless there's a moral question involved.

This one is not a moral question . . . it is a practical question . . . so hell yeah. I'm in.

GOTV state crusing drive. Boring stretches of back country are hard to find here. From the mountains to the ocean and the piedmont in between, how lucky are we to live here?

North Carolina. Turning the South Blue!

glad you found us. As yet we don't have a newsletter, but we might be able to put together an email notification list at some point. We have new posts going up daily. Come back often and get to know us. We can be rough and tumble sometimes, but we get along great....even after a big disagreement. Thanks for stopping in.

Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.

places of government that turns people brains to mush. Mukasey would have us believe he hasn't read a newspaper in over two years...or he's brain dead. Hagan, rather than taking a principled stand is slippery as a greased pig.
SE NC Dems

No evidence that it works. People do it because they want to not because they want a better future for themselves or their neighbors.
 
News of the 10th district: See Pat Go Bye Bye,

I was afraid we were losing one of our best.

drinking heavily, and the ship is lost and cannot find her way home.

North Carolina. Turning the South Blue!

"A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

but it will take a toll on insiders. * A

You got that right! It will make King Louise the 14 th exit from power a tour in the park on Sunday afternoon a safe haven paradise.....They have no idea how much independent rage is out there at the establishment insiders......They are going to crap when the Ghosts of Patriotism show up on their manisons doorsteps....

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-Thomas Jefferson

I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our` servant, not our master!"
-Thomas Jefferson

"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day, but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, unalterable through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematical plan of reducing us to slavery."
-Thomas Jefferson

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from man because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, will respect the less important arbitrary ones....and which, if strictly obeyed would put a end to personal liberty?....Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; They serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence
than a armed man."
-Thomas Jefferson

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be... The people cannot be safe without information. Where the press is free and every man is able to read, all is safe."
-Thomas Jefferson

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective ways of preserving peace."
-Pres. George Washington

"Government is not reason: it is not eloquence; it is a force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
-Pres. George Washington

"I disapprove of what you say,
but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
-Voltaire

"Experience has shown that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
-Thomas Jefferson

"That the said constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience or to prevent the people of the united states, who are peaceable Citizens, from keeping their own arms."
-Samuel Adams

"If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
-Samuel Adams

"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue when the law-abiding(are) deprived the use of them."
-Thomas Paine

" These are the times that try mens souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
-Thomas Paine

"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in their struggle for independence."
-C.A. Beard

"I heartily accept the motto, that the government is best which governs the least."
-Henry David Thoreau

"They that give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety."
-Benjamin Franklin

"The very fame of our strength and readiness would be a means of discouraging our enemies; for 'tis a wise and true saying, that one sword often keeps another in the scabbard. The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked than the supine, secure and negligent."
-Benjamin Franklin

" The constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation....Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust their people with arms."
-James Madison

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, in any pretense, raised in the United States."
-Noah Webster

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents,
there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of the
original right of self-defense which is paramount to
all positive forms of government."
-Alexander Hamilton

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
-Alexander Hamilton

"Why stand we here idle? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God! I know not what course others may take;
but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
-Patrick Henry

" If all Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government."
-Pres. Dwight Eisenhower

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me also remind you that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"
-Barry Goldwater

"There exists a law, not written down anywhere but inborn in our heart; a law that comes to us not by training or custom or reading but from nature itself, if our lives are endangered, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right."
-Roman Orator Cicero