newsobserver.com projects - Burr: I'll support Duckworth - Comments

Reading comprehension?

scharrison — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:59:20 -0400

"You need to work on your spin - you seem to be backtracking now..."

If you look closely, these diaries and comments have names of the people who write them. Someone else wrote those words that you keep trying to attribute to me. This is part of my response to those words:

If you'll recall some of her campaign issues/promises, balancing the budget and/or spending restraint was one of her pillars, so we shouldn't be surprised when she actually tries to do those things.

"So it is ok in your opinion for Hagan to be influenced by the "liberal special interest," which would be contrary to her campaign promises?"

I sort of answered that above, but I'll go a little deeper. Before last year's primary, I was a Jim Neal supporter. I spent a lot of time trying to find links between Kay's actions in the Senate and her campaign contributors, to see if she was a "pay to play"-type politician. Her reputation as a "business-friendly" politician led me to believe there would be some juicy stuff there. Well, there wasn't. Which is a big reason why I stood solidly behind her following the primary. So the answer is, I don't expect her to be influenced by anything other than her conscience. I also expect to see some deviation from her campaign promises, simply because the realities of the U.S. Senate differ somewhat from her General Assembly experience, and what you think you can and want to do often changes when you're actually sitting in the chair.

"Do you also feel as if she should be listening to Dodd over Lieberman?"

Yeah, I do. Lieberman is a hawk who threw his support behind an ill-tempered neocon Republican for President, a move that I believe would have been disastrous for this country. If his judgment was questionable before that, that question has been answered. If Kay can learn anything of merit from Lieberman, it's what not to do as a Senator.

"I love how you fail to answer my questions during our little back and forths..."

I may take a long time getting there, which might result in little children
getting restless and looking out the window, but my answers are not that hard to detect if you're paying attention.

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

Gosh — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:03:22 -0400

Not a fair question, since I doubt the folks responding to you (or rather not responding) take you seriously.

So it is ok in your opinion for Hagan to be influenced by the "liberal special interest," which would be contrary to her campaign promises?

You not only essentially called women a "special interest group" earlier but a liberal one at that before saying anyone that follows you down this little diversion off topic from Burr is a blind sheep.

I'm just saying. You sew what you bleat. And you prove it with every post by sticking by Burr in this fashion.

Burr is a gelatinous blob you have to divert attention from to 'defend.'

Go ahead. Keep going. Attack women. Attack lawyers (half of whom happen to be women, while the other half happen to be married to them). Call working Americans special interests and CEO's of Multinational Corporation's misunderstood patriots under assault by WalMart greeters.

No spin here. Just translating your spin to reality.

Good luck with that. Your strategy has worked so well the last two cycles, I'd hate to interrupt your losing streak.

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

CitizenOpinionated — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:43:42 -0400

You need to work on your spin - you seem to be backtracking now...

So it is ok in your opinion for Hagan to be influenced by the "liberal special interest," which would be contrary to her campaign promises?

Do you also feel as if she should be listening to Dodd over Lieberman?

I love how you fail to answer my questions during our little back and forths...

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

scharrison — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:19:19 -0400

"Do you not see the hypocrisy of your commentary?"

If you'll notice, not everybody agreed with the position the individual blogger put forward. BlueNC does not present a "unified front" on issues; someone will post their take on a given subject, which quite often generates a debate on said subject. It might be messy, but that's how we roll.

My point with linking to that post was to demonstrate that we watch the behavior of elected Democrats as much (if not more) than Republicans, and if somebody sees something they don't like, they post a diary about it. And if someone else disagrees with that diary, they'll post a comment, usually explaining why they disagree. Right now, there are two separate diaries on the front page that are critical of specific things Governor Perdue has done recently. Hypocrisy would be to ignore those things.

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

CitizenOpinionated — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:20:22 -0400

I have never said Hagan is too liberal - I said that she is beholden to the money that she got to the campaign trail, which was mostly from "liberal special interest groups."- there is a vast difference as BLUENC wants her to break campaign promises.

See you even try to add spin to what I am saying - mine is basic - Hagan promised and now she is going against it. To me that shows a lack of character and a dishonest services to us North Carolinians.

I know the topic was on Burr - the liberals took my bait and followed along like blind sheep to talk about Hagan.

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

Gosh — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:33:40 -0400

I do, I do!

Do you not see the hypocrisy of your commentary?

I saw this ill fated morning show going this way hours ago.

You and your wingnuts say Kay's too liberal. BlueNC wingnuts say Kay's too conservative.

She sounds about right to me!

PS - This thread is about Burr and his gelatinous backbone.

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

CitizenOpinionated — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:05:26 -0400

"Kay was paid a lot from Democratic/liberal sources for her to now begin maneuvering to center-center thinking to make points with Republicans for cross-over "bipartisanship"?"

So you cite this post as a reference as to BLUENC tarring and feathering Kay Hagan - well thank you for helping prove the point that Kay will always vote for the "liberal" agenda considering they gave her such money.

Your premise of this post is that Hagan must be more responsive to these groups since they contributed this amount of money, which helped get her elected.

She has not voted contrary to positions of the "liberal" groups, which BLUENC cited in their very harsh comments of her meeting with the moderate Democrats.

Thus her record shows that she has not "taken the money and run" and in fact, Hagan is beholden to those groups that gave her money, according to her record. I applaud her for standing for tobacco's interest arm and arm with Burr, by the way.

http://www.opencongress.org/people/show/412324_kay_hagan

You might call what you guys wrote a tough criticism, but I call it whining that your money is not keeping her liberal enough. You do remember that over 47% of North Carolinians did not vote for her and their voices must be heard - minority rights - isn't that a underlying theme of the liberal cause.

Do you not see the hypocrisy of your commentary?

You want Hagan to respond favorable to the money, which would be in direct contrast of her campaign promises of not being beholden to the "special interest."

PS your post also states - "Look around at the sources of her funds and tell me that she should be consorting with Bayh and Lieberman."

Would you rather her listen to Dodd?

To be fair - be it for some reasons I disagree with - but Dodd is very correct in his opposition to the cutting of the F-22 funding in Obama's budget.

Yeah, it is funny

scharrison — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:24:40 -0400

"It is funny...it only took nine minutes to look through the results and find no such commentary..."

Considering that search produces 425 results.

Look, just take my word for it, okay? We chased Kay with pitchforks and torches, tarred her, feathered her, rode her out of town on a rail, and I think somebody even salted her garden. I'm not sure about that last thing. It might have just been talk.

But she kept talking to us, and eventually won most of us over. But that didn't keep us from nipping at her heels a week ago.

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

CitizenOpinionated — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:54:31 -0400

Well James made the comment that "If you spent any time at all reading what Steve Harrison and I write about politics at BlueNC, you'd withdraw this comment and apologize. Speaking for myself, I spend plenty of time pointing out political grandstanding by Democrats, too, including Senator Hagan."

So I went to BlueNC and in the search bar provided typed in Kay Hagan and it is funny never saw acknowledging for the "political grandstanding by Democrats, too, including Senator Hagan."

It is funny...it only took nine minutes to look through the results and find no such commentary...

But continue to pander please...

Efficiency is a great thing...perhaps our federal government should consider the notion, because our government is not efficient.

Evelyn Woodhead spedreading course

scharrison — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:32:10 -0400

"James - I just looked on BLUENC and saw nothing but "progressive" liberal talking points - I saw nothing that viewed Hagan in a negative light - which is disappointing."

Wow. That took a grand total of nine minutes to make that determination. I am in awe of your lightning-fast research and processing skills. Is your middle name, "Cray", by any chance?

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

CitizenOpinionated — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:14:30 -0400

So bnartist you do agree that Lilly Leadbetter did nothing for gender equality?

You are right and I did not explain thorough enough that is from the last discriminatory paycheck, but it does deal with statue of limitations...

Check out Wikipedia for those that want a quick summary, but I do forewarn that Wiki is written by the average person.

Hagan - did in fact that at a campaign event with Max Cleland - I was there and if I can find it in a format (audio or video) I will post - give me a few - I do have other work to do....

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

CitizenOpinionated — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:03:21 -0400

I think we have gender equality in America and if there is a deviation in treatment then we have a court system in place...

But there you go pandering to the ignorant masses as the legislation did nothing for gender equality...

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

bnartist — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:42:28 -0400

The Lilly Ledbetter act kept the statute of limitations at 180 days. It merely changed the start date from the day the pay was agreed to the date of the most recent paycheck.

Kay Hagan did not say those exact words. She did promise to look out for the best interests of hardworking Americans, people like Lilly Ledbetter.

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

cornbread — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:30:14 -0400

So CitizenO doesn't want gender pay equity.

Is anyone surprised?

Back to the Taliban talking points...

Re: Burr: I'll support Duckworth

CitizenOpinionated — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:16:43 -0400

James - I just looked on BLUENC and saw nothing but "progressive" liberal talking points - I saw nothing that viewed Hagan in a negative light - which is disappointing.

Fact 1 : Hagan lied on the campaign trail by stating "I will not be held to the special interest of America when I get to DC."

Hagan cosponsored and voted YES for Lilly Leadbetter, which effectively rewrote a statue of limitation, yet was framed as a issue that addressed gender discrimination. All it is was give the trial lawyers the opportunity to file suit against an employer if their client believes discrimination occurred. The law used to have a statue of limitation of 180 days post termination, but now their is not a status of limitation.

Hagan received over $23,000 from the American Association of Trial Lawyers and over $391,000 from Lawyers and Law Firms. I call this pay back for special interest.

Burr: I'll support Duckworth

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:12:21 -0400

Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina has agreed to allow the nomination of injured Iraq veteran Tammy Duckworth go forward for a top post in the Veterans Affairs administration.

"I will support her," Burr told a a group of editors and reporters at The News and Observer on Wednesday.

Burr, the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, last week held up the nomination of Duckworth because he had questions about a confidential financial questionnaire she had filled out, Rob Christensen reports.

The move angered some veterans groups because Duckworth is a National Guard major who lost both of her legs when the helicopter she was piloting was attacked in Iraq.

More after the jump.