RAND OUT: State Sen. Tony Rand is quitting the Senate. The news that the chamber's chief Democratic enforcer and most formidable political gamesmen is leaving likely thrilled liberal Democrats and conservatives alike. Rand is one of the great characters in state politics and the legislature just got a little more boring.

HOW MANY IS THAT: Gov. Bev Perdue's communications director David Kochman has resigned as her approval numbers remain in the sub-basment. From her days as lieutenant governor, Perdue has had four communications directors in six years, making the job a little bit like being the drummer for Spinal Tap. With luck, Perdue's approval rating will go above 11.

REP. HYPERBOLE: U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx said the Democrats' health reform proposals are more dangerous than terrorists. Republicans may have more to fear from Foxx's own mouth than anything Democrats have to say.

IN OTHER NEWS: President Barack Obama has nominated two North Carolina judges to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has had only six Tar Heels since 1801. With the election of a new mayor in Charlotte, Pat McCrory will be out of elected office, but his loss to Perdue is apparently still gnawing at him, so don't expect McCrory to be out of politics. N&O political cartoonist Dwane Powell has retired after 35 years of skewering politicians.

U.S. Sens. Kay Hagan and Richard Burr said they want to see North Carolinians on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

President Barack Obama nominated Judges James Wynn and Albert Diaz to the court, which serves North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. North Carolina has had only six judges serve on the 15-judge panel since it was established in 1801, according to Hagan's office.

Judge Allyson Duncan is the only North Carolinian on the bench. The late Sen. Jesse Helms blocked Wynn's 1999 nomination to the court.

"Today’s announcement is a victory for North Carolina," Hagan said in a statement. "For too long partisan bickering and obstructionism on both sides of the aisle have unnecessarily derailed the nominations of qualified North Carolinians."

Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, whose opposition or support could prove pivotal to the confirmation of the nominees, said this morning he "looks forward to working with" Diaz and Wynn during the confirmation process.

"Since coming to the Senate, I have fought for greater representation for North Carolina on the United States Court of Appeals, and I plan to continue that fight for the people of North Carolina," he said.

The senators' complete statements after the jump.

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North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Jim Wynn and Superior Court Judge Albert Diaz, of Charlotte, have been nominated by President Barack Obama for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

"Their distinguished judicial careers leave no doubt that they will be esteemed additions to the Fourth Circuit," Obama said in a prepared statement.

Wynn, of Cary, was nominated to the 4th Circuit in 1999 by President Bill Clinton but then-U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms blocked his confirmation. Wynn is a former Navy lawyer and remains a military trial judge. He has been on the state appeals court since 1990, except for 1998 when he was appointed to the state supreme court but lost the election that year to retain the seat.

Diaz, a former Marine Corps lawyer and the first Latino named to a superior court bench, would be the 4th Circuit's first Hispanic judge.

Their confirmation would end a 15-year impasse over one of the vacancies on the court, which hears federal cases from the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

The federal appeals courts are often the last stop for many cases, since the U.S. Supreme Court takes so few.

Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Albert Diaz of Charlotte appears to be moving toward a White House nomination to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, where he could become the court's first Hispanic judge.

The nomination, one of two possible for North Carolina, could help break a 15-year impasse that's created the longest appellate vacancy in the country and left the state under-represented on the powerful court, according to Gary L. Wright and Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer.

The FBI is conducting a background check on Diaz, who in 2001 became the first Hispanic to serve on North Carolina's Superior Court. The American Bar Association also is evaluating him.

Diaz, 48, declined to comment.

"Everybody who has looked at him has given him exceptionally high marks," says former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell, who led a panel that screened potential federal judges.

N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Jim Wynn of Cary is also widely expected to be nominated by President Obama to the federal appeals court. It would be Wynn's second attempt at the 4th Circuit, which hears appeals from the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.