RALEIGH — Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said the stimulus package making its way through Congress was a necessary step toward an economic recovery.

"It's not perfect," Dodd told more than 1,000 people at the Emerging Issues forum in downtown Raleigh. "It's not pretty. But history would indict us is we did nothing."

Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the stimulus package alone would not turn around the economy, Rob Christensen reports.

"I think realistically, it can stop it from getting worse," Dodd said.

He said every member of Congress would have designed the stimulus package differently. He would have preferred putting more money into mass transit.

More after the jump.

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With Congress likely to soon consider a huge stimulus package, the Institute for Emerging Issues has scheduled a two-conference on the subject.

Jim Hunt, the former four-term governor, met at lunch with journalists at his law office at Womble Carlyle this afternoon to discuss the forum which will be held Feb. 9 and 10th, Rob Christensen reports.

This year's topic is what North Carolina needs to do improve its infrastructure including building, roads, bridges, water and sewer lines, schools and rail.

The Institute chooses a subject every year to discuss such as taxes or energy.

Hunt, the founder of the forum, said it was luck that infrastructure is so timely because the subject was chosen more than a year ago. The forum, which will be held for the first time at the new Raleigh Convention Center, will include speakers such as Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, New York Times columnist David Brooks, Gov. Beverly Perdue, and and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

Hunt said state spending for road and schools and other projects had not kept pace with growth.

"We have to to do more building," Hunt said "and we got to rethink how we build."

Because of the federal stimulus package, North Carolina should get a lot of new money for public works projects.

The Institute already has working groups preparing recommendations to be discussed at the forum. Hunt hopes the conference will produce some specific recommendations for the legislature.

What's the difference between these two sets of names?

Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson and Tom Vilsack.

John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich.

Answer after the jump.

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Somebody out there still likes John Edwards.

The New York Times, on its Web site, has an interactive feature to let readers cast their votes about Barack Obama's options for some of his cabinet posts.

Edwards is currently the seventh most popular choice for attorney general. He trails the likes of Chris Dodd and Ron Paul, but is ahead of folks like Hillary Clinton, Ralph Nader and Eliot Spitzer.

Did U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole vote against providing body armor?

A new TV ad from Vote Vets, a veterans advocacy group opposed to the Iraq war, claims that Dole voted against paying for armor for soldiers on Oct. 2, 2003.

The vote was on an amendment to a supplemental military appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan proposed by Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut. It would have redirected $322 million for reconstruction in Iraq to additional "safety equipment."

In proposing the amendment, Dodd described the equipment as "high-tech body armor, bullet-proof helmets, special water packs to keep soldiers hydrated, and other survival gear."

The water packs, called CamelBaks, are attached to soldiers' backpacks and allow them to drink water without stopping. Body armor — such as the bulletproof vests shown in the ad — was also mentioned, but the debate focused on hydration systems.

Senate Republicans argued that the military budget already included enough money to purchase the equipment. A spokesman for Dole said the amendment was a "political stunt."

A motion to table the amendment passed on party lines, with Dole voting for it.

John McCain is buying air time in North Carolina.

The Republican presidential candidate had not previously aired TV ads specifically here, although North Carolinians had seen other ads on national cable shows.

Following earlier attacks on the Democratic candidate as a "celebrity," the ad shows footage of Barack Obama's Berlin speech.

"Take away the crowds, the chants — all that's left are costly words," a female narrator says. "Barack Obama and out-of-touch Congressional leaders have expensive plans, billions in new government spending, years of deficits, no balanced budgets and painful tax increases on working American families."

The ad then shows pictures of Obama and U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Harry Reid of Nevada, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Chuck Schumer of New York.

The choice of "Congressional leaders" is interesting. Dodd is a former Democratic presidential candidate, Reid is the Senate Majority Leader, Leahy an antagonist of Vice President Dick Cheney and Schumer is heading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Still, these are faces better known to Washington insiders — Dome and his colleagues had to play the ad three times to name them all — and Reid is shown twice. None are running for re-election this year and the ad is not running in any of their states.

In days gone by, Republicans would have linked Obama to Ted Kennedy, though his cancer may have made him too sympathetic to serve that purpose. Still, the absence of Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi is worth pondering.

The main part of the chapel where Jesse Helms' funeral will be held is already full.

The Hayes Barton Baptist Church has opened an overflow room to accommodate the hundreds who have already shown up or are expected at the funeral this afternoon.

Among those who have arrived: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and her husband, Bob; Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.

There are also a number of former Helms' employees, including Bill Berryhill, the first executive director of the Congressional Club and a onetime aide. Also spotted: state Rep. Leo Daughtry and Republican consultant Jack Hawke. 

And there are people with other connections to Helms, such as Bill Eller, a Durham resident whose dad worked as Helms' 1972 Iredell County campaign manager.  

The services begin at 2 p.m. 

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole was fairly bipartisan in the 2003-04 session.

With the candidates for Senate touting their records of bipartisanship, Dome has been taking a closer look at the number of Democrats who signed on to legislation Dole sponsored.

In the 2003-04 session, the Salisbury Republican was the primary sponsor of 16 bills. Of them, eight had no cosponsors and eight had Democratic cosponsors.

A bill to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair had 48 Republican cosponsors and 30 Democrats, including Sens. Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Joe Lieberman and Chuck Schumer.

Overall, that boosted her Democratic cosponsors to 48, compared to 66 Republican cosponsors, or about a three-to-two ratio.

Her most frequent Democratic cosponsor was fellow North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who signed on to the Blair honors, a bill to recognize the Lumbee tribe, an amendment on a Medicare bill and another amendment.

Previously: Dole's cosponsors in 2005-06 and 2007-08.

Two U.S. senators may have received preferential treatment on mortgage loans.

As the Senate Ethics Committee continues an investigation into the loans received by Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, D.C.-based Web site The Politico has been asking other senators about their mortgages.

In particular, reporters Eamon Javers and Martin Kady II asked who the senator's home mortgage lender was, who they contacted to arrange it and whether they received any special terms.

"The early line: A substantial number of senators — being on average older and wealthier than the U.S. population — don't have mortgages at all," they note.

That would be the case for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who told the Politico that she did not have any mortgages. Sen. Richard Burr had not responded as of Thursday afternoon.