Attention fans of Clay Aiken: You can stop e-mailing now.

We have gotten the message. You think that the "American Idol" star's hometown paper ought to be more friendly toward him.

We're not sure that the Under the Dome item you're complaining about was derogatory, since all it said was that Aiken was "hiding in a corner" at a Jenna Bush book-signing. (Especially since we've written worse things about him before.)

Furthermore, we're not sure how you would know if it was, since you clearly didn't read the item, which attributed that information to The New Yorker. For the record, Dome was not there, did not interview Aiken and did not write the original piece.

Anyway, you can stop sending your thinly disguised form letters to us.

Thanks for (sort-of) reading!

Clay Aiken was spotted at a Jenna Bush book signing.

According to a piece in The New Yorker, the former "American Idol" singer and current UNICEF ambassador "was hiding in a corner" at a launch party for Bush's book, "Ana's Story."

He was impressed with the book, which tells the story of a H.I.V.-infected teen in Latin America.

"I read it on the plane to Afghanistan," he said of the book. "I was quite impressed. I remember thinking she must have had a ghostwriter, but she didn't. She did it herself."

Aiken had a co-writer on his 2005 book, "Learning to Sing."

A Democratic pollster says they tested Jerry Meek because they were out of ideas.

Justin Guillory, who works for Public Policy Polling, said the firm ran the state Democratic Party chairman's name against U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole because there weren't any other people left.

"We tried all the candidates who have been mentioned," he said.

Still, Guillory said that people at the firm had heard Meek's name floated as a possible candidate for higher office some day.

Over on his blog, Guillory says he hopes to try some real names soon:

Hopefully some Democrat will step up to the plate soon and we can end this exercise. Otherwise, we may have to resort, as one person suggested, to testing Clay Aiken against Elizabeth Dole.

Maybe that's not a good idea. After all, Aiken came in second in a nationwide race, remember?

A bill to essentially abolish the Electoral College continues to rankle Republicans.

On the N.C. Republican Roundtable group blog, Kat Haney compares a national popular vote to "American Idol," noting that the best candidate doesn't always win:

Since our President will now be 'elected' the same way Idol winners 'win' (popular uninformed vote), you can expect all sorts of good candidates to NOT be elected.

Meantime, Gideon comes up with a worse-case scenario in which four major candidates split the vote in North Carolina, but the state's electoral slate goes to the one who came in last.

THAT candidate would get ALL of North Carolina's electoral votes no matter how the people of North Carolina feel about that candidate ... All thanks to Sen. Dan Clodfelter.

The bill has passed the Senate and is in a House committee.