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Karl Rove, the chief strategist for President George W. Bush, will be coming to Raleigh next month to help raise money for the re-election campaign of Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.

Although details have not yet been announced, Rove agreed to be the headliner at a fundraiser on Jan. 28 in Raleigh, Rob Christensen reports. The event is being put together by Louis DeJoy, a Greensboro businessman who was state finance chairman for the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008. Also helping out is Jim Cain, a Raleigh lawyer and former U.S. ambassador to Denmark who was also a Bush fundraiser.

Rove was not only closely associated with Bush, but he also helped recruit both Burr and former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole to run for the chamber.

Rove appeared at a Winston-Salem fundraiser for Burr when he ran in 2004 against Democrat Erskine Bowles. Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst for Fox News, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal.

Caricatures have been a part of politics since the 19th century, and they continue to develop in the age of the Web. The drawings can be as divisive as they are entertaining.

A coming exhibit at Duke University's Nasher Museum of Art explores journalistic caricatures throughout history. The exhibit, called "Lines of Attack: Conflicts in Caricature," will be on display at the Nasher from Feb. 4 to May 16.

Museum goers will see political drawings from the past, such as works featuring French King Louis-Philippe by Honoré Daumier, as well as cartoons that lampoon presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Artists in the show include Garry Trudeau of the syndicated cartoon “Doonesbury,” Steve Bell of the Guardian and Gerald Scarfe of London's Sunday Times. The work of Dwane Powell, who recently retired from The News & Observer, will also be featured.

The show has accompanying events, including a talk Feb. 4 by Chris Lamb, communications professor at the College of Charleston and author of "Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons in the United States."

Gov. Bev Perdue said Tuesday that U.S. Attorney George Holding should be kept on until he finishes his investigations of Democrats Mike Easley and John Edwards.

Perdue said she was only speaking as a private citizen and had no influence over political patronage appointments of the administration of President Barack Obama, reports Rob Christensen.

Obama has nominated Thomas Walker, a Charlotte attorney, to be the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina to replace Holding. U.S. attorneys are patronage positions and Holding, a protege of the late Sen. Jesse Helms, got his job through President George W. Bush.

But Holding is in the middle of investigations Easley and Edwards.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan had recommended Walker, but has said Holding should be kept on to handle the Easley and Edwards cases.

Perdue said she would be "very welcoming" of Walker.

"I hear very good things about him," she said

But at an impromptu news conference Tuesday to announce a new task force, Perdue said she would encourage Holding to stay.

"My gut is if I were in the decision-making piece," Perdue said, "it would be to let Mr. Holding stay with the cases he is investigating and bring whatever information he has now to culmination."

THE ANTI-CZAR CZAR: Rep. Patrick McHenry helped Republicans rail against President Barack Obama's "czars," which he says are making huge decisions and should be confirmed by the Senate. Democrats were quick to mention that a few years ago, McHenry met with President George W. Bush's drug czar. It may be time to appoint a special czar to sort out this czar mess.

CHEF U: The N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law has sued the state over its support for Johnson & Wales University, a private culinary and hospitality school in Charlotte. The center says the $10 million promised by then-House Speaker Jim Black amounted to little more than a patronage gift from Black, who went onto to federal prison fame. The school will argue that educating students is a public purpose. Dome expects testimony to focus on proper hollandaise preparation techniques. The case is a real potboiler.

BREAKER, BREAKER: A last-minute letter from Gov. Beverly Perdue sure got the attention of the N.C. Building Code Council, which voted to keep a special circuit breaker in the building codes.

IN OTHER NEWS: The real "Norma Rae" has died. Former Treasurer Richard Moore has taken a gig at a San Diego investment firm. An appeals court ruled that former Gov. Mike Easley was wrong to borrow highway money to shore up the state's finances.

The Democratic Party is blasting U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry's war against czars.

"McHenry's hypocrisy is astounding," said Joanne Peters, a regional press secretary for the Democratic National Committee. "Most telling of the credibility of these attacks is that they come from the same Republican party that didn't utter a peep about the 47 documented czars in the Bush administration."

In 2006, McHenry met with President George W. Bush's drug czar, the DNC notes. Bush's czars included a Katrina czar and a food safety czar.

Counting official "czars" is an inexact science because "czar" is not always part of the job formal job title. Some who have been called "czar" are subject to Senate confirmation, which is what McHenry said he is seeking for President Barack Obama's czars. A Washington Post story said that presidents as far back as Calvin Coolidge gave special powers to officials to handle disasters.

Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a host of special advisers to coordinate policy to combat the Great Depression. Richard M. Nixon named a drug czar and an energy czar, and George W. Bush named czars to coordinate policy efforts on a range of issues. By one count, Bush had 36 czar positions filled by 46 people during his eight years as president.

Former House Speaker Jim Black is being moved to a prison closer to home.

The Charlotte Observer reports that Black, a Mecklenburg County Demcrat, was en route late Friday to a federal prison in Jesup, Ga., 300 miles south of Charlotte, according to former Mecklenburg commissioners chairman Parks Helms, a friend of Black's who also served in the state House.

That's more than 200 miles closer to home than his former prison in Lewisburg, Pa.

Last month, more than 150 friends of Black - including Helms, Matthews Mayor Lee Myers and former Republican Gov. Jim Martin - wrote letters to federal prison officials asking for leniency because of the failing heath of Black, 74, and his wife.

They also wrote letters to President Barack Obama, asking that Black's sentence be commuted.

Helms said he fears nothing short of commuting Black's sentence will allow his ailing wife to see him.

Black's wife, Betty, has degenerative Lou Gehrig's disease and Helms said he feels the move doesn't get Black close enough to her.

“It doesn't matter whether it's a hundred miles or 200,” Helms said. “She's just actually got limited time. … I think a commutation now is really the only thing that can give her and probably (Black) some relief.”

UPDATE: An official at the prison in Jesup confirmed Saturday that they do have an inmate named James Black.

Read more after the jump.

President Barack Obama’s popularity is slipping in North Carolina as the unemployment numbers continue to climb.

Obama’s approval rating is at 50 percent, down from a high of 54 percent in April, according to a new statewide survey by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm in Raleigh, reports Rob Christensen.

Although Obama's approval numbers are in decline, they are still higher than North Carolina’s two senators or governor, as well as those of former President George W. Bush.

Obama has the highest support in urban areas such as the Triangle, Charlotte, and in the northeastern part of the state. He is very popular among African-Americans.

His weakest support is in the mountains.

Obama surprised many people by carrying North Carolina -- a traditionally Republican-leaning state in presidential contests -- by a narrow margin in November.

The survey of 784 registered voters was taken June 12-14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

A retired Maine reporter filed a grievance with the N.C. State Bar over former Sen. John Edwards' law license.

Ted Cohen, a longtime reporter for the Portland Press Herald who now drives long-haul trucks, filed the complaint in August.

In it, he argued that Edwards' statements to the press about his affair with former campaign staffer Rielle Hunter were "unbecoming" to the legal profession.

"He has brought shame and dishonor to the bar," he wrote.

A spokeswoman for the bar would not confirm the complaint as a matter of policy, but a letter sent to Cohen by Deputy Counsel Jennifer Porter said they would investigate the matter.

Edwards' license was put on inactive status on April 14, 2000. He does not have any public record of disciplinary actions.

More after the jump.

* By percent, how much N.C. likes recent presidents in a poll: Reagan (44), Obama (29), Clinton (18), W. Bush (6), H.W. Bush (3).

* Liberal commentator Chris Fitzsimon, among others, takes issue with N&O/Char-O story about a "liberal shift" in the state legislature.

* Greensboro News-Record columnist Doug Clark argues that George Holding should be allowed to stay on the Easley, Edwards cases.

* U.S. Sen. Richard Burr finds "being the minority is liberating" because the majority sets the agenda and he can "delve into policy."

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr said he is disappointed that President Obama released memos from the Bush administration.

In an e-mail to Dome, the Winston-Salem Republican said that making public the memos from the Office of Legal Counsel supporting the brutal interrogation methods used by the CIA could hurt the troops and help terrorists.

"I am disappointed that the Administration chose, over the objections of some of our most respected intelligence experts, to selectively release for seemingly political purposes, highly classified OLC memos detailing the legal analysis relating to the CIA’s sensitive interrogation techniques," he said.

He also said that the torture methods outlined in a recent Senate Armed Services Committee report were "shocking," but they would not happen again.

"The unfortunate incidents outlined in the recently released Armed Services Committee report that occurred at some of our nation’s detention facilities were shocking and damaged our reputation in the global community, but measures have been taken to prevent occurrences like this from happening in the future," he said. 

Previously: Sen. Kay Hagan 'deeply concerned' by report.