U.S. Rep. Brad Miller is still feeling a little defensive about a ribbing he took two years ago.

In a guest post on the liberal TPM Cafe Web site, the Raleigh Democrat writes that "people laughed" at him when he argued in 2007 that innovation in the financial sector can be a bad thing.

During an off-the-cuff floor speech about predatory lending, Miller compared loans unfavorably to a stain-resistant silk necktie he was wearing, saying the tie was an "important innovation." He was mocked for the metaphor by a Capitol Hill paper.

"Serious economists are now arguing that we should not reflexively celebrate 'innovation' in the financial sector as we do innovation in the real economy," he writes. "I was ahead of my time. I said the same thing almost two years ago, and people laughed at me."

He noted that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, economist James Kwak and Harvard law profess Elizabeth Warren have made similar arguments in recent months, with Warren saying the government should regulate financial instruments just like toasters.

"So why did my comparison of a mortgage and a necktie provoke snickering, and Elizabeth Warren's comparison of a mortgage and a toaster was seen as serious, scholarly insight?" he wrote.

The Durham-based Center for Responsible Lending is backing House legislation that targets what the group calls predatory lending practices by some North Carolina auto dealers who finance their customers' loans.

"This is taking advantage of car buyers in the worst way, along with taking their hard-earned money each and every payment," Chris Kukla, lobbyist for the Center for Responsible Lending, said in a press release. "What's worse is car dealers are not even required to disclose marked up interest rates to buyers under state law."

In a report called "Car Trouble" published Thursday, the group describes practices it calls dealer kickbacks, loan packing and "yo-yo scams," Bruce Siceloff reports.

Rep. Dan Blue of Wake County has sponsored a bill aimed at the practices, while auto dealers said the report was misleading.

More after the jump.

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U.S. Rep. Brad Miller wants to centralize lending oversight.

The Raleigh Democrat has co-sponsored a bill that would create a new Financial Product Safety Commission that would enforce consumer protection, evaluate lending practices, coordinate enforcement with state and federal regulators and issue public reports.

Currently, at least 10 different federal agencies have responsibility for loans and other consumer financial products. The new agency's name mimics the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent government agency that regulates safety of consumer products.

"Our economy is in a deep hole dug by the financial industry," Miller said in a statement. "For years they defended every consumer lending practice, regardless of how predatory the practice appeared on its face, as necessary to make credit available to ordinary Americans."

Miller played a key role in bankrupty reforms being considered by the Senate. He is working with Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts and Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts on this bill.

The bill has been endorsed by over 55 national and state organizations, including labor unions, civil rights groups and consumer protection advocates such as the Center for Responsible Lending in Durham.

Robert Pittenger loaned his lieutenant gubernatorial campaign $1.2 million this month.

That brings the total the Charlotte Republican and his wife have loaned to $1.7 million. That's almost half the nearly $4.2 million he has raised during his campaign, Jim Morrill reports.

It's unclear how much Pittenger's Democratic opponent, Walter Dalton, has raised. His latest report has yet to be posted on the state board of elections Web site.

Through June, Dalton had raised $1.5 million. He had taken out no loans.

Pittenger has spent $2.5 million on TV ads, according to his report.

Six years ago, Republican Elizabeth Dole reacted with alarm when Democratic Senate opponent Erskine Bowles, a wealthy former investment banker, dug deep into his own pocket.

"TAKE A LOOK AT THIS," she wrote in an e-mail to thousands of supporters in October 2002. "My opponent loaned nearly $3 million of his personal wealth to his own campaign We expect him to use even more of his personal wealth to finance his negative television and radio ads."

"I do not have that kind of personal wealth," Dole wrote. "So, to continue setting the record straight I must be able to count on the generous support of friends like you."

Dole's electronic plea raised thousands of dollars for her campaign, Jim Morrill reports.

Now Dole, running for a second term against Democrat Kay Hagan, has loaned her own campaign $3 million.

According to an analysis of disclosure forms by the Center for Responsive Politics, only six senators are wealthier than Dole. She had holdings valued at between $18.5 million and $69.2 million.

In 2002, she reported family assets of up to $23 million.

Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan has loaned herself $350,000.

She loaned herself $50,000 in in the Democratic primary which she repaid. She loaned herself another $50,000 in the third quarter and has since loaned her campaign another $300,000, according to her spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan.

That is far less than the $3 million that her opponent Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole has given to her campaign.

Facing a tough re-election fight, North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole gave her campaign $3 million during the first week of October.

Dole reached into her purse at a time when she is locked in a competitive race with Democrat Kay Hagan.

"Our fundraising has been outstanding but, with outside liberal groups spending roughly $15 million in attack ads, Senator Dole believed she needed to put some skin in the game personally,” said Dan McLagan, a Dole spokesman. “This guarantees that we will be able to get our message out in the face of all that Washington and New York money being spent for Kay Hagan."

Dole has reported raising $13.8 million, while Hagan has raised $5.3 million. But that does not include the money raised and spent by outside groups.

Beverly Perdue received $9.9 million in donations by the end of June of 2008.

The Democratic gubernatorial nominee raised $2.3 million from donors in the second quarter of 2008, according to a report filed with the State Board of Elections.

Major donors included Belk stores president Tom Belk; Erskine Bowles' wife Crandall; her sons, Emmett and Garrett; Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand; Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers; retiree Wallace Hyde; attorney David Kirby; SAS executive John Sall; and Bill Graham's law partner, Mona Lisa Wallace.

She also raised $223,436 from political action committees, including the Association for Home & Hospice Care of N.C., Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Employee PAC, the Corning Inc. Employee PAC, the Democratic Governors Association of N.C., the Teamsters' DRIVE PAC, the International Paper PAC, the McGuire Woods PAC, the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers PAC and the N.C. Home Builders Association.

In addition, she loaned her campaign $130,000 on April 25. In addition to a first quarter loan of $500,000 and outstanding debt of $275,000 to her husband from a previous election, her campaign owes $905,000.

She had cash on hand of $1.4 million at the end of the second quarter.

Correction: An earlier version misstated the cash on hand.

Mary Fant Donnan received $19,735 in contributions by mid-April of 2008.

The candidate for the Democratic nomination for labor commissioner raised $18,765 from major donors and $970 from those who gave less than $100, according to the most recent campaign finance report.

Her major donations included $4,000 from W. Noah Reynolds, a Winston-Salem philanthropist, and $1,000 from Stanley I. Wood, an engineer for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

In addition, Donnan loaned her campaign $1,199.

Donnan also spent $9,233, mostly on a campaign Web site and yard signs, leaving her with $12,610 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period.

How much have candidates for lieutenant governor loaned their campaigns?

Here's a quick guide to the amount of money each of the major candidates or their spouses have loaned their campaigns, according to campaign finance reports filed with the State Board of Elections.

Figures are for the total loans still outstanding.

Democrats

Hampton Dellinger: $322,500 

Dan Besse: $50,000

Pat Smathers: $25,917

Walter Dalton: $0

Republicans

Robert Pittenger: $500,000

Greg Dority: $0

Timothy Cook: $0