The question North Carolina Democrats whisper in the halls is: when are the Republican U.S. attorneys going to be replaced?

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan says the answer is pretty soon, Rob Christensen reports.

Hagan, the Democrat freshman, said she hopes to recommend three new U.S. attorneys for North Carolina in the coming months.

"I would like to get some names fairly soon and make some recommendations," Hagan said in an interview. "I would certainly think by spring or early summer we could have nominees. The timing has a lot do with the president."

She has appointed a panel, headed by former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell to advise her on potential nominees for both federal prosecutors and federal judgeships. Hagan said the group held its first meeting Tuesday.

More after the jump.

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Sen.-elect Kay Hagan has some reading to do.

While in Washington for three days of training this week, the Greensboro Democrat was given a list by the chief clerk of the Senate of good reading for new senators.

Though a staffer volunteered to get all the books on the two-page list, Hagan demurred, saying she wouldn't have time to read them all yet. But she said she intends to work her way through a number of books on the list eventually.

One book that she already has was given to her by a fellow senator.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, gave Hagan a copy of "Nine and Counting," a 2000 book about the then-nine women serving in the U.S. Senate.

"That would be airplane reading," joked Hagan. 

Of course, the book might be due for a new edition. With Hagan taking Sen. Elizabeth Dole's place and Sen.-elect Jeanne Shaheen taking office, the number of female senators will soon be up to 17. 

A new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee attacks U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole on a number of votes.

What it says: The ad shows images of Dole and an Alaskan landscape, including a brown bear. Narrator: "Why is Elizabeth Dole ranked 93rd in effectiveness? She voted for millions in pork, including Alaska's bridge to nowhere. But for North Carolina? She voted with George Bush 92 percent. Against raising the minimum wage time after time. Against helping families struggling to keep their homes. For the largest cut ever in student loans. Elizabeth Dole, fighting for ... Alaska? Definitely out of touch with North Carolina. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising."

The background: The ad makes several claims about Dole's voting record.

BRIDGE TO NOWHERE: Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens requested an earmark in the 2006 budget for the proposed $398 million Gravina Island Bridge, nicknamed the "Bridge to Nowhere" by detractors because it serves an island with just 50 residents.

In October of 2005, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn proposed an amendment to the bill that would have shifted $75 million from the bridge and another project in Alaska to the rebuilding of a bridge destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

The amendment failed, 15-82, with Dole voting against it.

Congress later stripped the earmark, but gave the state of Alaska an equivalent amount of money for any use it considered appropriate.

MINIMUM WAGE: Starting in 2005, Senate Democrats attempted to raise the federal minimum wage.

In March, Sen. Ted Kennedy proposed raising it by $2.10 over the following 26 months. As a counterproposal, Republican Sen. Rick Santorum proposed raising it by $1.10 over 18 months while exempting more businesses.

Either would have been the first increase in the federal minimum wage since 1997.

The amendments both came on a bill overhauling bankruptcy regulations. Both proposals could have complicated efforts to pass the overhaul, since House leaders had said they would only consider the bill if the Senate did not add unrelated amendments.

The Kennedy amendment failed, 46-49, while the Santorum amendment failed, 38-61. Dole voted against the first amendment, but for the second.

In October, Senate Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to raise the minimum wage by $1.10 an hour over 18 months. Dole voted against that raise as well.

After Democrats gained control of the Senate in 2006, they pushed the minimum wage hike again. Dole voted for the first, which was never signed into law. The wage hike was later included in an emergency spending bill that Dole voted for as well.

ENERGY ASSISTANCE: The fine print on the section of the ad on struggling families cites a vote on home energy asistance.

In 2006, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine proposed spending an additional $1 billion in the 2007 budget for one-time assistance to people who need help paying their heating and cooling bills.

Dole voted against an amendment on the measure, which later passed by a voice vote.

Spokesman Dan McLagan said Dole objected to how the money would be spent.

"The vast majority of the package was aimed at cold-weather states," he said. "All this money was going to go to northern states for a winter that had been mild, versus southern states that had a hot summer."

In 2008, Dole successfully pushed another measure for more spending on the same energy assistance program. She received an award for her efforts from the National Fuel Funds Network, a nonprofit coalition of energy assistance providers.

CREDIT COUNSELING: In April, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray proposed spending another $100 million on foreclosure counseling this year.

At the time, Congress had already budgeted $180 million for credit counselors.

Murray argued that spending more to prevent homeowners from going into foreclosure was "a smart investment," although it would require suspending budget rules that require any new spending to be matched by an equal cut somewhere else.

Senate Republicans argued that they needed to investigate whether the money was being spent appropriately before budgeting more. If more was spent, they argued it should be done through the regular budget process, not an amendment.

The amendment failed 44-40, with Dole voting against it.

PREVIOUS CLAIMS: Washington-based news service Congressional Quarterly compiles yearly figures for how often senators vote with the stated position of the president. The 92 percent figure comes from an average of the yearly scores for Dole, though Congressional Quarterly researchers says that method is inaccurate. Based on its overall score through August, they say the correct figure for Dole is 88 percent. The effectiveness ranking comes from an annual study conducted by the data service Knowlegis.

Is it accurate? Some of the claims are true: Dole voted against a measure to strip funding for the "Bridge to Nowhere," her effectiveness ranking was 93rd, and she voted against more credit counseling for families facing foreclosure. Two other claims are missing context: She voted against raising the minimum wage and providing more energy assistance, though she later voted for both. In addition, the vote on energy assistance had little to do with foreclosure. The figure for her votes with President Bush is off by a few percentage points.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole voted against providing more funding for housing counseling.

In April, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington proposed spending another $100 million on foreclosure counseling in an amendment to a bill on renewable energy.

At the time, Congress had already budgeted $180 million for credit counselors.

Murray argued that spending more to prevent homeowners from going into foreclosure was "a smart investment," although it would require suspending the pay-go provision of an earlier budget bill.

Senate Republicans argued that they needed to investigate whether the money was being spent appropriately before budgeting more. If more was spent, they argued it should be done through the regular budget process, not an amendment.

The amendment failed 44-40, with Dole voting against it.

Dole spokesman Dan McLagan said it was "a laudable amendment," but there were too many problems with it for her to support it. For one, it was not matched by a similar spending cut elsewhere in the budget.

The ad is "saying we should have gone $100 million more in debt to teach people to be responsible with their credit," he wrote Dome. "That would have been bizarre."

A recent TV ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee criticizes Dole for her vote on the amendment.