U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry has lately been known for his take-no-prisoners attacks on Democrats.

But the Cherryville Republican recent found some time for a little Wii bowling and boxing with reporter Patrick Gavin for a regular feature on Politico.

McHenry was, ahem, game, and did his best to ham it up.

"Most journalists are playing Wii right now because they don't have a job," McHenry quipped. (Ouch.)

"As a journalist you should be going left, but as a Republican I should be going to the right," McHenry said of bowling strategy. (Zing!)

Dome won't spoil the outcome of the match, but we will say it wasn't close.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's car is getting its own parking law paparazzi.

Burr's "Thing," a Volkswagen resembling a World War II German military vehicle, was photographed for a second time in what appeared to be an illegal parking spot, Politico reports. The latest verboten vehicle location was outside the Russell Senate Office Building, according to the web site.

Burr's wheels were earlier seen in a no parking zone outside the Capitol Hill Club. 

UPDATE: Burr's office had no comment.

A photo reportedly taken Wednesday night could show Sen. Richard Burr's car illegally parked outside The Capitol Hill Club.

That's the conclusion reached by Anne Schroeder, on Politico's Shenanigans blog. Burr does drive a Volkswagen "Thing."

The photo could also show a grainy image of someone else's VW. Dome can't help but notice the license plate in the image has been heavily altered, although it was probably just lightened. A Burr spokesman could not be reached Thursday to settle the question.

Reaction to Attorney General Roy Cooper's decision not to run against Sen. Richard Burr:

Swing State Project: "This is a major bummer, no doubt. Most polls had Cooper running neck and neck with Burr, holding him well under 50% in all cases -- the best numbers any Democrat have yielded in a hypothetical head-to-head."

Politico: "Cooper is the second high-profile Democrat -- after Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) -- to decide not to run against Burr, and puts Democrats back to the drawing board to find a credible candidate against Burr."

The Hill: "Burr could still be vulnerable to the right kind of challenger. Democrats fell back on state Sen. Kay Hagan (D) in the 2008 race against Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) and still unseated the incumbent with relative ease."

The Fix: "A big recruiting setback for Senate Dems in NC."

N.C. GOP spokesman Brent Woodcox: "Wrote a press release, issues memo, sent out a news update, got Roy Cooper to not run for Senate. That's what I do before lunch."

N.C. Democratic Party staffer Jerimee Richir: "Roy Cooper out of NC Senate race. Let the brawl ensue."

Draft Coop: "What do we do now?????"

Get ready for the parachutists.

With U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's re-election campaign heating up already, the national media are taking another look at lil ol' North Carolina.

And that means another round of annoying mistakes and misconceptions from reporters who've parachuted into the state.

The latest example is a tried-and-true of the genre: Confusing the Raleigh News & Observer with the Charlotte Observer. (Insert McClatchy merger joke here.)

Glenn Thrush of Politico referred to an article about Burr in "the Charlotte News & Observer" in his blog recently. Then, likely because of Thrush, The Hill's Briefing Room blog made the exact same mistake.

We at Dome pointed out the error to both blogs, but neither has fixed it. 

Meantime, we got to thinking about what the national reporters need to know before reporting on North Carolina: Raleigh-Durham is not a city, Strom Thurmond was from South Carolina, Tar Heels is two words, etc.

Post your suggestions in the comment thread or e-mail dome@newsobserver.com and we'll post the best.

The flap over U.S. Sen. Richard Burr ATM remarks just got another boost.

The Washington-based Politico newspaper reported this afternoon on a statement that Burr put out when Citigroup bought Wachovia reassuring North Carolinians not to worry — around the same time he told his wife to withdraw money from the bank: 

"Today's news of Citigroup's acquisition of Wachovia might be unsettling to many in North Carolina. While these are difficult times in our economy, it is important to remember that this move provides for the protection of accounts and the soundness of savings for Wachovia's customers. FDIC has said that all services for customers should continue uninterrupted." 

"Today's news once again shows that our financial markets are currently facing tremendous uncertainty, and it is an absolute necessity to move quickly to bring some stability to the crisis." 

The press release was posted to Burr's Web site at 12:46 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2008.

On Thursday, Burr spokesman David Ward said that the senator had called his wife around the last weekend in September. 

"When you think about the three weeks prior to this, you saw some of the biggest investment banks and commercial banks fail. You saw Lehman collapse, Fannie and Freddie propped up, WaMu fall, and Merrill Lynch acquired by Bank of America," he said. "The outlook was pretty grim at the time." 

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's team works fast.

Earlier this afternoon, Dome briefly mentioned that the design of the Winston-Salem Republican's "Constituent Services" page on his Web site was flawed.

A large blank spot on the page made it look like nothing was on the page, even though Burr had several links for such things as requesting a flag or learning about internships.

(To be clear: This is nothing like the spelling snafu that slammed Pat McCrory. The links were there, but the page was hard to navigate.) 

In typical Washington fashion, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pounced on the rather minor flaw even as Burr's team quickly fixed the problem.

"Based on the number of tour and flag requests the office has received, as well as requests for assistance with federal grants and a surge in applications for summer internships, North Carolinians appear to have had little trouble navigating the Constituent Services sections of the website," said spokesman Chris Walker in an e-mail.

He said they fixed the glitch to help Dome and others better navigate the site in the future. 

Politico says the Senate race was among the top 10 upsets.

The D.C.-based political newspaper said Sen.-elect Kay Hagan "wasn't expected to have much of a shot" at beating Sen. Elizabeth Dole because of the incumbent's "star power and imposing fundraising skills."

But Dole’s national profile proved to be a double-edged sword. Hagan used it to portray the incumbent as a Washington politician who had lost touch with North Carolina. She gained steadily throughout the summer and the fall, leading Dole to unleash a barrage of blistering attack ads that ended up hurting her own image even more than they damaged Hagan.

The result on Election Day? A nine-point win for the Greensboro legislator. 

Others on the list included Barack Obama's November win in Indiana, Mike Huckabee's win in Iowa, Hillary Clinton's in New Hampshire, John McCain's in South Carolina, and Congressional races in Louisiana, Alaska, Virginia and Illinois.

Here's your baseless speculation of the day: Kay Hagan might be Labor secretary if she loses.

That comes from Politico, which has compiled a long list of potential appointees in a Barack Obama administration:

Secretary of Labor: Former Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.); Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union; Kay Hagan of North Carolina (if she loses her challenge to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole); Jeanne Shaheen, former New Hampshire governor (if she loses her challenge to U.S. Sen. John Sununu)

Hagan seems an odd choice. A business-friendly Democrat, she moved close to some national unions during her Senate campaign and indicated she would support a card-check bill. 

Certainly Hagan has raised her profile to a national level with this campaign but this seems closer to a Washington parlor game than informed speculation.

U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes is taking heat for his warm-up act.

Speaking at a John McCain rally in Concord Saturday, the Republican said that opening speakers need to "make sure we don’t say something stupid" because the liberal media would distort the remarks.

He then accused Democrat Barack Obama of "inciting class warfare” and said that "liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God," according to The New York Observer.

A spokeswoman for Hayes, who is running for re-election against Democrat Larry Kissell, at first denied that Hayes had made the remark to the Washington-based political newspaper Politico, calling its account "irresponsible journalism."

However, a reporter with local radio station WFAE had audio of the remarks. (Politico posted the audio here.)

"I genuinely did not recall making the statement and, after reading it, there is no doubt that it came out completely the wrong way. I actually was trying to work to keep the crowd as respectful as possible, so this is definitely not what I intended," Hayes then said in a statement.