So a Republican congressman, speaking for the Republican National Committee, accuses a Democratic president of shading the truth. The Democrats accuse the Republican of lying. The congressman accuses back.

This is the kind of back-and-forth that goes on daily inside the Beltway, Barb Barrett reports. And so it happened again Wednesday, this time with remarks from N.C. Republican Patrick McHenry, in the context of President Barack Obama’s visit to Raleigh.

So without comment, Dome presents:

* McHenry’s words in an official RNC conference call with reporters: "He is talking about a few principles on health care that do not address the meat of his plan. In fact, the principles that he mentions today run counter to his bill in the House of Representatives.

* The Democratic National Committee’s response: "On an RNC conference call today, Congressman Patrick McHenry accused the President of lying about the details of his health insurance reform plan. The only person lying on that call, however, was Rep. McHenry."

* McHenry’s response to the DNC’s response: "It’s notable what the DNC did not attempt to refute: That the plan taxes small businesses and that centrist Democrats are the President’s stumbling block."

Raleigh political consultant Mark Stephens is stepping down from his role at the Republican National Committee's chief fundraiser.

Stephens was on RNC chairman Michael Steele's transition team and then headed fund raising from February through May. Steele announced this morning that Rob Bickhart would being as the party's finance chair, Rob Christensen reports.

"I want to thank Mark for coming to Washington and working hard to help put the RNC on a strong financial foundation — raising $23 million during the transition," Steele said in a statement. "He also led our search team to find the RNC a first-class finance director."

Stephens, who learned his politics as part of the late Sen. Jesse Helms' political organization, has been involved in GOP politics for decades.

He played major roles in former Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaigns and Dole brought him in to serve as executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2006 election cycle.

* A proposed ban on sending text messages while driving, already watered down from the original proposal, is struggling in the legislature.

* The Arc of North Carolina says Gov. Beverly Perdue's budget "could have been worse" for the mental health and developmental disability community.

* Democratic Rep. Larry Womble of Winston-Salem wants companies that do business with the state to disclose their historical ties to slavery.

* Republican National Committee member Ada Fisher thinks chairman Michael Steele should step down, but she's not happy her e-mail was leaked.

* Former state Sen. Fred Smith, who once pondered a run for the job himself, has endorsed Woody White for chair of the N.C. Republican Party.

* Republican National Committee member Ada Fisher of North Carolina calls for Michael Steele to step down, criticizes his language.

* Former Cumberland County Schools Superintendent Bill Harrison sworn in to new seat, elected chairman of the State Board of Education. 

* Greensboro News-Record columnist Doug Clark says Gov. Beverly Perdue has a "special obligation" to see that lottery money doesn't go into the general fund. 

Linda Daves had some harsh words for Sarah Palin.

At a recent question-and-answer session with top-ranking Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the North Carolina GOP chairwoman brought up a lingering issue from the 2008 campaign, according to MSNBC:

Another interesting moment during the question-and-answer session came when North Carolina Party Chair Linda Daves rose to ask if there was a budget for clothing candidates, an obvious -- and sharp-edged -- reference to Sarah Palin's paid-for campaign wardrobe.

In response, a Republican National Committee member in charge of the budget blamed the McCain campaign, which had blamed the RNC during the campaign.

Dr. Ada Fisher is again taking a stand in the race for a new Republican national chairman.

As one of three black members of the Republican National Committee, the Salisbury doctor is in a rare position for the GOP as it figures out how to respond to the election of Barack Obama.

Earlier this month, Fisher announced her support for South Carolina chairman Katon Dawson in his bid for the head of the national party, despite a controversy over his membership in a country club that doesn't admit blacks.

Now she has criticized another candidate for the top post, Chip Saltsman, for distributing a CD as a Christmas gift that included a song by Rush Limbaugh called "Barack the Magic Negro."

"Racist actions and deeds have no place in the party," she wrote in an open letter to Saltsman. "The lack of sensitivity in understanding the historical election we just had and the challenges this nation faces as we must bind our wounds as well as bring our people together requires that we set aside our biases and search out those constitutional principles inherent in our nation's foundings and our parties operation which must undergrid us as we move forward."

The statement after the jump.

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Linda Daves will be at a meeting of Republicans planning a comeback.

The head of the N.C. Republican Party is heading to Myrtle Beach, S.C., this weekend to a gathering of members of the Republican National Committee.

The meeting is being hosted by her South Carolina counterpart, state party chairman Katon Dawson, who has been building support to replace the national party chairman.

She told the Chicago Tribune that she'll be looking for "nerves of steel" in the next national chairman.

A Raleigh man says he got a robocall purporting to be from Hillary Clinton.

Van Webb, a Republican who works in the insurance business, says he received an automated call around 8 p.m. with a woman's voice that he took to be Clinton's saying she was endorsing John McCain because of his experience.

Clinton has heartily endorsed Democrat Barack Obama.

Webb said he did not pay much attention to it.

"It was going to sway me one way or the other," he said.

Update: The call uses audio of Clinton from the Democratic primary.

"In the White House there is no time for speeches and on-the-job training. Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign and Senator Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002. I think that is a significant difference," she says in the audio.

It was sponsored by the Republican National Committee.

State Democratic chairman Jerry Meek says the Republicans are running the worst "smear campaign" he has ever seen against Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

He said Obama is being unfairly maligned in automated telephone calls and in campaign literature sent out by the campaign of presidential candidate John McCain, the Republican National Committee, and the state Republican Party, Rob Christensen reports.

The rule in college basketball, Meek said, is that you start fouling when you are behind.

"That is exactly what we are seeing with the McCain campaign, the RNC and the state Republican Party," Meek said. "They are using negative personal attacks and fouls against Barack Obama because they realize the clock is running out on them."

Meek cited one mailing by the state Republican Party that ties Obama to William Ayers, the 1960’s radical, turned college professor, who held a reception for Obama during his first legislative campaign and also served on an education board with him.

He noted that the flyer put the following unattributed quote (from Ayers) next to a photo of Obama: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

Meek said the ad was "designed to deceive."

He called on North Carolina’s two Republican Senators, Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, who is McCain’s state chairman, to urge McCain to stop the tactics.

The Republican National Committee is criticizing Barack Obama for a Hollywood fundraiser.

In a mailer sent to North Carolina voters, the party notes that the Democratic presidential candidate attended a fundraiser with Hollywood actors while Congress was deciding to seize control of insurance company AIG.

"With Wall Street in crisis, Obama parties with Hollywood's elite," it says, next to pictures of Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio and Barbra Streisand.

It quotes a Sept. 21 story in the Washington Post that says that Obama spent 20 minutes meeting with his economic advisors before attending a three-hour, $28,500 a plate fundraiser.

"The Democratic presidential nominee had 20 minutes before he arrived, he told his economic policy coordinator, and he wanted to spend it receiving input from his new economic brain trust," the story noted.

The party has also made a robocall to North Carolina voters about the fundraiser.