John Ross Hendrix would not vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general.

The Cary graphic artist, who is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, said he would not support Mukasey because of the former judge's reluctance to characterize waterboarding as torture.

In a satirical e-mail to Dome, Hendrix said he will begin selling "custom built waterboards" on Craigslist.

There should be a good market, with potential sales to every police department in the country, and maybe even mall security companies. If the waterboarding procedure is ok for prisoners of war and international criminals, it should be ok for criminal suspects in the U.S., too.

Hendrix said that Mukasey's testimony will lead to "Americans being waterboarded by terrorist claiming to have the same respect for the Geneva Conventions as the United States."

Previously: Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal opposes Mukasey nomination, state Sen. Kay Hagan says she's not sure. 

Jim Neal says he would not vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general.

The Chapel Hill investment banker said he would not support the Bush nominee because of his reluctance to characterize the technique known as waterboarding as torture. 

"I believe if we tacitly acknowledge torture as an option for interrogation techniques, we only magnify the likelihood that members of our armed services will be subject to torture," he told Dome.

Neal said that the United States needs to "restore its image in the world community."

Previously: State Sen. Kay Hagan, Neal's opponent in the Democratic primary, said she was not sure if she would vote to confirm Mukasey or not.

State Sen. Kay Hagan said she does not know whether she would vote to approve Michael Mukasey for attorney general.

The Greensboro Democrat told Dome that she has "not had the privilege" of hearing his testimony before Congress on torture and the Bush administration's policies. However, she did say that she thinks he is "a reputable individual that has great credentials."

"I don't have a vote in this right now, so I'm going to let the sitting senator decide that," she said.

She said she does not agree with Mukasey's reluctance to characterize the practice known as waterboarding — in which terrorism suspects are made to feel they are drowning — as torture.

"Waterboarding seems like torture in my book," she said.

Hagan is running against Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal for the Democratic nomination to face U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2008.

John Edwards said he would like a little less power, if elected.

At a town hall meeting in Tilton, N.H., the former North Carolina senator said that President Bush has overreached while in office, hurting the historical separation of powers.

"We've seen the most dramatic expansion of executive power in our lifetimes under this president," he said.

He said he would restore transparency to presidential decision-making, end the use of signing statements to amend laws, stop "illegal spying" on American citizens, close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and prohibit torture.

"I understand that there are three branches of the federal government," he said, to a burst of applause.

A House bill would direct the state Sentencing Commision to study outlawing torture.

Rep. Paul Luebke said the study is necessary because of allegations that a Smithfield-based company has sent terrorism suspects overeseas to be interrogated and tortured.

The Durham Democrat said that Attorney General Roy Cooper said that current law does not cover the alleged activities by Aero Contractors at an airport in Kinston.

Rep. Leo Daughtry, a Smithfield Republican, said that the company does "the bidding of the United States government" and should not be prosecuted.

"The state of North Carolina has got no more business investigating the people in Johnston County than they do Fort Bragg," he said.

A decision on the bill was postponed, possibly until later today.