Hagan, Burr switch sides on bailout

Sen. Kay Hagan is taking fire for her votes on bailout money.

During her Senate campaign, the Greensboro Democrat opposed a bailout for Wall Street — though she did not take a position until after Sen. Elizabeth Dole had already voted.

Now in office, Hagan voted to release the second half of the roughly $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.

"Senator Hagan is going to have some explaining to do on her first trip home," Brent Woodcox, a spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party, wrote on the party blog.

At the same time, Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, voted for the original bill but against releasing the second half of the money.

A spokesman said Burr wanted to know how the money had affected the market first. (GN-R)

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Re: Hagan, Burr switch sides on bailout

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on February 2, 2009 - 4:48pm.

It's probably not clear if you're not a regular reader, but the above is a link to a full story in the Greensboro News-Record.

— RTB

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Re: Hagan, Burr switch sides on bailout

Submitted by prroscoe on February 2, 2009 - 4:45pm.

I can't say I'm surprised that Hagan has changed her position already; she seemed like she just took the politically expedient position on this from the beginning. However, it still seems like a newly elected senator taking a 180 on a 350 billion dollar vote in the first month in office would be worthy of an actual article and not just a blog post. Was Hagan contacted or questioned about this "change of heart?"

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Re: Hagan, Burr switch sides on bailout

Submitted by CitizenOpinionated on January 22, 2009 - 12:22am.

The Hagan saga is this simple.

She waited until after the Senate, including Dole, caste their votes, then she makes a public announcement approximately 43 minutes via press release stating her position was against the "bailout." This is a political move, so that Dole would not be able to establish any policy stance differential with regards to the bailout, since it was clear that many North Carolinians did not support the initial bailout. Hagan knew her campaign numbers would shift negatively, if she openly supported the bailout. If the media did their job, they would have really questioned Hagan on this and would try to hold her accountable now.

Tangoz,
Who expects the general citizenry to recognize this announcement as a political chess move? A Gallup poll shows that many thought that the Republicans controlled the Congress.

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Re: Hagan, Burr switch sides on bailout

Submitted by tangoz on January 21, 2009 - 5:47pm.

I do understand that she was able to fool a majority of voters on November 4th, 2008. I for one was not fooled. I met her personally while at a couple non-partisan candidate forums. She lacked gravitas and was not humble by any means. It was all about her winning and not the people of North Carolina. This is just my personal face to face observation.

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