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With President Obama speaking about his new federal health care law in Maryland Thursday, Republicans plan to hit vulnerable Democratic senators for supporting a government spending bill that included funding for Obamacare. The National Republican Senatorial Committee plans to blast Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La.; Kay Hagan, D-N.C.; Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Mark Begich, D-Alaska; and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., for opposing a Republican effort to defund Obamacare in a new government funding bill. All are expected to vote later this week to strip the defunding provision from the bill. "This weekend we will see the Republican Party stand with the American people...

Not only was Kay Hagan for it before she was against it, she was one of handful of senators that got ObamaCare passed before she had even read it all. Now she is trying to position herself as opposed to a critical part of ObamaCare…who decides who will get what medical care. Jon Ham, writing at Rights Angles show how dishonest Hagan is being about her role in ObamaCare: N.C. Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan enthusiastically supported Obamacare and bragged about helping craft it. And when it came up for a vote in the Senate on Christmas Eve of 2009, she...

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, has a fairly solid record, and they’re constantly polling in North Carolina, their home base. So it has to give Sen. Kay Hagan, D, a bit of heartburn that they’re finding her slightly underwater on job approval, and around 45 percent in ballot tests, just squeaking by against candidates ranging from “barely known statewide” to “some dude.”

Senate votes on climate change and the Keystone XL oil pipeline laid bare divisions among Democrats — and underscored why the White House, not Congress, will be where the critical climate decisions reside in President Obama’s second term.Several votes during the freewheeling debate over a nonbinding budget plan provided a political barometer of where the chamber, including vulnerable Democrats, stand on the topics. Advocates of the proposed pipeline scored a symbolic victory Friday when 62 lawmakers voted for an amendment backing the project to bring oil from Canadian tar sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries. Seventeen Democrats supported Sen....

With the usual note that the source is not reliable, the Washington Post reports big money Democratic donors such as Buzzfeed’s Kenneth Lerer have given the Democrats an ultimatum.. Pass gun controls or you get no more money from us On the other hand, if the Dimmos do pass gun control they will almost certainly suffer the consequences in both Congress and at the State level. Which puts Andy Jackson’s Jackass Partei on the horns of the dilemma. Briefly quoting the item linked above: Lerer also said he would be intensifying his contributions to Democratic Senate candidates in the next...

North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan said Wednesday she backs marriage rights for same-sex couples, joining a growing number of Democratic Party politicians ahead of her re-election race next year. Hagan announced her position as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a law that denies federal benefits to married same-sex couples. "Marriage equality is a complex issue with strong feelings on both sides, and I have a great deal of respect for varying opinions on the issue," Hagan said on her official Facebook account. "After much thought and prayer, I have come to...

Stopping veteran Dem retirements is top priority for Reid, SchumerBy Alexander Bolton - 11/25/12 06:00 AM ET One of the highest immediate political priorities for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic political guru Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is to persuade veteran colleagues not to retire in 2014. Democratic sources identify four senators as most likely to retire: Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Another possible veteran retirement is Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who has yet to announce his decision. But Democratic aides expect him to run...

Dem Keystone support creates tougher fight for Reid, ObamaBy Alexander Bolton - 12/16/11 04:08 PM ET Republicans want to jam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Keystone oil sands pipeline and the Democratic leader will have a tough time resisting, given support within his caucus for the project. GOP leaders have made clear to Reid that they will not approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday unless it includes language to speed up construction of the pipeline. Senate Republicans estimate as many as 14 Senate Democrats support the project. Labor unions have also voiced strong backing, complicating...

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- Sen. Kay Hagan has been traveling the state on her "Fighting for our Future" budget listening tour. The senator says she wants to hear directly from North Carolinians about common sense solutions to reduce our deficit and put the nation's fiscal house in order. Next week, Hagan will make the fourth and final stop on her tour in New Hanover County. The event is Friday, July 8, at 11:15 a.m. at the McKeithan Center at Cape Fear Community College's North Campus. The roundtable-style listening session will also include UNCW Senior Economist Dr. Woody Hall; Linda Pearce,...

Police in North Carolina are looking for a vandal who was caught on surveillance video spray-painting swastikas on the front of Sen. Kay Hagan's Greenville office. Investigators made the footage public and are hoping viewers will help them identify the suspect. Greenville Police said along with swastikas, the phrases "criminal government," "what good is justice if the scales are bent" and "blind follow blind" were scrawled Thursday in purple paint outside the Democrat's office and on other nearby buildings. ThinkProgress pointed out that some of the graffiti appeared to be lyrics from the song "Black Panther" by folk singer Mason...

_resident Obama's $858 billion tax package won a huge bipartisan majority in the Senate Monday evening, setting it up for a contentious debate in the House. In a 83-15 vote, the Senate quashed a filibuster by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Va.). Fifteen lawmakers voted against it, including five Republicans: Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.), Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), John Ensign (Nev.) and George Voinovich (Ohio). Nine Democrats and one independent voted against the bill: Sens. Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Russ Feingold (Wis.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Pat Leahy (Vt.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Mark...

KERNERSVILLE, N.C. -- "Conversations with Kay" quickly turned into "Confrontation With Kay" when Sen. Kay Hagan visited the Kernersville Senior Enrichment Center. Hagan has been hosting "Conversations with Kay" across the state of North Carolina, meeting with constituents about their concerns and having her staff on hand to assist people who need help with federal agencies such as the IRS or Veterans Affairs. Health care became the hot topic during Wednesday morning's event when one mother sounded off about her children's health care needs. "My children will suffer because of this health care bill," the concerned woman loudly told Hagan...

They were no farther apart than the width of Water Street. A large crowd on one side, with signs, a cause they believed in, and the will to defend it. A modest crowd on the other side, with signs, a cause they believed in, and the will to defend it. But if one were to read the signs and listen to the shouted chants and slogans from each group, it was clear that the two were in fact poles apart in their views of America as it is, and as these politically opposed U.S. citizens want their nation to be....

North Carolina’s junior senator will be in the Port City this Friday to be the keynote speaker at Wilmington Downtown Inc’s annual spring luncheon. But it’s unlikely U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan will be joining local members of the Tea Party movement outside the Hilton Wilmington Riverside. That, however, won’t deter the conservative groups from holding “a Tea Party in the senator’s honor.” Although not homogeneous, the Tea Party movement in general believes in less government and more fiscal responsibility. The sprung up last year largely in the wake of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus-spending package, which many conservatives viewed...

The United States has an opportunity to learn from Saskatchewan's leading work in carbon-capture technology, a prominent U.S. politician said Friday, as he offered support to a Saskatchewan-Montana project seeking American government funding. Saskatchewan, like the U.S., relies heavily on burning coal for power. But U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) said the province appears to be "ahead of, quite frankly, the world" with carbon sequestration, the process of capturing the gas and storing the CO2 underground. "What we want to try and do is find out what is working in the area of carbon sequestration, because when you look...

John Edwards admits federal investigators are asking him questions. Federal subpoenas were issued Friday related to Mike Easley. As the separate federal probes into a former senator and the former governor are emerging, Democrats are taking steps to replace the Republican prosecutor who is spearheading the inquiries about the highest-profile North Carolina Democrats of the past decade. All the nearly 100 top federal prosecutors across the country serve at the will of the president. Any replacement for U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding, a Bush appointee who has kept a priority on public corruption cases from Raleigh to the coast, will...

What is the result of an incredibly fawning newspaper puff piece about a new senator in which the subject of the story displays her supposed independence from President Barack Obama by voting for every piece of his legislation? An extremely hilarious demolishment of the story by an astute blogger. Such was the case with McClatchy Newspapers reporter Barbara Barrett whose puff piece article about new North Carolina senator, Kay Hagan, was amusingly demolished by blogger Bane Windlow of Carolina Politics Online. To get the full flavor of Windlow's demolishment of Barrett, I will place his comments in [brackets] following Barrett's...

Is U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry considering higher office? An article in the Lenoir News-Topic over the weekend quotes anonymous McHenry aides speculating that his win over Daniel Johnson this year may have positioned him for a future run: With McHenry having likely faced his last credible challenges, either from GOP or Democratic circles, speculation has begun about his political future. Those close to McHenry privately say that a run for North Carolina governor in 2012 is one possibility, though a challenge to Senator-elect Kay Hagan in 2014 could be a more likely scenario. The same senior aides, who spoke on...

Organized labor took a risk this year, pouring money and manpower into campaigns in North Carolina, traditionally one of the most anti-union states in the country. But the gamble appears to be paying off, with labor playing a role in the election of such Democratic allies as U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan, Gov.-elect Bev Perdue, U.S. Rep.-elect Larry Kissell and helping carry the state for President-elect Obama. Now union leaders hope to translate success at the polls to victories in the halls of Congress and the state legislature. They will be advocating a broad agenda that includes making it easier nationally...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan this afternoon dismissed her lawsuit against the woman she defeated, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, over an advertisement that Hagan said attacked her personal faith. Dole, a Republican, had launched an ad in the last week of the campaign tying Hagan to a political action group called "Godless Americans" that promotes the separation of church and state. The advertisement ended with a photo of Hagan and another woman’s voice saying, "There is no God." Hagan, a Democrat, attended a fundraiser in August at the Boston home of a couple who is active in the group. The...