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In addition to being a lawyer with Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, he is also a registered lobbyist.(PDF) His listed clients include Jefferson-Pilot (yeah, that one's a bit out of date), Lorillard Tobacco, Cendant Car Rental Groups, the City of Greensboro, North Carolina Cable Telecommunications Association, Infrastructure Corporation of American, United Health Services, Timco Aviation Services, the Hertz Corp. and Vanguard Car Rental USA.

He's also a political donor, giving to notables like state Sen. Kay Hagan ($1,000 on 10/3/2005), John Edwards ($2,000 on two occasions in 2003), two-time Senate candidate and now UNC President Erskine Bowles ($1,500 on two occasions in 2004) and Brad Miller ($1,000 in 2005).

Any of that make him unqualified for office?

Nope.

But anyone who's spent time in a courtroom knows the biggest lies in the business start with the phrase, "Your honor, I'm just a poor country lawyer, but..."

Phillips is a bit more than "a lawyer from Greensboro."

Present, but not accounted for

If you're a lawmaker in Raleigh, you basically have three options when voting on legislation: yes, no or walk out of the room. There is an exception for conflicts of interest, but it's not used much...it probably should be, but that's a different column.

The honorables up D.C. way have another option. They can vote "present."

It is most frequently used when they're conflicted on a piece of legislation or want to make a sort of, kind of, almost visible protest against something.

Rep. Brad Miller, Democrat of the fightin' 13th, voted "present" on the Iraq war resolution. The resolution supports the troops (something Miller says is a good thing) but endorsed the President's war policy in Iraq, which Miller does not.

"But I will not vote for a resolution that keeps our men and women in harm's way in the service of wishful thinking," Miller said in a prepared statement.

Stubbing out smoking down at the capital

I blogged last week about a proposed ban on smoking in the legislative buildings.

The full Senate approved that ban last week.

It's probably the right thing to do.

The legislative buildings (there are two) are hybrids – part office building, part ceremonial chambers, part tourist destination and, if all that concrete is any indication, part bomb shelter.

Not only to do staffers have to work in and around the complex every day, but school kids troop through on a regular basis. And there are plenty of citizen lobby days, when people come to redress their grievances in person.

I'd call it pretty poor from to have the smell of cheap (and not so cheap) cigars and cigarette smoke rolling through the corridors of power as folks with lung ailments and other health conditions lobby for more Medicaid and research funding.

The honorables (and other assorted critters who inhabit these parts) will still be able to step outside to smoke.

Coming up

The honorables are already off and running reconciling the House and Senate budgets in another sign that they want to set a land speed record for getting the thing done. Senators were gearing up for negotiations even before the gavel fell on the House budget last week.

Creating the conference budget has traditionally been a "behind closed doors" kind of process, but the chief honorables said earlier this year that it would be opened up. It'll be interesting to see how – and if – that works out.

Social pages

As happens almost every week, I ran into a couple notables from Greensboro or High Point skulking about the legislator. This week it was Marlene Sanford, chief lobbyist and bottle washer for the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, and former Mayor Carolyn Allen, who was stumping on behalf of the Land for Tomorrow Coalition.

There's a certain karma, or symmetry or something there, don't you think.

On that note: If you're up to Raleigh from Guilford County, particularly if you're in the legislative building, stop by and say hello. Just drop by or drop me a line that you'll be coming up. (mbinker@news-record.com)