Wx Dispatch: Friday edition
My week in D.C. wrapped up this afternoon. A few notes before I head back south:
- One of the things I've been talking with folks quite about bit about this week is Iraq. Click here for the first part of my conversation with Sen. Dole on the topic. For a second bit, trimmed to get it down to three minutes, click here.
- A reader question that came through my editor asked who pays for those civic pride bets like the one Sen. Burr made on the Orange Bowl.
After chatting this over with a few people on the hill, it usually comes from the elected official’s own pocket or their campaign account.
In the case of the Orange Bowl bet, Burr shelled out. The payout was, as is typical for North Carolina honorables, barbecue. But there was the big decision.
"It makes it particularly difficult for a Senator from North Carolina because we have both eastern and Lexington style barbecue and you don’t want to disenfranchise either one," Burr said. "So we cooked it ourselves."
So for you kids getting into politics, remember you not only need to know how the shake hands, work well with others and navigate the bureaucracy, but knowing how to cook your home state's delicacy doesn’t hurt either.
- Another reader question: Keith from High Point wrote to ask if Sen. Dole is in North Carolina much. That's a reasonable question given her gig the past two years heading up the NRSC, which kept her on the road campaigning for candidates in other states when she wasn’t in D.C.
Free of that commitment, Dole said this morning she planned to be in North Carolina about every other week when the Senate was in session, more during recesses.
"You’re going to see so much of me you’re going to think, 'Good glory, here she comes again,'" Dole said.
- He's not from the Greensboro area, but former state legislator and current U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry is gaining recognition as one of the most outspoken young conservatives on the hill.
He was part of a news conference Friday afternoon that took a few swipes at the Democrat’s 100 hours agenda.
"They promised results," McHenry said. "They delivered hypocrisy."
I asked him about what he said was an effort "to disagree agreeably," but sounded a little biting to my ears.
Click here to listen to what he said on the walk back from that news conference to his office. It's an interesting take on how one needs to operate in D.C. when one doesn't sit in the seat of power.
McHenry has been applying that "strong elbow" he talks about in that clip liberally.
That's it for now. I'll be driving back tomorrow and spending the next few days getting several stories together for next Sunday's paper.
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