Easley: Return those cards, but not too soon

Gov. Mike Easley had some advice Tuesday for state officials who received Christmas cards.

It's now unethical for a lobbyist to send a card to a state official, according to the state Ethics Commission.

So at the end of a meeting of the Council of State, Insurance Commissioner Jim Long asked Easley what he thought should be done with holiday cards.

The governor suggested buying stamps to send the cards back. The plan could even save the official the trouble of having to send cards for Christmas yet to come.

"It doesn't say you have to do it right away," Easley said. "Maybe you could wait until next Christmas."

Burr presses the flesh

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr shook voters' hands at half a dozen polling places in southern New Hampshire on Tuesday, stumping for Arizona Sen. John McCain in the GOP primary.

He was hard to miss.

First, he was wearing a bright peach-colored sweater. And no socks with his loafers.

Second, he was claiming credit for the balmy, 60-degree sunshine, saying he hauled it up from the Tar Heel State.

Third, he insisted he had persuaded half a dozen undecided voters to cast their ballots for McCain.

"I've been shocked at the number of people who walked up to me and said, 'I'm really torn,' " Burr said, grinning outside a polling place in Merrimack.

"And they walked away voting for John. ... If he wins by six votes tonight, I'm taking all the credit!"

Helms unvarnished?

A new biography of Jesse Helms promises a straightforward account.

Former UNC-Greensboro historian Bill Link says that in writing "Righteous Warrior" about the former longtime U.S. senator, he hoped to avoid the "cardboard-cutout" depictions of the left and right.

"I hope to avoid the ideologically charged caricatures of the right and left, and instead to understand and assess the impact of Helms during the last third of the twentieth century," he writes in the introduction to the book, which has not yet been published.

Among Helms' fights, according to Link: opposing the expansion of the federal government, fighting desegregation, supporting the rise of Christian evangelicals in politics, attacking homosexuality, fighting detente with the Soviet Union and reducing the U.S. commitment to the United Nations.

"In the end, the conservative movement was wrapped up in Helms' career, and his life charts the emergence of modern American conservatism," he writes.

McCrory: No decision yet

Pat McCrory founded the N.C. Metropolitan Coalition of Mayors in 2002.

But when the group meets Thursday in Chapel Hill to tackle the issue of global warming, the Charlotte mayor will be leaving early.

Mayors of some of the 25 biggest cities in the state, including Bill Bell of Durham, Allen Joines of Winston-Salem, Tony Chavonne of Fayetteville and Bill Saffo of Wilmington, will meet today and Thursday.

McCrory, who is the immediate past chairman of the group, will be there all day today, but he'll head out after just a half-hour Thursday morning.

The mayor's office told Dome that McCrory has "other meetings" that day.

Could that include an event to announce he is jumping into the Republican primary for governor, which has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks?

Beau Mills, director of the coalition of mayors, said he did not know why McCrory was leaving early.

"I'm not sure about that," he said, laughing. "You'll have to ask him."

McCrory said he's leaving early because he's speaking to the Moore County Republican Men's Club in Pinehurst.

He said the group invited him a month ago, and the timing has nothing to do with a potential gubernatorial announcement.

"We anticipate a decision will be coming pretty soon," McCrory said.

Cooper tabbed a 'noble'

The Washington Times has named Roy Cooper a "noble of the year."

Each year, the newspaper names "nobles" and "knaves" voted by readers from recent news. It had praise for North Carolina's attorney general:

"Just barely sneaking into the No. 5 position is ... Roy Cooper, who dismissed the ludicrous lawsuit against three Duke University lacrosse players," the newspaper wrote.

"The story made national headlines for months and turned into a media circus, with [former] runaway prosecutor Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong at the helm."