Endless Senate recount has Hagan hanging

The endless Minnesota Senate recount is affecting Sen.-elect Kay Hagan.

As U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and Sen.-maybe-elect Al Franken dispute the validity of ballots, they're not just holding up the Senate seat, they're holding up the offices too.

Because Senate offices are distributed by seniority, they cannot be distributed until it's determined whether Minnesota will be represented by a first- or second-term senator.

That has put Hagan on hold too.

Spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said the senator-elect will move into expanded temporary office space in the basement of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

"They've expanded it to give us a little more room -- not a whole lot," she said.

'Godless' ad still haunts

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's ad has been dinged again.

Writing on a Washington Post blog about the worst leadership performances of 2008, leadership coach John Baldoni criticized Dole's last-minute "Godless Americans" attack ad on rival Kay Hagan.

"Fearing that her campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate was losing, she approved a television ad against her opponent calling her 'godless.' The voters of North Carolina ignored the ad and elected Kay Hagan, a former Sunday school teacher and Presbyterian elder (as well as an accomplished state senator), as their senator," Baldoni wrote.

"Ms. Dole may have helped her re-election cause if she had been more visible; voters perceived that she spent too much time in D.C. rather than in her home state."

Baldoni gave the ad the "Trash My Opponent Award."

Being just like Mike

Is Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue taking too long to build her Cabinet?

Not if you use Gov. Mike Easley as a yardstick.

Perdue has plenty of time to beat the molasses-slow pace of her predecessor.

A search of contemporary news reports shows Easley didn't make his first appointment until Jan. 8 of 2000. By mid-January, he squared away a few posts: Crime Control, Juvenile Justice, Administration, Correction, Cultural Resources, and Environment and Natural Resources.

Two weeks later, Easley had added Transportation and Health and Human Services.

And then, a wait. It wasn't until March 7 that Easley, a woodworking hobbyist, put the finish on his Cabinet with his picks for Commerce and Revenue.

Easley seems to have been satisfied with his decisions, however. Seven of the 10 are still working for him as he finishes his second term.

Tar Heel to help Obama

Another Tar Heel has joined the Obama administration.

According to an item by the Washington Post's Al Kamen, a native North Carolinian will soon help shepherd Barack Obama's health care plan:

"Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, now tasked with overhauling the nation's health-care system and the Department of Health and Human Services, will be able to count on former aide Mark Childress to help him," Kamen wrote. "Childress is to be his chief of staff and also deputy director of the new White House Office of Health Reform. Childress had been Daschle's chief counsel and policy director when he was in the Senate.

Childress, a native of Asheville, was a Morehead scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill's law school and still has family in North Carolina.

Inauguration board named

A dozen members of a state inauguration committee have been named.

The N.C. Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies will oversee the swearing-in ceremonies of Perdue and other members of the Council of State, the inaugural parade and an open house at the Executive Mansion that same afternoon.

Perdue appointed New Bern law firm employee Sissy Chesnutt, former U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton of Lake Gaston and higher education administrator Jill Dinwiddie of Charlotte.

Easley appointed Raleigh attorney Dee Becton Rozier, tourism development officer Kaye Myers of Fairview, and Wilmington attorney Linda Wilson.

Senate leader Marc Basnight appointed Sens. Katie Dorsett of Greensboro, Vernon Malone of Raleigh and Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand of Fayetteville.

And House Speaker Joe Hackney appointed Reps. Linda Coleman of Knightdale, Margaret Highsmith Dickson of Fayetteville and Alice Underhill of New Bern.