Isn't this a beautiful morning, North Carolina? The sky is blue, the weather is lovely and we NC Progressives are beginning to align like the stars in the sky to make some serious noise in the election of our next US Senator.

By saying our NEXT US Sentor, I'm going out on a limb and saying to you, BlueNC, that we can and will be the driving factor behind that simple statement. Well, actually I'm not going out on much of a limb. More like, I'm hanging around the thick trunk of the tree and expecting the obvious.

You know who you are and you know what is obvious.

From Gary Robertson at AP:

Democratic state Rep. Grier Martin said Friday he will not run for the U.S. Senate next year against Elizabeth Dole, further raising the possibility that no candidate with experience in an elected office will challenge the GOP incumbent.

Martin, a two-term lawmaker from Raleigh, is the latest Democrat to withdraw from consideration, leaving only Chapel Hill corporate financial adviser Jim Neal in the race to challenge Dole as she seeks a second term.

Kansas has elected a good number of not-so-progressive Senators in the past. I'm tired of dealing with three. Count them. Three (3), US Senators from either Kansas or at least one from outside the State of North Carolina. Liddy, where the hell are you from anyway? We know where you don't live and who you do not represent. Anywhoo.

Again, from AP:

Neal is making his first run for public office and while he's raised money for former presidential candidates Wesley Clark and John Kerry, he is largely unknown. In a statement, Neal's campaign said the decisions by Hagan and Martin "give North Carolinians a unique opportunity to unite for positive change."

"Together, we can end the war in Iraq, fix our broken health care system and protect the economic security of hardworking middle-class families," Neal said.

Neal's path to the Senate, however, wouldn't break new ground in North Carolina politics. John Edwards had never held elected office when he ran for Senate in 1998, and he went on to beat GOP incumbent Sen. Lauch Faircloth.

Yep. John Edwards managed to take down the incumbent wingnut Senator without any prior political experience at ALL!

Jim Neal has political fundraising experience. Jim Neal is a Democrat. Liddy is highly unpopular in her re-adopted-for-political gain-only-State of North Carolina. It is not unprecidented for a Senator from North Carolina to be elected without holding elected office prior to their campaign for US Senate.

I'm in. Let's do it. It's going to be so much fun and so satisfying.