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Tuesday notes

A few things coming over my desk this afternoon:

• For those wondering if ACORN would go to ground after all its national problems, the answer seems to be no, at least here in North Carolina. On a news release I received this morning group is a listed as a cosponsor of a protest at Blue Cross-Blue Shields headquarters today. From the release: “This Tuesday, the “Big Insurance: Sick of It” push continues as organizers and outraged BC/BS customers return to the scene of the ‘crime’ armed with signs, personal stories, crime scene tape, and chalk to deliver a simple message: If the insurance companies win, we lose.”
   
• Speaking of ACORN, Rep. Howard Coble took to the floor of the House last week to chastise the media for not paying more attention to the scandal. Hey mentioned the Washington Post and New York Times by name. “Most other national news outlets ignored or downplayed the ACORN scandal. Days passed before the network news programs covered the story and only one out of five Sunday news show hosts asked the President about ACORN last week...The national media should report the facts instead of ignoring stories that don’t fit their liberal agendas.” (CSPAN)
  
  
   
• I don’t think Gov. Bev Perdue will be doing her Sally Fields impression anytime soon, especially in the parts of the state covered by area code 336. A recent Public Policy Polling survey (click here for the PDF) showed the governor’s approval rating at 24 percent. A friendly caller told me to look at the cross tabs, where responses are broken down by area code. In area code 919 – Raleigh and the surrounding areas – Perdue holds her own, with roughly the same approval number (40 percent) as disapproval (42 percent). In area code 336 (map) – Greensboro, Winston-Salem and the surrounding area – Perdue’s approval is at 13 percent, with 64 percent saying they disapprove of the job she’s doing.
   
• In a column today  I wrote about a group targeting N.C. Sen. Kay Hagan with an add urging her to support a “public option” health care payer. (link - it's the second item.) I wrote: “Hagan has said that Congress needs to pass a health insurance reform bill but has focused a lot of her attention on controlling the cost of any such effort. She has not supported or opposed a public option. Hagan has said there needs to be some sort of “backstop” to help those who can’t afford private health insurance but has left herself open to supporting cooperatives and other measures that stop short of a federally-run plan.”
  
  A Hagan staffer objected, pointing out she had helped craft and voted for the bill put forward by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. Point taken, but Hagan has hardly owned that bit of legislation. In fact, when pressed on whether she backs a public option as a component of the final health care bill, Hagan has demurred. One example: in August, she visited the SAS campus and Cary and was asked “Is the public option a necessary component?”
  
  She said: "I'm going to have to wait and see what the finance committee puts forward from a cost standpoint to really analyze that. You know, at the end of the day, I think we're going to have healthcare reform. I know the finance committee is talking about coops right now, which to me would be more on a state-by-state basis, which is something I was interested in many, many months ago."
  
  That’s hardly foursquare support of a public option plan. Public support (or lack there of) is important at this stage in the game since the bills put together by either committee will be stiched together into one as yet unsee omnibus piece of legislation before its sent to the floor.