Spinning the credit

Did Sen. Kay Hagan take the credit, or give it, when announcing North Carolina's portion of Congress' Omnibus spending funds? Depends on who you ask.

Here's the Observer's story on Sunday:

HAGAN MENTIONS DOLE IN RELEASE ABOUT POSSIBLE N.C. FUNDING

Hagan issued a news release announcing that North Carolina will get $5.2 million in funding for 13 projects in the 2009 spending bill the Senate is expected to vote on in the next few days.

What's notable about that is the news release states that the earmarks were requested by Hagan's predecessor, former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.

Giving credit where credit is due, apparently.

But here's how it's played in Anne Schroder Mullins' Politico column:

Sen. Kay Hagan replaced Elizabeth Dole in the Senate, but that hasn’t stopped her from trying to take some credit for Dole’s past doings, anti-Haganites say . . .

That’s funny. It’s nice that she’s excited about money that’s coming to her state, but she clearly had nothing to do with that money.

Luckily, there’s a short sentence — which is the best line in the whole thing — where she does admit: “The funds were requested for 13 projects across North Carolina by former Sen. Elizabeth Dole.”

One North Carolina GOP-er scoffs: “In this new era of transparency, at least Hagan acknowledges that she had nothing whatsoever to do with securing the funding and that it hasn’t even passed yet — not that that would get in the way of trying to take credit for it.”

Hagan spokesman David Hoffman is also quoted:

“A large part of Sen. Hagan’s job as a U.S. senator is keeping folks informed.” And he does note that they do give Dole credit.

-- Kevin Siers