The Progressive Pulse Top 5/Bottom 5

Here is this week's installment of North Carolina's best and worst performances from the world of policy and politics. Note that, as is often the case, some of the "tops" are not quite as deserving as the bottoms. Let's hope for a holiday season turnaround next time.

The Tops

1. Lite Guv candidates Dan Besse and Hampton Dellinger - The former wins an endorsement for his progressive positions, the latter raises the issue of ending the ongoing scandal over compensation to victims of the state's eugenics program. Talk about breaths of fresh air. Too bad they're running against each other.

2. Dr. Barry Boardman of the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division – Anyone with the determination to wade through the morass of special giveaways that makes up the state's business incentives "menu" to catalog the $1.2 billion spent each year has done his state a great service.

3. The state food stamp program – The program gets recognized for having a remarkably low rate of fraud and overpayments. Way to go guys. Now let's see what can be done about the huge number of eligible people (42%) that don't receive necessary hunger assistance to which they're entitled.    

4. Governor Mike Easley – The Guv promises an energetic conclusion to his term and hints at focusing in on the state's disastrous mental health system. Better late than never on the mental health issue. Maybe he'll even get a handle on why it was that we thought the profit motive was a good tool to use in serving some of our most vulnerable citizens in the first place.   

5. Richard Burr and Liddy Dole – A relatively tepid "attaboy" and "attagirl" to North Carolina's senators for taking at least some action on the global warming crisis. Both voted "yea" on a bill passed by the Senate this week that takes a few baby steps.

The Bottoms

5. The 21st Century Transportation Committee – Here's chairman and Blue Cross big wheel Brad Wilson:

I can assure you and your listeners that we are going to pay as much attention to issues of mass transit, light rail, walkable communities, land use planning, as we are quote highways. They're all important.     

Here's the number of times such matters have appeared on the agendas of the committee's first three meetings:

0

4. Randy Parton and the Roanoke Rapids City Council – The kinda' sorta' well-known sibling of the famous country star seems to be living out some weird scene from a bad holiday movie. Maybe there will be a big happy ending where Dolly shows up and helps make everything okay.

3. The N.C Homebuilders Association – In an apparent effort to outdo their realtor friends for "most mercenary performance by a wealthy, high-powered lobby group" the Homebuilders torpedo a proposed Building Code Council rule that would almost certainly have saved lives by requiring fire sprinklers in new, very large homes. Sleep tight guys.

2. Pope Inc. "think" tanks, the Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute – Yeah, yeah, we know, this could be a weekly honor just on general principle, but this week the "free market" siblings deserve special recognition for abandoning their pro-business, anti-government "principles" to fall in line with the Republican electoral playbook on bashing immigrants for 2008.

1. Soon (hopefully) to be former state Rep. Thomas Wright – A damning indictment seems to have sealed the fate of a once promising political career. Even if he were capable of mustering some kind plausible defense to the charges against him, his position in the G.A. is irreparably harmed. He owes it to his constituents to let someone else step in and complete his term.