WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama’s pick to become U.S. ambassador to Iraq is meeting with Republican senators, who are divided over his nomination.

Sen. Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, was expected to issue a statement in support of Christopher Hill. At the same time, Sen. Jon Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, has signed onto a letter asking Obama to reconsider his choice.

The Republican pushback makes it difficult for Hill, who would have to be confirmed by 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles. But Lugar’s support is significant because it could provide other GOP moderates with political cover to support Hill.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Luther H. Hodges Jr., a long-time North Carolina public servant and business ambassador, will soon be blogging as he travels to Sulaimani, in the Kurdish region of Iraq.

You can track Luther’s adventures, currently an adjunct professor at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, by following his daily blog at www.tarheeldemocracydispatch.com, presented in association with Kohn Associates, LLC.

Tarheel Democracy Dispatch provides media outlets, institutions of higher learning, and all engaged North Carolinians with a direct look into the culture of a developing northeastern Iraq city, through a daily blog composed by Luther himself.

The first blog post from Iraq will begin on Feb. 6 as Mr. Hodges is expected to arrive in Sulaimani to begin his stent at American University’s Executive MBA program teaching business law and ethics. 

The American University of Iraq in Sulaimani is a private, non-profit, comprehensive liberal arts, American style university situated in the progressive and safe city of Sulaimani, in the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq and opened its doors in October 2007.  At all levels of instruction at AUI-S, learning is enhanced by way of small, interactive classes and close student-faculty relationships and the language of instruction is English throughout.

Hodges currently lives in Chapel Hill with his wife Cheray and their three wonderful Labrador Retrievers. 
Luther graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1957 and went on to Harvard to receive his Masters in Business Administration, which he completed in 1961. 

Upon his graduation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served as an officer in the United States Navy.  He ran for United States Senate from North Carolina in 1978, later he served as Acting Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Commerce under President Jimmy Carter.  Currently, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, along with serving on various boards of directors.

LEESBURG, Va. – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told a cheering crowd Monday that Democrats would raise taxes and “punish hard work” if Virginia voters break a 44-year preference for GOP presidents and helped send Barack Obama to the White House.

Palin, Republican John McCain’s running mate, also tried to burnish her foreign policy credentials by meeting here with Israel’s ambassador to the United States, apologizing for the session’s delay.

“I look forward to hearing about your work with the Jewish Agency and all the plans that we have,” Palin told Ambassador Sallai Meridor. “We’ll be working together.”

She was apparently referring to the Jewish Agency for Israel, an organization of which Meridor was formerly chairman.
  
Israeli embassy officials said Palin and Meridor discussed relations between the United States and Israel and the Iranian nuclear threat. They added that Meridor also discussed ongoing peace efforts in the Middle East and noted that he was to talk with Palin’s Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joe Biden, later Monday.
 
After meeting Meridor, Palin took a short bus ride through the tony Lansdowne development in Loudoun County – a battleground county in Virginia and a neighborhood where Obama yard signs appeared to outnumber McCain signs – to an enthusiastic rally that drew more than 5,000 supporters.

Palin was introduced to the crowd by Tito Munoz, a small business owner from neighboring Prince William County, whom Palin referred to as “Tito the Builder.” He wore a yellow hard hat and drew chants of “Tito, Tito.”
  
“Not since the Jackson Five has the name ‘Tito’ been used so often,” Palin said.

Palin portrayed Obama as “on the side of bigger, more controlling government” and warned that an Obama White House would leave the Democratic agenda in Congress unchecked.
 
“If big government spenders control the House and Senate and, heaven forbid, the White House, they will have a monopoly of power,” she said.

“You understand that his plan to redistribute wealth will, ultimately, punish hard work, and it discourages productivity, and it will stifle the entrepreneurial spirit that made this country the greatest country on earth.”

Obama has proposed tax increases for workers who make more than $250,000 a year and tax cuts for the remaining 95 percent of workers and their families.

Palin’s three-city tour through the Old Dominion was designed to upend Obama’s lead in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since 1964. Recent polls show Obama ahead in Virginia, home to the Confederate capital during the Civil War, and Democrats are on track to add to their congressional majorities.

At a later stop Monday in Fredericksburg, Palin appeared before thousands of supporters who began to arrive hours before gates opened to spectators. An overflow crowd watched Palin’s address broadcast on a large screen.

She again criticized Democratic tax proposals. “You know they’re coming after you folks,” Palin told the crowd as rain began to fall.