Cross-posted from the Brock Log.

North Carolina's Junior Senator, Richard Burr (R) lost his bid for the Republican Senate Conference Chairmanship to Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee.

The move marks a decidedly moderate shift in Republican Senatorial politics, as Alexander has pledged to make Senate Republicans more attractive to independent and unaffiliated voters (most of whom are more moderate than either Democrats or Republicans).

It's also a continuing trend of North Carolinian Republicans losing authority within the Republican Party. Earlier this year Senator Elizabeth Dole was fired from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee after failing to maintain a majority of Republicans in the Senate as well as leading the Campaign Committee deep into debt. Our Congressman, Walter B. Jones, Jr. has lost authority because of his stance against the occupation of Iraq, other Republican representatives have lost authority because the Republicans are in the Minority (and there's no end in sight to their position).

It's time to elect Democrats from North Carolina.