Perdue: Suspend congressional elections

A head-scratcher out of the Tar Heel state this afternoon: Gov. Bev Perdue suggests suspending congressional elections for two years.

From The News & Observer:

Speaking to a Cary rotary club today, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue suggested suspending Congressional elections for two years so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election. "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that," Perdue said. "You want people who don't worry about the next election."

North Carolina GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood leaps on the comment:

"Now is a time when politicians need to be held accountable more than ever. To suspend an election would be removing the surest mechanism that citizens have to hold politicians accountable: the right to vote," Lockwood writes. "Does Governor Perdue believe that President Obama’s practice in running record deficits to be the wrong course of action, and just lack the political courage to tell him?"

UPDATED @ 5:29 PM: Perdue spokesman Mark Johnson said Perdue wasn't being serious and was simply trying to drive home a point.

“Come on…Gov. Perdue was obviously using hyperbole to highlight what we can all agree is a serious problem: Washington politicians who focus on their own election instead of what’s best for the people they serve," said Perdue spokesman Mark Johnson.