From Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger’s office, in a release under the headline: “NOW IS THE TIME FOR BIPARTISANSHIP”

?Now is the time for a bipartisan effort to remake North Carolina?s government from the ground up. 

Democrat Senator Marc Basnight?s speech, accepting his nomination to an eighth term as President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate, shows he is aware of the litany of problems facing North Carolina?s citizens.
 
?The Democrats did not support any of the Senate Republican?s good government proposals to reform and open the operation of the Senate.  Unfortunately, this failure indicates a continuation of past practices in which Democrat leaders dictate the operations of an extremely partisan Senate from behind closed doors.  Senate Democrats still refuse to accept the lessons to be learned from the embarrassing tenure of Democrat Speaker of the House Jim Black; thoselessons include a need for open debate and transparency in management of the state?s business.
 
?Senate Republicans are encouraged by the efforts of Governor Perdue and Lieutenant Governor Dalton to reach across the aisle.  Senate Republicans will reach out to Governor Perdue and Lieutenant Governor Dalton to seek new, innovative, and bipartisan solutions to the problems facing our state.  It is our hope that the Senate Democrats will heed Barack Obama?s call in his inaugural address to end, ??the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.??