Half the Senate membership – all Democrats – has signed a letter urging political correctness from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Those signatures include Sen. Kay Hagan, North Carolina’s junior senator who is seeking re-election this year against Republican state House Speaker Thom Tillis and Libertarian Sean Haugh.

The senators, who seem to always stick their nose in someone else’s business, have urged Commissioner Goodell to change the name of the Washington, D.C., NFL team, calling it a “racial slur.”

We infer that the senators are referring to the “Redskins” nickname, even though they can’t bring themselves to use the word in their letter.

Since Hagan has joined Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others in this effort, I wonder what former N.C. Senate President Pro-tem Marc Basnight would think of her action, since a Dare County high school uses the same moniker.

Yep, Manteo High School’s athletic teams are the Redskins. Wonder if Hagan is going to push for a change in their name. Or perhaps she’s given up winning Dare County this year.

The letter cites a number of American Indian organizations and tribes that find the nickname racially offensive. Interestingly, it omits information from a Richmond Times-Dispatch column that documents chiefs of three Virginia Indian tribes saying that the nickname doesn’t offend them.

Maybe Hagan and her Democratic colleagues are right. Maybe the name of the Washington, D.C., NFL team is offensive and should be changed. After all, the team actually plays at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. And there are lots of Americans who find “Washington” offensive.