On this much everyone agrees: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is a rock star.

Former secretary of labor and transportation. Former head of the American Red Cross. Wife of former presidential candidate. First female senator in North Carolina. Household name.

But as "Behind the Music" showed, sometimes being a rock star is not a good thing.

Consider the furor that erupted across the Internet yesterday when Dole attempted to rename an AIDS bill after Sen. Jesse Helms, starting with the Huffington Post and making its way across countless liberal blogs to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

Some of that is lingering liberal anger over Helms. (Dome still gets a handful of e-mails a day from supporters of that guy who resigned over lowering the flag.) But the story also made the rounds because it was linked to Dole, another familiar name.

It's not easy to get the rank-and-file invested in a Senate race in a far-off state, but it happens. Consider the 2006 elections, when Virginia Sen. George Allen, something of a frontrunner-in-waiting for the Republican presidential nomination, became Target No. 1.

Now look at the other incumbent Republicans up for re-election this year: Sens. Pat Roberts, Roger Wicker, Gordon Smith, Ted Stevens, Susan Collins, John Cornyn and Jim Inhofe. None are as well-known as Dole.

With the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sending a $6 million signal that it considers North Carolina in play, a lot of Democrats in New York and California are going to start daydreaming about taking down another rock star. 

Paul O'Connor says U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry has had his "macaca moment."

The Winston-Salem Journal columnist writes that McHenry's recent speech denigrating a security guard in Baghdad's Green Zone as a "two-bit security guard" is reminiscent of George Allen's disparaging remark about an Indian-American.

McHenry's denigration of the security guard appeared in the same kind of venue — a Republican Lincoln County dinner. Apparently, he felt comfortable among friends, as Allen did, in making his arrogant and caustic remark. The problem with this kind of event, however, is that people who aren’t friends often attend and videotape them. McHenry's opponent, Lance Sigmon, had someone there who video-recorded the speech. It went up on youtube.com.

O'Connor says the speech, and McHenry's posting of his own video showing where the attack happened, play into his Republican Congressional opponent's efforts to "draw a distinction between his military service and McHenry's lack of it."

As of today, the video has been viewed 17,810 times.

To recap the campaign donations made by the (potentially) four Republican gubernatorial candidates over the past decade:

Bill Graham:

* Personal: $223,650 to Republicans, $6,000 to Democrats
* Largest: $52,000 to the Republican National Committee
* Notable: Elizabeth Dole, Lindsey Graham, Mike Easley

Fred Smith:

* Personal: $49,090 to Republicans
* Largest: $12,544 to N.C. GOP's Executive Committee
* Notable: Richard Burr, George Allen, Bob Orr

* Campaign: $100,400 to Republicans
* Largest: $179,400 to N.C. GOP's Executive Committee
* Notable: Neal Hunt, Jim Jacumin, Les Merritt

Pat McCrory:

* Personal: $4,750 to Republicans
* Largest: $1,500 to N.C. GOP
* Notable: Richard Vinroot, Doug Vinson, Hal Jordan

Bob Orr:

* Personal: $3,640 to Republicans
* Largest: $1,840 to N.C. GOP's Executive Committee
* Notable: Mitt Romney, Mark Martin, Virginia Johnson

Fred Smith has given $49,090 to Republican candidates and groups in the past 10 years.

According to a quick review of campaign contributions listed on Open Secrets and Follow the Money, the Republican gubernatorial candidate has been pretty generous.

As with Pat McCrory's donations, the biggest beneficiary was the state party. Between 1999 and 2007, Smith gave the party's executive committee $41,548. He's also donated $1,000 to the Republican National Committee.

The top candidate was Tony Moore, who received $4,000 for a state Senate bid in 2004.

He also gave $1,000 to Patrick Ballantine's unsuccessful bid for governor that year. And in a donation he may have come to regret, he gave $406 to Bob Orr's Supreme Court campaign in 2002.

Orr is now running against Smith for the GOP nomination for governor.

A complete list after the jump.

   Comments (0)