What bipartisan efforts has U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole worked on?

At Dome's request, the Salisbury Republican's staffers sent a list of bipartisan efforts that she is most proud of from the past six years:

* Climate Change: Dole co-sponsored a "cap and trade" bill to reduce carbon emissions by Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman and Republican John Warner this session.

* Military Family Leave: Dole co-sponsored a bill by Sen. Hillary Clinton to allow some workers 12-month leaves to care for family members wounded in action.

* Lumbee Recognition: Dole worked with Gov. Mike Easley, U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, among others, on legislation to recognize the Lumbee tribe.

* Tobacco Quota Buyout: Dole worked with U.S. Reps. McIntyre and Bob Etheridge on a tobacco quota buyout program included in a 2004 jobs bill.

* Catching Fugitives: Dole co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Richard Durbin to give law enforcement agencies help capturing fugitives from the U.S. Marshals.

Dole's staffers also cited her work on 211 expansion with Clinton, creating infrastructure bonds with Sen. Ron Wyden, requiring a White House conference on nutrition with Sen. John Kerry, demanding Iraq fund a greater share of its reconstruction with Sen. Ben Nelson, and amending trade adjustment laws and calling for an Oil and Gas Market Fraud Task Force with Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Previously: Dole's Democratic cosponsors 2003-08.

Doug Clark scores the first Senate debate a draw.

In a piece today, the Greensboro News & Record columnist writes that both U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and her Democratic challenger Kay Hagan did well.

Dole "smiled easily and often and managed a confident delivery," countering criticism that she's out of touch by noting she's been in all 100 counties and making pitches for using the strategic petroleum reserve to reduce gas prices.

"Dole actually excels at generalities and platitudes. When she looks at the camera, smiles and drawls, 'Always my family, my roots and my heart have been in North Carolina,' she undoubtedly gains votes," he writes. 

Meantime, he says Hagan "passed a critical test" by sounding like "a credible contender," though he argues she is vulnerable to criticism about her legislative record in Raleigh and vague campaign proposals on Iraq and energy.

"A first-time observer couldn't dismiss her as a minor-league player overreaching for a big-league job," he writes.

Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, scored a minor victory today when part of his plan for education benefits for returning military veterans was included in the massive war supplemental package this week.

The majority of House and Senate members wanted the GI bill pitched by Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, that allows vets to get into the most expensive in-state university in their home state, Barb Barrett reports.

Burr, along with Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, had an idea allowing military members to transfer benefits to spouses or children after several years in the service.

That transferability option was preferred by the Pentagon, which said Webb's generous benefits package could encourage troops to leave the military at a critical time.

The war supplemental bill has bounced among the House, Senate and White House in recent weeks as politicians argued about funding for the war and domestic programs.

The deal reached Wednesday night by congressional leaders has been okayed by the White House.

Kay Hagan's campaign is tying U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole to George W. Bush.

A mailer soliciting donations obtained by Dome reveals some of the tactics being used by the Democratic candidate for Senate. In particular, the Hagan campaign is using Bush and the Iraq war to attack Dole.

In a three-page letter, Hagan writes that Dole has spent "hundreds of billions" on a "mismanaged war," kept troops "deployed indefinitely" and voted against veterans' benefits.

"It is truly astonishing to me that Senate Republicans like Elizabeth Dole have worked hand-in-glove with George Bush to force his agenda on America," it reads.

The letter also claims that the National Republican Senatorial Committee will "spend millions" on Dole's campaign since she is a former chair of the group.

Hagan says she is trying to raise $1.5 million by June 30.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaign says she is asking the tough questions.

In response to criticism from Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, Dole spokesman Hogan Gidley said that she has "not been shy" about pressing for answers about "the mistakes in Iraq."

"Senator Dole has introduced legislation that would insist the financial responsibility of this war be shifted to the Iraqi government, and she joined a bipartisan effort to ask for more frequent and more detailed war reports from General [David] Petraeus," he wrote in an e-mail to Dome.

He also argued that Democratic opponent Kay Hagan has not taken a consistent position on Iraq since entering the race for U.S. Senate.

"Rather than doing Kay Hagan's dirty work with negative attacks, Senator McCaskill's time would be better spent on coaching Mrs. Hagan who clearly needs a tutorial on the subject," he wrote. 

A Senate colleague criticized U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole Monday.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who sits on the Armed Services Committee with Dole, charged that Dole has "not been asking tough questions" about accountability for military contractors.

In Raleigh for a fundraiser for state Sen. Kay Hagan, McCaskill told Dome that she was disappointed with Dole's failure to look into what she called "war profiteering" in the Iraq war. A former state auditor, she estimated that there has been $150 billion in theft and fraud by contractors.

"There are tough questions that are begging to be asked, and frankly, Elizabeth Dole hasn't asked those questions," she said. "She very rarely asks a question."

McCaskill argued that the Senate has not done enough oversight of military contractors until recently and said that Hagan's background as a state budget writer would help her in Washington.

"We need more people up there that are willing to ask the tough questions," she said. 

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kept her pledge to Walter Jones.

Pelosi just called the U.S. House to order and observed a moment of silence in honor and memory of those killed or injured in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, reports Barb Barrett.

Jones, a Farmville Republican, asked Pelosi several weeks ago to begin each month’s legislative business with a moment of silence to the fallen. Just before the Memorial Day recess, Pelosi told him she would.

At 4:25 p.m., Pelosi gaveled the House to order and asked them to stand. The entire House was silent for a minute.

U.S. Rep. David Price is working behind the scenes this week to keep provisions he wrote in the war supplemental bill being debated by Congress.

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, has long ticked away at regulations on private security contractors working in President Bush’s war on terror, Barb Barrett reports.

Among those is a provision that would bring contractors working for non-military agencies inside war zones under the U.S. judicial code.

That would, for example, have meant a judicial investigation into the Blackwater guards accused of killing civilians last fall while working for the U.S. Department of State.

Price’s language, along with money to pay for FBI investigators in Iraq, was in the House version of the war spending bill. But it was stripped out of the final Senate version along with several other policy provisions.

Contractors working for the military already are under the military judicial code for crimes committed in war zones.

The House could take up the war spending bill as soon as this week. The bill is meant to provide emergency funding for the war in Iraq. Bush has threatened to veto any bill that goes beyond dollars for the troops, but Congress has tried to include in it several new policy provisions.

National Democrats think North Carolina's Senate seat could be in play.

According to a piece in the online political journal Politico today, Democratic strategists "are now taking a serious look at pouring resources" into state Sen. Kay Hagan's bid to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

Excited by three recent polls showing Dole less popular than expected, strategists have put the race in the "second tier of potential pickups" including Minnesota, Oregon and Maine. It's an unusual turn of events, the piece notes, since Gov. Mike Easley and U.S. Rep. Brad Miller both passed, as did Hagan initially.

But a list of heavyweight recruiters weighed in, including Democratic former Gov. Jim Hunt, topped by a full-court press from DSCC Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

"We've worked hard to get Hagan; we really thought Dole was vulnerable," said DSCC spokesman Matt Miller. "Hagan has turned out to be a great candidate, all under the D.C. radar."

Still, Hagan has a steep financial challenge, having spent most of the $1.5 million she raised in the primary, while Dole has $3.2 million in her account.

The piece notes that Hagan will try to tar Dole as a D.C. insider who votes with President Bush 92 percent of the time. At the same time, Hagan has critiqued free-trade agreements, favors an end to the Iraq war, and supports expanding federally funded health care for children.

Hat Tip: Mark Binker 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likes U.S. Rep. Walter Jones' idea to honor the fallen troops during monthly moments of silence in Congress.

Jones, a Farmville Republican, pitched legislation earlier this month as a way to honor those killed or wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barb Barrett reports. He wants a moment of silence on the first legislative day each month.

"Thank you for leadership," Pelosi wrote Jones this week. "Your idea is an excellent one and I plan to honor it when Congress returns."