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Will rock-star status hurt Dole?

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.

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Re: Will rock-star status hurt Dole?

Submitted by thinc on July 17, 2008 - 9:02pm.

Isaac, my bet is that it was an effort to pander to the Republicans and to try to "fire up her base", as Rove would suggest. I don't care if she succeeded in that; I'm glad that she failed in her stupid attempt. It provides more evidence how incompetent she is.

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still puzzling

Submitted by Isaac136 on July 17, 2008 - 11:38am.

I'm still puzzling over why Dole tried to rename legislation on AIDS to honor Helms. Did she really, truly believe that his reputation could get whitewashed? Or was she going out of her way to insult the memory of so many AIDS victims here in the United States who were insulted, scorned and referred to as human garbage by Helms. He never backed off that attitude, as I recall. His support for the victims in Africa stemmed from his understanding that the spread of AIDS in that country was mostly among heterosexuals. He believed homosexuals deserved every moment of suffering possible and was vicious enough to articulate that belief and to encourge it among others.

So honor HELMS by naming a piece of AIDS legislation after him? That's the part I find mystifying. What was she thinking? Does she think? Who on earth came up with this for her, and what on earth was the message supposed to be?

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Re: Notorious is not famous

Submitted by persondem on July 17, 2008 - 11:14am.

She is NOT a rock star, pul-eeze. She trashed the Red Cross, genuflect's to anything that comes out of the White House and is married to a failed presidential candidate. If she's a household name, well, so is Kleenex. What's the largest crowd she ever played to in NC as the main draw? A few hundred neocon check writers.
Wait, has she ever played to a crowd in NC? Has she ever been to NC? Can she even locate NC on a map? Ah, hyperbole, 'tis fun at times.

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