I was trying to work out a way to make it, but it's just not going to happen.
How can NC go from Jesse Helms to a RINO?
Her only position of great concern was her strong pro-gun control stance, but she has smartly moderated it in preparation of representing her largely pro-gun Republican constituents. A lot of people here seem to think she is pro-choice, which is not true. She is pro-life (with the whole rape/incest/mother's life exception), but she has said she doesn't want to make it an issue, so you can take that as you will. I'm fairly certain she would vote for a PBA ban and against public funding, which is really what's important anyway.
There's not a chance that as a senator, Dole would be a RINO of the Specter/Snowe/Collins variety. She will probably support Bush a large majority of the time.
A RINO of the first water.
I'm underwhelmed.
However, I believe she is almost as much a one worlder as most of the other DC area animals.
Or am I mixing doles and pineapples?
Remember what a pusillanimous pipsqueak her husband was, both in Congress and on the campaign trail? She's probably why he needs Viagra.
Then she got wobbly on guns and abortion.. Incredibly enough, her poll numbers began slipping about that time (amazing, eh?) and the last thing I heard from her was that it was all our fault because we were scared to vote for a woman.
I don't forgive Hillary for similar remarks she has made, why should I cut Lizzy Dole any slack?
I hope she isn't playing Lucy with the football on her recent conversion to conservatism, but past experience with politicians, including her husband, make me doubtful.
Liddy Dole Wins Support in Carolina
Elizabeth Dole has been quietly charming the voters in North Carolina and leads the pack to replace Jesse Helms next year in the U.S. Senate. And the Tarheel native is proving she's no Hillary Clinton carpetbagger.
At "events around the state, Mrs. Dole, 65, has been received like the celebrity she is, attracting outsized crowds in tiny towns," and she leads all polls, the New York Times reported.
One Republican opponent "has attacked Mrs. Dole on perceived shifts in her position on gun control, a critical issue to conservatives. While campaigning for president in 1999, Mrs. Dole opposed laws allowing people to carry concealed weapons and supported legislation to ban assault weapons," the Times said.
"Now facing a more conservative electorate, she wrote to the North Carolina Rifle and Pistol Association pledging to 'oppose restrictions on the ownership of firearms that penalize the law-abiding citizen.' In the interview, she described herself as 'a strong supporter of the Second Amendment,' and said the assault weapons ban appeared to have had little effect on crime and should not be extended or expanded until studied further.
"She also said she would have 'no trouble supporting' North Carolina's concealed weapons law, which requires passing a gun safety test before being allowed to carry a concealed weapon and restricts where guns can be carried," the newspaper reported.
Steve Odom, the Republican sheriff of Graham County, said he was satisfied with her stand on the issues. "I don't know that the Republican Party could ever find someone to replace Jesse Helms, but Elizabeth is conservative enough for me."
She has maintained close ties to the state in the decades she has lived in Washington, and recently took title to the house in Salisbury where her 100-year-old mother lives.
"Of course, they tried to pack her off as another Hillary," Chester W. Crisp, the Republican chairman in Graham County, told the Times. "But she's not. She's a native North Carolinian, so she's our own flesh and blood."
Elizabeth Dole did say some things about gun control. Assault weapons should be banned, she argued, noting, correctly, that "you don't need an AK-47 to defend your family." Gun-show vendors should require a three-day waiting period for buyers. And "it's wrong," she declared, "to let people carry concealed weapons."
And I totally reject the argument that it's better to elect a liberal Republican than a liberal Democrat. That's like saying it's better to get stabbed in the back by your friends than by your enemies. Makes no sense at all.
And to answer a question from another post: No, there is NO virtue in slowing the progression down the road to hell, because too many people adopt that mindset and become unwilling to do the hard work required to stop and reverse the process. It's a total cop-out, and it is part of the problem and not the solution.
Groucho Marx