Anybody but Dole

Now we know, perhaps part of the reason anyway, why Republicans were ineptly silent when Hillary Clinton carpet-bagged her way into a U.S. Senate seat by pretending to represent the people of New York.

Republicans knew they would try the same thing, one of these days, with one of their own establishment political figures – namely, Elizabeth Dole.

Sen. Jesse Helms had scarcely announced his retirement before Republicans started announcing with glee that they had a candidate to replace him. It was a mere triviality to the party establishment that Dole hadn’t lived in North Carolina in decades.

As soon as Helms made his announcement, Dole said she was re-registering as a North Carolina voter.

Now, I’ve got to tell you, I’ve had major differences with Jesse Helms in recent years – some of which I have shared with you in this column. I’ve also had differences with another senator who announced he was calling it quits after this current term, Phil Gramm of Texas. But, overall, these two men represent two of the best votes in the U.S. Senate for freedom and limited government.

Neither will be easily replaced. And replacing either of them with a hand-picked establishment figure like Elizabeth Dole is an insult to their constituencies.

North Carolina can and should pick its own candidates. It doesn’t need any help from Washington. It doesn’t need any help from the Republican National Committee. And it certainly shouldn’t automatically coronate Elizabeth Dole as Helms’ successor.

I’d like to see freedom-minded North Carolinians rebel against this kind of manipulation by the political and media establishments. They should find a real North Carolinian to represent the real interests of real North Carolinians.

Elizabeth Dole may be a nice lady. She may be photogenic. She may be married to an influential old former leader of the U.S. Senate and a presidential candidate. But she is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the most well-qualified person to represent North Carolina in the U.S. Senate.

What North Carolina needs is what most every other state needs in a U.S. senator – someone who will respect the U.S. Constitution. Dole does not. In fact, she is worse than her husband on a host of issues – and that is a true indictment.

• Dole is staunchly in favor of more restrictive gun laws – even at the federal level.

• She is fundamentally weak on the right to life – a right guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence.

• As head of the Red Cross, she disseminated an anti-abstinence AIDS education manual and forced out Christians in the organization who disagreed with that position.

• As head of the ill-conceived Labor Department, during the first Bush years, she commissioned the famous report that led to the “school-to-work” program responsible for a new level of dumbing down in government schools.

• For 15 years, she and her husband attended Bill Clinton’s favorite Washington-area church, pastored by Philip Wogaman, an advocate of homosexual marriage and partial-birth abortion.

I could go on and on. But what’s the point? Let’s nip this threat in the bud, right now. This is an open call to North Carolina to come up with a formidable challenger to this phony-baloney who doesn’t really reside even in Kansas. She is a Washington, D.C., insider and this attempt at stealing a North Carolina Senate seat is an inside job if ever I saw one.

I wouldn’t vote for Elizabeth Dole if she ran against the Devil himself. But North Carolinians have a chance to ensure there is a much better choice than that – if they think about it and if they prepare.

It’s time to let the establishment know, North Carolina, that Elizabeth Dole is not needed, not wanted and not invited to assume this position. Let her run for mayor of Washington, if she wants. Let her try to fool the people of Kansas, if she wants. But, please, don’t insult the entire nation by allowing her to become a U.S. senator from North Carolina.

North Carolina, you can do better. You’ve proven that in the past. Make us proud: Anybody but Dole!