by Denis Campbell

Look how the self-righteous are coming out of the woodwork to save their collective endangered backsides now that one of their own is in big trouble. John McCain led the charge calling on Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to resign from his Senate seat. Was that ‘Country First’ or ‘Save Me First,’ Senator? 

The message was parsed thusly, “Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens needs to resign because he has broken his trust with the people.” Very somber and noble. Many though wondered where Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin was? Conspicuously silent for hours after John McCain and Mitch McConnell threw Stevens under the bus, she finally said Stevens should resign his Senate seat. The comments though came the day after Palin would not say what she thought the best course of action for the recently convicted senator should be.

“After being found guilty on seven felony counts, I had hoped Senator Stevens would take the opportunity to do the statesman-like thing and erase the cloud that is covering his Senate seat,” she said in the statement. “He has not done so. Alaskans are grateful for his decades of public service but the time has come for him to step aside. Even if elected on Tuesday, Senator Stevens should step aside to allow a special election to give Alaskans a real choice of who will serve them in Congress.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for Stevens to resign from his seat. He was the third vulnerable Republican lawmaker to call for resignation, joining Sens. Norm Coleman (Minn.) and Gordon Smith (Ore.).  

And then there’s Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Dole, R-NC. She has been conspicuously silent on the matter. Could it be related to huge sums of money her campaign has received from the Senator, his PACs and funds she directed from the RNC to other Senatorial candidates raised by… Ted Stevens? 

Indeed her opponent Kay Hagan sees blood in the water and attacked this morning via her spokeswoman saying “Elizabeth Dole returned only a portion of the $21,000 Ted Stevens gave to her campaign when he was indicted. He’s now a convicted felon and any excuse she had previously has gone out the window. Dole must now return the remaining $11,000, or else send the message to North Carolinians that she and her colleagues in the U.S. Senate, like Ted Stevens, are open for business,” said Campaign Communications Director Colleen Flanagan. 

“In addition, she must immediately and forcefully oppose any pardon that George Bush may offer Stevens on his way out of office in January. The American people have had enough, and with every vote cast, they are sending a clear message that more of the same is no longer the way it’s going to be. A pardon of Ted Stevens, and Dole’s silence on the matter, would fly in the face of all the hardworking Americans who know that our elected representatives are there to serve us, not themselves.”

Among other things, Stevens accepted the construction of a new first floor, garage and wraparound deck on a vacation home he called the “chalet.” Dole received $1,000 from Stevens’ campaign committee and she received $20,000 from his political action committee (PAC), Northern Lights PAC. As the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Dole also accepted more than $230,000 from Stevens’ PAC on behalf of the NRSC. 

Oooops that sure looks embarrassing. 

Then factor in her natural carpetbagger appearance, she’s spent less than 33 days this year in North Carolina, her electoral “home” and showing up at a campaign rally in NC with a Tennessee license plate on her fitted out campaign bus and it’s not going well for the Bob’s wife. 

Feisty Flanagan added, “Rocky MOUNT is in North Carolina. Rocky TOP is something completely different. North Carolinians know that, but it’s clear Dole is just out of touch. Whether she’s from Kansas, Washington, DC or Tennessee, it’s clear she’s not from North Carolina.”

Senator Dole currently resides at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, and she was registered to vote in Kansas for over 25 years, even launching her campaign for North Carolina Senate as a Kansan. Dole has voted with President Bush 92% of the time, and a non-partisan group has ranked her America’s 93rd most effective senator. The Winston-Salem Journal recently reported that Dole spent just 13-days in North Carolina in 2006, and only 20 days in the state in 2005. In all, Elizabeth Dole has spent about 13% of her time in North Carolina since being elected six years ago. In addition, Elizabeth Dole was registered to vote in Kansas from 1975 to 2001, when she switched her voting registration to North Carolina just two days after Senator Jesse Helms announced his retirement. 

The hubris of it all is less disturbing than the idea amongst party faithful that an acceptable answer is to bow one’s head and say “oh well, poor Ted just got caught.” Is that somehow now the real moral of this story? 

Don’t even know where to end other than saying, “Wow…”