ELECTION 2002
Can Elizabeth Dole
fill Helms' shoes?
Leading Senate candidate stark contrast to predecessor
By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
Abortion. Gun control. Racial quotas. The economy. Education. More federal involvement in private life. You name it.
On all the defining political issues of the day, there is a stark contrast between the positions of retiring Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina and the leading Republican candidate to replace him, Elizabeth Dole, an examination of the public record shows.
The nation's most prominent opponent of racial quotas is Ward Connerly, who has spent the last decade placing initiatives on statewide ballots that forbid the use of quotas in government hiring and contracting. He had what he believes to be a revealing conversation with Dole in 1996. Dole wanted to know what his opinion would be of the hiring practices she implemented while in government.
"What struck me," Connerly told Commentary Magazine, "was [that] the kind of affirmative action she was talking about was precisely the kind that we were trying to get rid of. … It was almost like I was in a debate from 20 years ago."
On the issue of gun control, Dole's position couldn't be clearer. She's come out flatly against the carrying of concealed weapons, though she has tried to couch her opposition in a typically Republican "states' rights" manner.
"Police work is hard enough already. No one should make it harder. I think it's wrong to let people carry concealed weapons," she told the Dallas Morning News in 1999. Then she went on to say that the decision to allow concealed weapons should be left "in the hands of state legislators. …"
Elizabeth DoleShe also supports other gun-control measures, such as mandatory firearms training and child safety locks, and is opposed to any repeal of the so-called assault-weapons bans passed during the Clinton years.
"While I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, I simply cannot accept that in modern America you need an AK-47 to defend your family," she told a campaign audience in New Hampshire two years ago.
Dole's record on the controversial issue of abortion is ambiguous – again in stark contrast to the pro-life positions of Helms.
In January of 1999, CNN's Wolf Blitzer tried to coax Dole to reveal her abortion position, but she ducked the question.
"It's an important issue. There are many other important issues. But I do feel that's for another day, Wolf," she said.
According to Sidney Blumenthal of The New Yorker magazine, during Bob Dole's failed 1988 presidential campaign, former New Hampshire state Sen. Susan McLane recalled Mrs. Dole allaying the fears of McLane and other abortion supporters over her husband's pro-life campaign rhetoric, reassuring the pro-abortion-rights crowd that the senator wouldn't really do anything about abortion if elected, according to the National Review.
On the issue of the proposed Human Life Amendment that sparked debate prior to election 2000, Dole was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "I would support the idea of a constitutional amendment, if it were possible. But, of course, it is not."
Instead, she said she wanted to focus on more "pressing issues" such as "domestic violence, child care, sexual harassment, women's health and the financial security of women," according to the March/April 1999 RNC For Life Report.
During her failed 2000 presidential bid, Dole did say, however, that she'd like to see an end to partial-birth abortions and the enactment of parental notification laws. She also said as president she would continue the ban on government funding of abortions and promote adoption as an abortion alternative.
According to critics, one of the most heinous policy decisions initiated by Dole was during her stint as President Bush's secretary of labor.
While there, she initiated the "Goals 2000/School-to-Work" program, whereby public school students forego traditional education in reading comprehension, writing, math skills, history and language arts. Those subjects, while taught in name only, have largely been replaced with "curriculum, testing, teaching methods and standards" that have been "redesigned to serve a federally controlled and directed vocational … plan," said a report prepared by critics of her campaign for the Senate.
No names are attached to the report prepared by Republican staffers for fear of retribution. Some say they have already been threatened with retribution for attacking a fellow Republican.
The movement away from academic skills toward "functional skills" was initiated by a commission formed Feb. 20, 1990, by then-Labor Secretary Dole. Called the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, or SCANS, its mission statement read:
"We believe that these skills are best learned in context and especially in the context of realistic workplace problems. Thus the teaching of functional skills will require the most radical change in educational content since the beginning of this century."
The first SCANS report was released in June 1991, said a San Diego State University College of Education summary.
"At that time, educators in the K-12 schools, community colleges, technical schools and community-based organizations that offer basic skills and job-skills training received notice that the old ways of teaching basic skills (literacy; reading, writing, arithmetic) should not continue," the summary said. "The old, decontextualized methods are not the most effective in transferring skills learned in classrooms to applications in the world of work. The SCANS message was that, 'We believe, after examining the findings of cognitive science, that the most effective way of teaching skills is "in context."'"
Confirming the intent of the new program, a U.S. Department of Education document stated, "Instruction materials are drawn from actual work materials." And a Labor Department document stated, "Literacy skills can be learned far more rapidly when they are taught as part of the process of teaching job skills."
According to Republican activists who spoke to WorldNetDaily on condition of anonymity, the state and national Republican establishments appear to have chosen to back Dole to replace Helms.
While many view her as an ideal choice – she has name recognition, is very high-profile, has held a number of jobs in GOP administrations, and is well-liked and respected – Dole is not what many of her most vocal critics would consider a viable replacement for Helms – one of the staunchest votes in Congress for limited government and traditional values.
Some Dole critics say their opposition to her candidacy goes well beyond politics and directly to the issue of competence and management skills.
"During her tenure as Reagan's secretary of transportation and [George H. W.] Bush's secretary of labor – the most significant jobs in her political career – Dole blundered blindly from one wrongheaded and costly program to the next," wrote James Bovard in the June 1999 issue of the American Spectator.
"Having helped open some of the worst public policy Pandora's boxes of recent decades, she remains oblivious to the resulting damage. … Her passion for big government and aversion to free-market solutions make her the perfect presidential candidate," Bovard went on to write.
In terms of Democratic policy priorities, Dole "epitomizes the uncritical paternalism of the contemporary Leviathan state," he added.
"As long as a program claims good intentions, it seems not to matter to her how many people get killed, or ticketed, or arrested, or thrown out of work, or beaten up by union thugs as a consequence," Bovard said.
"As transportation secretary, Dole consistently sought to maximize federal power, both over citizens and state," wrote Bovard.
Support beginning to show
Already, Dole has garnered the support of some key GOP leaders in North Carolina.
"It is clear to me that only Elizabeth Dole has both a positive vision for our city and the experience, dedication and integrity to represent us in the U.S. Senate during these important times," Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory said last month.
"We are proud that Elizabeth Dole is one of us. While few North Carolinians have accomplished so much in their careers of public service as Elizabeth Dole, it is her integrity and work as a Republican leader that uniquely qualifies her to be the continued strong voice North Carolina needs to succeed Sen. Helms," he told reporters.
McCrory did not respond to interview requests. He is up for re-election Nov. 6.
Dole often uses religious metaphors in her speeches, especially when addressing conservative Christian audiences. She has said, much to the comfort of those audiences, that her religious views inform every part of her life and claims to have had a born-again experience in 1983.
Yet, her choice of churches leaves some wondering about the sincerity of such statements.
During much of the Doles' life in Washington, they attended the Foundry Church, whose pastor was Rev. J. Phillip Wogaman. Wogaman publicly calls for the ordination of homosexuals and has hosted homosexual conferences at the church. At one such conference, called "Sharing the Rainbow of Light," one prominent homosexual theologian told attendees "not to repent of your uniqueness," extolled the virtues of homosexual relationships, claimed the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was really about "inhospitality" and spoke of Jesus as a "drag queen."
Wogaman invited Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong to speak to the church. Spong claims St. Paul was a homosexual and rejects the Christian tenet of a virgin birth.
The Foundry Church was also the church home of the Clintons during their stay in Washington.
"She's a nice lady, but I'm not sure why she thought she was offering us anything new," Sheila Maloney, executive director of the Eagle Forum, told Salon.com in an Oct. 20, 1999, story after Dole dropped her bid for the GOP presidential nomination. "You've got to run on something besides the fact you wear dresses."
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