GOP senator lobs false atheism smears in desperate attempt to hold seat Nick Juliano

Published: Friday October 31, 2008





Print This Email This Dole ad fakes opponent saying 'there is no God' North Carolina's Senate campaign is getting ugly, with Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole falsely accusing her opponent, a Sunday school teacher, of being an atheist.



Democratic candidate Kay Hagan, who holds a slight lead over Dole, scolded the incumbent Senator for "bearing false witness" with the "offensive" attacks. Hagen also intends to sue Dole, alleging the senator's attacks are false and defamatory.



At issue is a television ad Dole began running this week, highlighting Hagen's apperance at a fundraiser that also was attended by members of the Godless Americans PAC. The fundraiser in Boston was hosted by Sen. John Kerry for Democratic senate candidates. It occurred at the home of a supporter who also was involved in the PAC, which seeks to remove references to God from government documents.



The ad's narrator says, "She ... took godless money. What did she promise in return?" It then plays a Hagen impersonator saying, "There is no God."



The implication that Hagen spoke those words sets Dole's ad apart from most typical campaign season attacks, observers say, according to the McClatchy Newspapers. "When you're making ads that say, 'There is no God,' it usually means your campaign doesn't have a prayer, said Alex Castellanos, a GOP consultant speaking Thursday on CNN. He's familiar with controversial ads  he created former Sen. Jesse Helms' infamous "white hands" ad suggesting opponent Harvey Gantt supported racial quotas that would take away jobs from white people.



Ed Rollins, a longtime GOP political adviser, told CNN: "They did something desperate, which is so despicable and so un-like Elizabeth Dole that she should be ashamed of herself." Dole, wife of the GOP's 1996 presidential nominee Bob Dole, was elected to her first term in the Senate in 2002.



Her seat has been among Democrats' prime targets as they seek 60 Senate seats. Five of six polls conducted in the last week show Hagen with a lead of between two and six percent. The most recent poll, from Rasmussen shows her leading with 52 percent of the vote to Dole's 46 percent.



The ads seem unlikely to be effective, and they caused the Raleigh News & Observer to condemn Dole in an editorial.



"This ad is the most telling sign yet of just how stressed Dole is, but it may well leave a permanent stain on a long government career," the paper concludes. "Appearing to question someone's faith, particularly when the question clearly isn't applicable in Hagan's case, is beneath a person of Elizabeth Dole's stature and reputation."



Dole's ad:







Hagan's response:











