Liddy Dole is an asshole

I'm sure you've all seen, or at least heard about, Liddy Dole's latest attack ad on Kay Hagan, the one where she claims that Kay is spouting "There is no God" in exchange for money raised by a member of a groups called "Godless Americans." In any other part of the western world, a campaign that attempted this line of attack would be laughed into oblivion, but this is North Carolina, where Jesse Helms once won reelection to the Senate with an overt appeal to white racism, so we can't simply laugh this off.

What we'd like to do is sit Liddy down with a copy of the US Constitution, you know, the one she swore to uphold and defend 6 years ago upon taking office. The one that says "but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Maybe Liddy wants to put the bible above the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, but if that's the case, she needs to get up publicly and say that the Founding Fathers were wrong in the way they organized our republic. Let her repudiate the Constitution, loud and clear. Let her make the case that, like the Taliban, she wants a nation ruled by religious decrees.

That said, Team Hagan's response leaves, in my mind, much to be desired. Here's the email she sent out yesterday:

Elizabeth Dole should be absolutely ashamed of herself. I can't begin to tell you how outraged I am that she has attacked my Christian faith.

Her latest ad is fabricated and pathetic.

Our nation is in a crisis and the only solution Elizabeth Dole has to offer is mud and slime and more of the same. Wall Street was just bailed out and our economy is in shambles and Dole is doing whatever she can to talk about anything BUT the issues.

Enough. This kind of politics will not be tolerated.

Help me respond by paying for an ad directly addressing these claims attacking my Christian faith.

We already have two response ads -- watch them -- and please donate $100, $50 or $25 to help me directly respond to Dole's desperate, divisive and deplorable ads in a third ad.

I don't know what things were like when she grew up in North Carolina, but the North Carolina I raised my children in would never condone this kind of personal slander.

I was raised going to Sunday school and church every week and I raised my children that way. The Hagan family has attended the First Presbyterian Church for over 100 years -- that's where I've taught Sunday school.

If Senator Dole wants to pass judgment on my faith, that's her right -- but that's not the kind of response MY faith teaches.

Join me in taking a stand against the same old tired rhetoric that divides people by contributing today.

Your support at this critical time is imperative to our success.

But even more so -- your support right now is imperative to change the politics of our country.

We need a new direction -- leadership that will bring people together, not tear people apart. Leadership that offers new solutions, not the same old, tired rhetoric.

The people of North Carolina have had enough. No more. It's about time for a change.

Kay Hagan can, of course, respond to Liddy Dole's sleaze any way she wants. But if she's going to come to me asking for money, she has to at least acknowledge that there's a whole 'nother level on which Liddy's attacks are repulsive. It's not simply that Hagan's being called an atheist when she's not. It's that atheism is being attacked as somehow un-American. That people who don't believe in magic sky-beings are not entitled to participate in the American polity. That we are second class.

We're not.

And Kay, you've got my vote, primarily because Liddy Dole is a complete asshole. But if you want my money, you've got to do better than that.

UPDATE: Got a phone call from the Kay Hagan campaign tonight asking for, yep, money to run the response ad. So i got a chance to give them an earful. Hopefully it gets back to the candidate.