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Is Hatfield the real McCoy?
Under attack, the author of a new George W. Bush bio lies low while its editor takes the hard questions -- and stands by the drug-arrest allegation.
By Craig Offman and Daryl Lindsey
[10/20/99]

Money talks, reform walks
The McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill died in the Senate on Tuesday. Again.
By Jake Tapper
[10/19/99]

The end of a nightmare
After her husband was killed in Chile's bloody coup, Joyce Horman thought the only justice would come from telling her story. Now she has reason to hope those responsible will be forced to face the truth.
By Itay Hod
[10/19/99]

Back to the eve of destruction?
Senate GOP leaders have endangered us all by their foolish rejection of the test-ban treaty.
By Joe Conason
[10/19/99]

"Fortunate Son": Better and worse than you might expect
The writer who penned the controversial new Bush bio digs some dirt but depicts a likable George W.
By Craig Offman
[10/19/99]

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But what do people really know about Dole? In many ways she seemed to be famous for being famous, admired for being admired. Though her campaign bio reads well -- President Richard Nixon's deputy assistant for consumer affairs, member of the Federal Trade Commission , President Ronald Reagan's public liaison and then secretary of transportation, President George Bush's secretary of labor -- she never seemed to symbolize more than just Elizabeth Dole, groundbreaking woman who never really spoke about the fact that she was a groundbreaking woman.

"She's one of these people who doesn't want to get a job or notice because she's a trailblazer, she wants it because she's good," said Candy Straight, director of the WISH List, which works to elect pro-choice Republican women. "She could have worked that a little more."

Despite her decades in the public eye, Dole never came to represent anything in terms of issues; meanwhile, Bush carved out a reputation as a "compassionate conservative," McCain as a reform-minded feather-ruffler, Bauer as a devout Christian. In many ways, Dole was nothing more than a female Lamar Alexander. Although Alexander, at least, had been elected to office.

"Maybe if she had a shtick" things would have been different, said Straight, who serves on both Dole's and Bush's national finance committees. "We all admire John McCain. We think, 'God, he's a brave man' and we think about him in terms of him as a soldier, as a P.O.W. When I think of Elizabeth, I respect her for her feeling for public service. She's a person who believes in public service. She truly believes in serving. It's why she took the job at the Red Cross. I don't diminish that role. But it's not a message, I know."

Ari Fleischer, the former Dole campaign spokesman who resigned a few weeks ago, points out that Dole suffered from her lack of experience as a candidate. "It's very hard to make your first run for office the presidency," Fleischer said. "You haven't benefited from experiences, from having won or lost, You haven't adjusted to the cadences of the campaign trail."

Fleischer said this inexperience manifested itself in some misjudgments by his former boss. "She was a résumé candidate," he said. "She spoke out on the issues, but she didn't define herself on issues. That's a problem she could have addressed by honing in on one issue and talking about it all fall."

Dole was never able to turn her résumé highlights into political momentum. While Dole was secretary of transportation, her campaign bio brags, "the United States enjoyed the safest period to date in all three major transportation areas -- rail, air, and highway." While Dole was at the Red Cross she worked on a massive overhaul of the nation's blood supply. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said that during Dole's "leadership of the Red Cross, few have done more to alleviate human miseries and save lives." Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler added that Dole's work was "nothing short of an heroic effort … [She] transformed the safety of the nation's blood supply, and for this [she] deserves the nation's thanks."

As a presidential candidate, she likewise plodded through with the same cheerful competence, offering a number of substance-oriented press events. She was the lone Republican candidate to express support for gun control. She returned to Melrose High School in Massachusetts, where she was once an 11th-grade history teacher, and talked about charter schools and school choice. She finally came out as pro-life, though she assumed that same Bush middle ground where she made it clear that the issue wasn't exactly foremost in her mind.

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