Elizabeth Dole makes stop in city

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is rolling out the big guns — in the form of a big bus — in her effort to hold off Democratic rival state Sen. Kay Hagan and keep her seat for a second term.

Joined by U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, Dole made Statesville a stop on her campaign's "Elizabus Tour" on Wednesday afternoon. She was greeted by a crowd of about 200 supporters at the Iredell County Republican Party headquarters.

The event marked the first time in recent memory in which both of North Carolina's sitting U.S. senators were in Statesville at the same time.

Dole quickly made a connection with the crowd as she touched on her childhood. "You know I grew up in Salisbury and spent almost every summer at my great uncle Vernon's house on Elm Street in Statesville."

Dole also quickly dismissed any notion that she is too old for the job.

At 72, she is exactly one month older than Sen. John McCain, who has had to answer questions about his senior status.

"You know my mother lived to be just three months shy of 103 and her mother lived to be 100," Dole said. "So I've got a lot of years left in me."

But much of Dole's 15-minute speech was dedicated to pointing out differences between her and Hagan.

Alluding to a quote by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Dole said, "My opponent has gone wobbly."

Hagan, she said, has not supplied answers on some of the most important questions facing the nation, such as immigration, the war in Iraq and the prospect of looking for more sources of oil.

Of the latter, Dole said, "I want to drill, drill, drill."

To which many in the crowd answered with a much-repeated refrain from the Republican National Convention: "Drill, baby, drill."

"Kay Hagan's energy plan does not include any kind of drilling," Dole said. "But, let me be clear, I am for drilling."

Burr, fresh off the campaign trail with GOP presidential nominee John McCain, got the crowd fired up with a mention of those at the top of the ticket.

"I bring you greetings from John McCain and Sarah Palin," he said. "With your help, John McCain is going to be the next president of the United States and we have Joe the Plumber to thank for it."

Burr was referring to Ohio plumber Joe Wurzelbacher, who has been used by the McCain campaign as a means of emphasizing possible flaws in Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan.

Dole also brought a person on the "Elizabus Tour" with her to point out her effectiveness in getting things done for military personnel.

Call him Ed the Army Father, if you like, but accompanying Dole and Burr was Ed Frawley, a Wisconsin man who made headlines earlier this year when he filmed the squalid conditions of his Army sergeant son's Ft. Bragg barracks.

Frawley described sewer pipes running down the hallway of the building where his son, Jeff, stayed that were stuffed with toilet paper. He said the paint there was peeling and the ceiling tiles were covered in mold and that his son had to plunge a floor drain to try to rid the floor of backed-up human waste.

Frawley then put the film on the Internet via YouTube.

"I said, 'These guys just spent 15 months in hell. Fix this,' " Frawley said.

He said the response he got from various politicians — "who wanted to cash in on this" — was overwhelming.

"But Mrs. Dole didn't call," Frawley said. "And that's why I'm here."

Instead of contacting him, Frawley said, Dole instead went to the Department of Defense and got to work on fixing the barracks.

Other speakers at the event — which lasted about an hour — included Iredell County Commissioner Steve Johnson, county Republican Chairman Charlton Allen and Bob Crumley, the GOP candidate for N.C. attorney general.