Dole's most important issue
Public opinion surveys have been listing the economy, war in Iraq and gas prices among top issues of concern for voters. But in her speech at the Civitas shindig in Greensboro, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole offered up another:
"Probably the issue I've heard the most about because people I've heard from all agree, is immigration. I have more folks tell me how fed up they are with our immigration system, our laws, and with Washington's failure to secure our boarders and enforce our immigration laws..."
Dole talked up her efforts to shoot down the Congressional immigration compromise last summer, saying that it's "amnesty" provisions made it unacceptable.
The amount of time she spent on the topic made me think I was seeing a preview of her stump speech for the fall campaign.
A final note on her speech. Dole brought up the idea of drilling for oil in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, which at one point was quite the political battle.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, for the life of me, I cannot understand why we cannot get the support that we need - we were almost there at one point - to drill in ANWR in Alaska. Here's this frozen tundra thousands of miles away. It's 2,000 acres out of 19 million acres and the Alaskans want it ... So this is a national security issue and the extreme environmentalists need to understand that, don't they. They need to understand that."
She got big applause off those lines.
