News-Record.com

I was raised in Maryland, a state south of Mason-Dixon Line that is none-the-less not quite southern, at least in the Baltimore-D.C. corridor. Sure, we have syrupy, hot summers, regional dialects and you can find a descent plate of chicken and greens around, but the state’s affluence, industry and proximity to New Jersey, Philadelphia and the like - not to mention Washington, D.C. - dilutes the states southern-ness – southernocity – whatever.

So it took me a while to learn some of the subtleties of the lingo - scratch that, I'm still learning - when I moved down here in 2000. Among the oft used phrases I ran across was "Bless your heart." As the urban dictionary points out it can be a term of sympathy. If can also mean something else entirely, akin to suggesting what one might do with one's head while taking a long walk off a short pier.

So it was a bit jarring to see the term used in Politico's piece that paints U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole as the very model of a modern southern matron. One, I haven't heard her use it all that often. And two, well, bless their hearts, from the Politico piece:

RALEIGH, N.C. — If Elizabeth Dole sometimes channels Scarlett O’Hara as she works the Tobacco Road campaign circuit, then state Sen. Kay Hagan seems to have some sort of long-distance mind-meld with Chuck Schumer.

Um, wasn't Scarlett O'Hara a selfish pragmatist willing to step on friends and family members to get what she wanted? Ah, she was well mannered about it though. Here’s a bit more:

On a warm summer evening in Raleigh, Dole floats through a crowd of corporate farmers and sausage processors, greeting them with no shortage of “Oh, bless your hearts” as fans bask in her Southern charm.

Speaking at an agribusiness forum, Dole runs through her accomplishments on immigration, tobacco and biofuels, making homespun, folksy jokes along the way.

Then Hagan steps to the mike and blasts away, sounding more like a candidate for the New York City Council than the Carolina native that she is.

“People like Elizabeth Dole have given too much power to the special interests,” Hagan says. She hits Dole for a “lack of effectiveness,” says she was “nowhere to be found” on a recent energy compromise, and raises the senator’s “40 years in Washington” as proof that she’s disconnected from the voters.

Basically, the piece paints Hagan as a meany-meany-bo-beany while certifying Dole as a white-cotton-glove-wearing genuine lady of taste and manners.

As our friends at Dome wrote this morning, Dole's recent ads comparing Hagan to a yappy dog and her judiciously-deployed but ready reservoir of knocks on Hagan shows there's "a little more steel than magnolia" there.

Is Hagan going after Dole aggressively? Yup.

Is Dole returning the favor? Yup.

Should we expect any different? Nope.

They're not running for sorority social chairman here folks.