Today: Dole Skips Another Crucial Banking Committee Hearing

October 23, 2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Elizabeth Dole, who has been silent in over 60 Banking Committee hearings, was silent today during yet another Banking Committee hearing, after skipping another one late last week. The chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the treasury official responsible for running the bailout both testified before members of the Senate Banking Committee this morning. Despite a pledge in mid-September to use her seat on the Banking Committee to “examine the causes and implications of [the financial] turmoil” Elizabeth Dole was not present at today’s hearing.

“Since she spent more than $86,000 on air travel and chartered flights in the third quarter alone, we’re sure if she really wanted to, she could have made it up to DC for the hearing while taking only minimal time away from the campaign trail,” said Hagan Campaign Communications Director Colleen Flanagan. “She spent 352 days away from North Carolina in 2006 to try to elect fellow Republicans, but this year she couldn’t take just one day away from the trail to ensure that North Carolina’s – and Charlotte’s in particular – best interests were being represented on the Banking Committee? As the markets tumbled back in September, she feigned concern over the turmoil and led North Carolinians to believe she was actually going to do something about the crisis. But one month later and after missing multiple other committee hearings, it is clear that Dole is up to her usual trickery. She’s been conspicuously absent from North Carolina while staying conspicuously absent from the Banking Committee.”

On October 1, Dole told WGHP-TV that she was going to stay in Washington to focus on the financial crisis to “get it done right.” But two weeks later, on October 16, Dole missed a hearing on the U.S. credit markets to campaign for her own re-election at a rally for GOP Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

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