Brian Nick

In response to a war-weary population and an imminent election cycle, Liddy Dole's mouthpiece is spinning like all get-out.

Brian C. Nick, chief of staff to Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., said she is looking at the proposal (to limit tours of duty) "very carefully" and has been influenced by a Marine helicopter pilot who told Bush that short stateside breaks are limiting training and wearing down families. "Nobody's in the same place they were a few years ago," Nick said.

Ever since Liddy Dole hired Brian Nick to oversee the end of her political career, I've been waiting to see the guy in action. The Dole campaign just released it first quarter numbers, and it's clear he plays a sloppy game of bullshit.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole raised more than $1.7 million during the first quarter of 2007, her campaign said Thursday. More than 9,000 donors contributed to Dole's re-election campaign, and the senior senator from North Carolina hauled in more than $1 million in March alone. Dole had hoped to raise that much during the entire quarter ending March 31.

"To almost double that number is a huge outpouring of support," said Dole adviser Brian Nick, adding that she has more than $1.5 million in cash on hand. Federal financial reports are due April 15.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole's unpopularity within the national Republican Party continues to build. It has been a year with more than its share of reasons for GOP failure at the polls; the war in Iraq, Congressional scandals and George Bush's unpopularity among them. However, within the party hierarchy primary blame for the loss of the Senate is now being placed at the feet of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and most especially its chair, Elizabeth Dole.

Frustration with Dole's incompetence took form as the NRSC fell $30mm behind the Democrats in fund raising, and then burned through $4.8mm with television ads in New Jersey and Michigan probing for weakness in a strong field of Democratic candidates. Meanwhile Republican candidates like Sen. George Allen in Virginia and Sen. Conrad Burns in Montana were starved for advertising in ultimately tight races because Dole believed Allen couldn't lose and Burns couldn't win.

Yesterday I reported that gubernatorial wannabe Bill Graham has chosen an up-and-coming loser to be the brains behind his campaign to take over the governor's mansion. Today the News and Observer follows up with more brilliance from the boy wonder.

Nick will also be senior strategist for N.C. Conservatives United, which is Graham's political committee. But that committee is likely to morph into Graham's gubernatorial campaign if, as expected, he announces for governor.

The move by Nick could generate more gossip that Dole does not plan to seek a second term in 2008. But Nick says that is nonsense. "She is fully committed to running," Nick said. "Honestly, the fact that rumors come from the Democratic Party should tell you what they are worth. That is wishful thinking." (emphasis added)

You know things are falling apart in the Party of Greed when an aspiring gubernatorial candidate has to scrape the bottom of the competency barrel to find help with his hapless campaign.

From the Charlotte Observer.

Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham says he is not officially running for the Republican nomination for governor, but he now has an unofficial campaign strategist. Brian Nick, a veteran of Sen. Elizabeth Dole's office and of national Republican politics, has signed on as a senior adviser to Graham's N.C. Conservatives United.