GOP Senate race: RedState blog sheds new light on dark horse Dinsdale

Joe Jordan | Nebraska Watchdog

Two weeks in politics: a lifetime.

And now a lifeline for GOP Senate hopeful Sid Dinsdale.

A couple of weeks ago the race appeared to be a Shane Osborn–Ben Sasse dogfight, with Dinsdale the odd man out.

While there was speculation that if Osborn and Sasse started shooting at each other—and they have—Dinsdale could pull a Mike Johanns 2008 and go from 3rd to 1st, something was missing, something big.

You see the Johanns for Senate surge of ’08 had a key ingredient: a nasty attack that backfired—the then Lincoln mayor was accused of wanting children to be exposed to obscene TV programs on the city’s cable operation—nobody bought it.

But two weeks ago no one was accusing Dinsdale of much of anything.

That all changed Thursday.

And if Sid Dinsdale finds himself declaring victory May 13 after he thanks his family, friends and total strangers who voted for him, he just might want to add one more name to his list.

Erick Erickson.

The editor of RedState.com and a supporter of Republican candidate Ben Sasse wrote a potentially game changing back-firing piece.

While Erickson was making the claim that Dinsdale is a Democrat disguising himself as a Republican he went a whole lot further.

Erickson also said Dinsdale’s wife has given money to groups that fund pro-abortion groups while his daughter has been on the on the board of Planned Parenthood in Nebraska.

Dinsdale erupted calling the charges a baseless and slanderous attack on his family members.

“Once again we see Washington, D.C. special interest groups are trying to buy this race by saying and doing anything in order win,” he said. “My wife Dawn and my daughters, Alison and Paige, have never been involved with Planned Parenthood and have never given money to any pro-abortion group.”

Erickson quickly corrected his gaffe.

But that didn’t stop Dinsdale from calling on Sasse to “disavow these lies and negative attacks on my family.”

Guess what?

“I completely agree that families should be left out of all this,” Sasse told KFAB radio early Friday morning.

“I like Sid and I’ve been getting to know Dawn his lovely wife a little bit through the campaign and I don’t have anything to say about anybody’s family.”

Is Sasse’s “it wasn’t me” enough?

Contact Joe Jordan at joe@nebraskawatchdog.org

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