Busy Campaigning, Elizabeth Dole Sends an Arf.S.V.P.

Then-Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, his wife, Elizabeth, and their dog, the original Leader, walk through the Capitol in November 1994. (AP Photo/John Duricka)

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, locked in a tight race in North Carolina, couldn't make it to a neighbor's cocktail party in Washington on Friday. So she sent a popular family member instead: Leader, the family dog.

While the senator and her husband, Bob Dole, worked the rope lines in her home state, the miniature schnauzer was the life of the party at the Watergate, the Doles' D.C. base. The gregarious pooch is also a regular at Dole's dog-friendly Senate office, where he hangs out with two other canine staffers. "Leader is always a big hit," spokesman Wes Climer said. "It makes it a very fun place to work."

This is not the famous Leader who went paw to paw with Socks the Cat during the 1996 presidential race -- a gift from Elizabeth to her husband when he became Senate majority leader. After the schnauzer died in 1999, the Doles adopted another puppy and named him Leader II.

"Leader is sorely disappointed that he was unable to join the senator on her bus tour this week," Climer told us. "But he will be traveling on the 'Elizabus' Wednesday or Thursday."