calling operators of base class... safe?

Question

Is following pattern ok/safe ? Or are there any shortcomings ? (I also use it for equality operators)

Derived& operator=(const Derived& rhs)
{
    static_cast<Base&>(*this) = rhs;
    // ... copy member variables of Derived
    return *this;
}

Answer 1

This is fine, but it's a lot more readable IMHO to call the base-class by name:

Base::operator = (rhs);

Answer 2

Yes, it's safe.

A different syntax to do the same thing could be:

Base::operator=( rhs );