"and that speaks more to the utter stupidity of NY state voters than anything else"
The New York GOP has a lot to answer for, but no one would have defeated Hillary Clinton in 2000. Al Gore won the state by 1.7 million votes that year. In addition, demographics don't favor Republicans in NY. People drawn to life in NYC aren't known for their conservativism. It's not as if the GOP can force voters to support them against their will.
I don't necessarily believe that Hillary was thoroughly unstoppable in 2000, and with a strong and unafraid candidate, she could've been beaten. Even with a substantial win in '92 for WJ Clinton, Al D'Amato managed to win a 3rd term (and he was still fairly Conservative), so even looking at how well a party performs on the Presidential level doesn't necessarily mean they'll vote exactly that way downballot (if they did, the Dakotas wouldn't have elected a Democrat Senator in decades). It may have been a good thing that Giuliani was unable due to health problems to follow through on a campaign (as it seemed he needed to be Mayor right when he was the following year), though Lazio did not perform to our expectations. In states where we are not as favorably looked upon by the electorate, it is up to the state leaders to LEAD public opinion and support in their direction. After all, Pataki was ELECTED as a Conservative in '94, but rather than move the public in that direction, he allowed himself to be moved leftward, and after 12 years of his leadership, the state party is in shambles and at its weakest point since 1974 (with no natural successor). Of course, this is nothing you don't already know.