Posted on 11/30/2005 1:33:00 PM PST by neverdem
ALBANY, Nov. 29 - Jeanine F. Pirro's bid to unseat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton suffered an embarrassing setback on Tuesday when the State Legislature's most powerful Republican said she should call the whole thing off and run for state attorney general instead.
The remarks by the official, Joseph L. Bruno, the majority leader of the State Senate, forced out into the open simmering concerns about Ms. Pirro's candidacy, which has been beset by gaffes and fund-raising difficulties. And it heightened the sense that the state Republican Party is nervous about its future and riven by squabbles as its de facto leader, Gov. George E. Pataki, prepares to step down at the end of next year.
Mr. Bruno said that Ms. Pirro, who was elected Westchester district attorney three times, would be a better fit as a candidate for attorney general. "I have said from the beginning, and I know a lot of my colleagues, and people within the party, share the thought, that she would make a great attorney general," he said. "By background, by her experience, by her prosecutorial record. And I hope that before this procedure gets too much further, that Jeanine Pirro would reconsider and run for A.G."
While Mr. Bruno's remarks echo what some Republicans have been murmuring quietly for some time now, they put him at odds with both Governor Pataki, who endorsed Ms. Pirro for the Senate last month, and the chairman of the state Republican Party, Stephen J. Minarik III, who is supporting her Senate candidacy.
And while the remarks were hardly welcomed by the Pirro for Senate campaign, Ms. Pirro tried to put the best spin on it. "Senator Bruno is a respected majority leader and I appreciate his confidence in my abilities," she said in a terse, two-sentence written statement. "However..."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Thank God, I'm not the only FReeper who "gets it".
I'd accuse Sen. Chuckie Putzhead Schmuckie of a lot of things (all even worse than I believe), but sedentary he surely ain't (especially if a tv camera is nearby) !
Great graphic!
Its not ironic, but Bruno did make some comments awhile back that, if you read between the lines, he blamed Pataki for those losses.
Pataki, talks like a supply sider sometimes, but acts in the total opposite direction, and he has never, ever, done anything to help other republicans in the state or tried to groom or recruit or build any kind of coalition.
It says something about him,when you consider, that the GOP was stronger, before he got to office (and this is NYS) then it is now.
I was gonna say 25%, but like the ugly chick with the big boobs, you're gonna get SOME action every so often, even if it's just a mercy-f***, so she may get to 20%. ;-)
I'd blame Pataki for some things, I'm not so sure I'd give him the blame for D'Amato, though. D'Amato was certainly used to having fend for himself in some REALLY bad GOP years ('86/'92) and pulling it out. I think his brutal honesty with calling that scumbag opponent of his what everyone in the state knew he was probably what helped to sink him. I know a lot of people on FR weren't big fans of Al, but personally, I miss him a LOT.
As for Pataki, he always had the additional problem of not being a particularly dynamic politician. He won initially because he looked like an amiable (dunce) who wasn't evil incarnate like Mario Cuomo, and has had luck with poor opposition ever since. But as you said, the GOP was a much stronger entity going into the 1994 elections than it is now, and ultimately, Pataki has to be held largely accountable as the party leader.
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