NYT: G.O.P. Dispute Over Pirro's (Senate) Bid (v. Clinton) Grows Fiercer

[DeepModem Mom]

G.O.P. Dispute Over Pirro's Bid Grows Fiercer
By PATRICK D. HEALY and RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: December 1, 2005


Searing divisions among New York Republicans deepened yesterday as a growing number urged Jeanine F. Pirro to drop her bid to unseat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Concerns also emerged that departing Gov. George E. Pataki was no longer able to unify the party.

On a day of rapidly developing events, more Republicans joined what appeared to be a mounting effort, led in part by Joseph L. Bruno, the State Senate's majority leader, to press Ms. Pirro to run for state attorney general instead. But other Republicans warned that any switch by Ms. Pirro might alienate some county leaders who could retaliate by working against her.

United States Representative John E. Sweeney, a prominent upstate Republican, urged Ms. Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, to consider shifting gears and seizing the Republican nomination for attorney general. "I have told her privately I think there is no doubt she could win as attorney general," Mr. Sweeney said in an interview. "I'm nudging her."

A strategist for another leading New York Republican in Congress put it more bluntly, saying many in the party thought she had been a disappointment so far as a Senate candidate. She may serve the party better by running for attorney general, the strategist said: "She has a résumé that is custom-made for attorney general."

Aides to Ms. Pirro said yesterday that she had no intention of switching races. Yet at the same time, the pressure on her has revealed the worsening warfare within the party, not only over its Senate candidate, but also over its candidate for governor in 2006. Many say the battles stem from a leadership void as Mr. Pataki prepares to leave office, contemplating a presidential bid in 2008, and as Mr. Bruno, the Legislature's most powerful Republican, maneuvers for influence....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/nyregion/metrocampaigns/01repubs.html

[Tom Joad]

1. Why should they pay for a repub to take a seat from a repub-clone?

[MrBenchley]

4. Wow....hard to get more divorced from reality than that.....

[Tom Joad]

7. If you were an Iraqi, suffering under US occupation...

it would not matter the "Party affiliation" of the people who sit in luxury and bless it and in power to enable it. You would curse them all. so it is from that perspective... a different reality, but very real.

[Nite Owl]

2. The Republican Party in NYS

is in total meltdown. Pirro doesn't stand a chance as AG either. And as far as that 'prominent upstate Republican' Sweeney, he has ties to Delay and we have an excellent candidate that will be running against him, Kirsten Guillibrand. She started with introducing herself to the 'grassroots' last spring. She's a lawyer and good fundraiser. Andrew Cuomo, Mario's son, is running for AG. Don't know if anyone else is going to run in the primary.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. NY is going to be a fun state to watch for the next year

we have not had so much intrigue since Rockefeller and Javits were around. here's to hoping what is left standing is better than the shit that came out of those battles... D'Amato, Pataki, and Bruno.

[johnfunk]

6. Grab the popcorn, kids!

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

:popcorn: :popcorn:

:popcorn:

[MrBenchley]

5. I thought Little Ricky Lazio was the nadir of incompetence, venality

and stupidity...but Pirro has lapped him easily and is diving to a new standard.

Btu she's a favorite of the Freepers...and like the pretty little surrey, the GOP has its fringe on top.

"Possible Republican challenger Jeanine Pirro criticized Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton Tuesday for co-sponsoring a birthday party for Sen. Robert Byrd, citing his long-ago membership in the Ku Klux Klan and a racially charged 2001 comment.
Pirro's complaint came a day after The Washington Post reported that Clinton and the Senate's eight other Democratic female senators were hosting a 88th birthday party for Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, Tuesday night at the home of civil rights pioneer Frederick Douglass.
...The Pirro complaint could put one of her chief boosters, Republican Gov. George Pataki, in a tough position. He has turned to Byrd for help in the past on such things as aid for New York in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center.
"I am grateful for your strong leadership and commitment to New York in the wake of this disaster," Pataki wrote to Byrd in an Oct. 19, 2001 letter to the senator. A copy of the letter was distributed by Byrd's office in the wake of Pirro's comments."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--clinton-pirro1115nov15,0,4921143.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork