So now the stage is set in New York State where when the smoke clears Senator Hillary Clinton will face Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro as her GOP challenger in a race widely seen as a GOP “A” list race as a way to stop Ms. Clinton’s possible run for higher office.
Or IS IT?
Running Scared’s Jazz Shaw has this must-read post detailing the presence in the GOP race of Richard Nixon’s son-in-law Edward Cox who feels Pirro is too liberal for the party. Shaw explains the realities of New York state politics — and also points to an intriquing email Cox says he got from White House political guru Karl Rove that inspired him to enter the race.
Indeed, Cox has just picked up endorsements from two county chairmen. Still, even with her less than stellar announcement about going for the nomination, isn’t Pirro now the likely unstoppable frontrunner? And is there any sign Rove opposes Pirro?
Remember that in Illinois the GOP there was faced with the charismatic Barack Obama in the Senate race. So what did the party do? It (stupidly) imported another charismatic African-American, Alan Keyes, to face him in the race (Keyes was charismatic…but in ways the GOP there dearly wants to forget). In New York State? You have a woman who is stressing her centrist leanings so who do you logically run against her? A Republican woman who has centrist leanings. Of course a primary will decide this, but this kind of matchup seems politically logical.
Meanwhile, The Astute Blogger (who is a Zell Miller Democrat) got a letter from his state’s senator Hillary Clinton and feels it’s so provincial it disqualies her for national office. On the other hand, another way of looking at it is that it’s a prime example of Ms. Clinton mending her local fences back home.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.