Posted on 07/13/2005 2:50:25 PM PDT by Irontank
Claiming Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is ``more concerned about the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire'' than the needs of New Yorkers, Edward Cox took his nascent U.S. Senate campaign another step forward Wednesday, naming an exploratory committee whose members include Henry Kissinger, Theodore Roosevelt IV, and William H. Taft.
Cox conceded his closest adviser, if he does decide to challenge Clinton in 2006, will be his wife, Tricia Nixon Cox, the daughter of former president Richard Nixon.
``Tricia is my best supporter and my best adviser,'' Cox told reporters. ``She's had a lot of experience in campaigns, going back to I think when she was six months old and was held in her father's arms in his first congressional campaign. ...She's going to be a part of this campaign.''
She joined him on a stage announcing the members of the exploratory committee, but did not speak. She was not with him when he met reporters later in an adjoining room at the Women's National Republican Club headquarters in Rockefeller Center.
Although Cox says he has not made up his mind, saying his exploratory committee will help him ultimately decide, the Manhattan lawyer was not bashful about firing some early barbs at the Democratic incumbent.
``She parachuted into New York solely for the reason of running for the Senate and now she's running for the presidency,'' Cox said. ``How can she focus on the problems of New York when she's really thinking of running for the presidency?''
Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Clinton, said, ``While the Republicans sort out their nominating process, Hillary Clinton will continue to stay focused on working for New Yorkers.''
The senator repeatedly has said she is focused on her re-election and demurs on the topic of a presidential run.
On the issues, the Republican said he supports President Bush's concept of privatizing Social Security, calling it ``a bold new idea for the United States.'' He cautioned, however, ``How we get there is the question.''
Cox said he ``comes from a culture of life point of view'' on abortion and stem cell research, but said later he supports the death penalty.
He said despite Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro's possible Senate run, he said, ``I don't expect there will be a primary,'' adding later that he thought Pirro's experience as a prosecutor makes her better suited to run for state attorney general. Pirro has said she will not seek re-election as district attorney and is considering a run for statewide office, but has not said what job might interest her.
Both the Senate and attorney general jobs are open in 2006, as is the governor's seat.
Cox contended New York currently is suffering from a lack of clout in Washington because both its senators _ Clinton and Charles Schumer _ are Democrats, while the Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress.
``History has proven that New York gets the most out of Washington when we have that bipartisan representation,'' said Cox, a Pataki-appointed member of the State University of New York board of trustees and on the state's Commission on Judicial Nomination.
Despite that, Cox continually jabbed at Clinton. He said he has traveled the state as he considers a run and will continue throughout the summer.
``To be sure, this will not be a listening tour,'' he said in a reference to Clinton's trips around the state before her 2000 campaign. ``I am a New Yorker. I was born in New York, I was brought up in New York.''
Clinton, as a young lawyer, worked in Washington on Congress' Nixon impeachment hearings. Nixon resigned as president as a result of the Watergate scandal that led to the impeachment hearings.
The exploratory committee members include Kissinger, once a key adviser to Cox's late father-in-law; Roosevelt, former chairman of the League of Conservation Voters and a managing director at Lehman Brothers; and Taft, a former ambassador to NATO and legal adviser to the State Department. Also on the panel are former White House chief of staff Ken Duberstein and former Navy Secretary John Lehman, who also served on the 9/11 Commission.
Cox will need all the help he can get in this race to derail Hillary as the NY state Republican party is in shambles...making it that much more difficult to take on Hillary
Stay away from the park, Ed.
He was on John Batchelor's radio show last night.
I'm not a NYer but from what I hear, there is a lot of discontent among many county chairman with Pataki and his handpicked state chairman...there is concern that the Republicans don't have enough good candidates for the Senate, governor's race (if Pataki doesn't run) and the attorney general's race (where Eliot Spitzer is the heavy favorite)...that Pataki is running the party from the top
and ignoring the grass roots
Of course, a good race against Hillary and Republicans' outlook could quickly change
That's not exactly the most damning charge that can be made against her, Ed.
(I know, this is most likely selective quoting from the MSM)
My own sneaking suspicion is that the Republicans don't want her to lose in '06. They want her to be the Democrats' nominee in '08, because, in their view, only she can keep conservatives on the GOP plantation.
Too bad this guy has the mark of "Nixon" tattooed on his ring finger. We'll get to relive Watergate. You just know that it will be fodder for the Clintonistas.
The press will kill him for the connection.
Good. Let's now hope that Cox is not a pussy!
Verses WHAT? Watergate Vs Filegate, Travelgate, Chinagate, White Watergate, Pardongate, Rapegate....need I go on?
Being the Nixon Republican I am, nothing would make my heart sing like seeing her lose her senate seat but alas it ain't gona happen.
Never say never.
Yeah, and he'll be "inching" throughout the campaign.
A tortoise that never catches up to the hare ... and never gets close.
Sorry, but this one goes in the round file as a man-bites-dog snoozer. The GOP can't run unqualified candidates who no one's ever heard of and beat an incumbent of great political skills in a deep blue state.
Let's hear from Florida, West Virginia, Minn., N. Dak., and any other halfway-sane places that have Senate seats up in '06. Sure, Hillary is newsworthy, but her opponents aren't. Or any any rate, Dick Nixon's son-in-law, who has been out of the news since 1971 or thereabouts, sure isn't.
Ooops ... I meant "dog-bites-man"
Or rather, harmless little poodle bites mean junkyard bytch. Or says he might.
I heard Ed Cox on John Batchelor's radio show last night and was imporessed.
He is very smart, clear thinking and aggressive.
There will probably be a primary and Ed might get the Conservative Party nomination as well.
There is $60,000,000 waiting for the challenger to Hillary Rotten Clinton.
After reading Ed Klein's book, someone needs to do it.
Stranger things have happened.
Well gee, expanding on that logic, we should have elected JF Kerry so that we could keep the conservative base in the Republican camp on a national level.
"Too bad this guy has the mark of "Nixon" tattooed on his ring finger. We'll get to relive Watergate. You just know that it will be fodder for the Clintonistas.
The press will kill him for the connection"
The sins of the father-in-law?
He will have a very difficult time, but let's not get ridiculous about this.
By the way, it's not entirely idle speculation that the GOP wants her to be the nominee. Newt Gingrich, of all people, recently asserted that Hillary is the only person in Washington who knows what to do about health care.
I'm darn sure Japan didn't expect to be so totally devastated when it bombed Pearl Harbor.
Newt Gingrich, of all people, recently asserted that Hillary is the only person in Washington who knows what to do about health care.
Having lived through her outrageous, if not outright Communist concept, I don't even know what that means.
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