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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...

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...

Jeannine Pirro should get out of this race immediately. Her campaign is going nowhere and she is selfishly wasting our time. Here's why. “Forty-five percent (45%) now see [Senator Hillary] Clinton as politically liberal.” So says the Rusmussen Report. Why? What positions do voters believe Hillary Clinton holds that turn them off? Well people believe she supports gay “marriage.” They believe she supports abortion up to and including partial birth abortion. Likewise, they believe she supports extreme positions attacking the second amendment and they believe she supports affirmative action. Since she is the most calculating person in American politics this...

November 30, 2005 -- Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Thus did Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno yesterday step forward to fill the leadership void at the New York Republican State Committee — saying out loud what party leaders have been whispering for months. That is, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro has no chance of defeating Sen Hillary Clinton next fall — none whatsoever. So, says Bruno, Pirro should run for an office she can — possibly — win: attorney general. It's for the good of the party, he says. In truth, Bruno has neither custody of — nor...

Bruno: Pirro should quit anti-Clinton race By MARC HUMBERT AP Political Writer November 29, 2005, 12:44 PM EST ALBANY, N.Y. -- The most powerful Republican in the state Legislature called Tuesday for Jeanine Pirro to give up her quest to unseat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2006 and run instead for state attorney general. State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said the Westchester County district attorney could win the attorney general's race while in running for Senate, "she's going to have one of the most competitive races in the state." Independent polls have shown the former first lady well ahead...

Isn't strange that Sean Hannity prides himself on his reach and he has yet to discover the truth about Jeannine Pirro? Look at the parallels between the Pirro effort and the attempt to clear Harriet Miers way onto the Supreme Court. We were asked to trust the president on Ms. Miers, I did. My trust began to wane when some of what we were told in support of the nomination turned out to be untrue. Ultimately Ms. Miers problems were greater than she could handle because her nomination was not built on a solid foundation. The efforts toward securing the...

November 16, 2005 -- ALBANY — Republican Senate hopeful Jeanine Pirro refused yesterday to back President Bush's selection of Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, in part because of Alito's past anti-abortion views. The refusal by Pirro, who backs abortion rights, drew a quick condemnation from state Conservative Party leader Mike Long, whose support Pirro has been aggressively seeking. "I'm assuming Jeanine supported Bush for president and, therefore, she should be out front supporting the president's nominee for the Supreme Court — because we know Hillary Clinton is going to vote 'no,' " Long said. Pirro, the outgoing Westchester district...

New York Senate hopeful Jeanine Pirro is blasting 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton for throwing a birthday party tonight for Ku Klux Klansman-turned-Senator Robert Byrd at the home of a civil rights pioneer. "It's outrageous and shocking that Senator Clinton and her Democrat colleagues would choose Frederick Douglass' house to honor Senator Robert Byrd, who has a history of involvement with hate groups and has used racial slurs publicly," said Pirro spokeswoman Andrea Tantaros told the Associated Press. "Any person who has made racially insensitive comments and participated in groups that promote ethnic prejudice - Republican or Democrat - does...

Pirro Has Yet to Take Off GOPer Lagging in Polls With Clinton By Josh Kurtz Roll Call Staff November 15, 2005 Jeanine Pirro, the choice of Republican leaders to take on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) next year, is struggling to establish herself as a formidable contender, political observers in Albany and Washington, D.C., believe. Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney who was recruited into the race when better-known candidates declined to run, is in the midst of a surprisingly tough battle with former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer to secure the Republican nomination, though she is still the favorite. "If...

While the Republicans celebrate their victory in the New York City mayoral race, the state Republican Party is beset by ideological divisions, personal rivalries and individual agendas that are undermining any semblance of party unity as the 2006 elections approach, many party officials say. Leading Republicans across the state are alarmed and say the problems stem largely from the power vacuum resulting from Gov. George E. Pataki's decision not to seek re-election in 2006 after three terms in office. One consequence is that Republicans are deeply at odds about their political lineup for the coming year.

JEANINE PIRRO Conservatives eye rival. Jeanine Pirro's little-known opponent for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate is close to winning crucial backing from the small but influential Conservative Party, insiders say. Such a success by former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer would deny Pirro a vital endorsement in what would already be — if she is the GOP nominee — an uphill battle against incumbent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. And it would be the latest blow for Pirro, the outgoing Westchester County district attorney whose campaign has been marred by stumbles and fund-raising shortfalls. Tactically, Spencer, a tough-talking ex-Marine who...

ALBANY - Jeanine Pirro, the Republican prosecutor looking to challenge Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2006 bid for re-election, has a simple question for the former first lady: Just what are your intentions beyond next year? Thus far, Clinton has not ventured beyond her stock line that she is totally focused on winning re-election. Like any good prosecutor, Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, knows that you don't ask a question unless you have a very, very good idea what the answer is. As far as Pirro is concerned, the answer is clear: Clinton is running for president in 2008 and...

Last week, Jeanine F. Pirro assembled the press corps in Albany to announce a statewide advertising campaign meant to draw attention to her criminal justice agenda, a pillar of her campaign to unseat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton next year. But if Ms. Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, hoped the event would give her flagging campaign the lift it needed, she might have been mistaken. Mrs. Clinton's political operation moved swiftly to undercut the announcement's significance and, more important, deprive her of any positive news coverage: a political operative from the state party was dispatched to the Pirro event to...

Last week, Jeanine Pirro assembled the press corps in Albany to announce a statewide advertising campaign meant to draw attention to her criminal justice agenda, a pillar of her campaign to unseat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton next year. But if Ms. Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, hoped the event would give her flagging campaign the lift it needed, she might have been mistaken. Mrs. Clinton's political operation moved swiftly to undercut the announcement's significance and, more important, deprive her of any positive news coverage: a political operative from the state party was dispatched to the Pirro event to hand...

[HollywoodInvestigator.com] John Clifton, a Navy submarine veteran and Chair of the Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY), has called for an end to martial law occupation of Iraq, and a no-timetable withdrawal of military forces from the region. He rejects the compromise idea of a timetable proposed by his own party's national organization. He has also issued an 'open invitation' to activist Cindy Sheehan, a mother whose son died in the war last year, to consider running as a peace candidate against Hillary Clinton in the 2006 U.S. Senate race. "The invasion remains unjustified, so the subsequent occupation has no...

PIRRO V. THE PERV-PROTECTORS Westchester DA Jeanine Pirro, who has the... task of trying to unseat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, finds herself under ferocious attack... At issue are her remarks this week to the Chemung County Republicans in Elmira, where she ripped into Democratic leaders for their continued opposition to a bill to let the state confine violent sexual predators in mental hospitals after they serve their criminal sentences. "That's a difference between Democrats and Republicans," said Pirro. "We don't want them next door molesting children and murdering women." Not surprisingly, Democrats are shrieking hysterically over what..(is)... labeled "an affront...

ALBANY (AP) - Jeanine F. Pirro, a Republican district attorney looking to unseat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., came under fire Wednesday for portraying Democrats as coddlers of child molesters and murderers. During a speech to Chemung County Republicans on Tuesday night in Big Flats, Pirro continued her criticism of the Democratic-controlled Assembly for its refusal to adopt legislation that would civilly confine violent sex offenders after their prison sentences end. "That's a difference between Democrats and Republicans - we don't want them next door molesting children and murdering women," said the Westchester County prosecutor, according to Wednesday's Elmira Star-Gazette...

JEANINE Pirro's campaign to unseat Sen. Hillary Clinton has stumbled so much that reporters in Albany have come up with a Top 10 list of reasons the telegenic Westchester DA "is running such a bad campaign." Since the state capital is deprived of David Letterman's writers, we'll skip to: "No. 6 — She wants to put Hillary off guard so she can sneak up on her. No. 5 — Her campaign is really a pilot for a Fox sitcom. No. 4 — She's looking for the sympathy vote. No. 3. — She's trying to convince the Patakis to hire her...

WASHINGTON — GOP Senate wannabe Jeanine Pirro's campaign piggy bank is stuffed with cash from hubby Al's pals — and some donors with shady pasts. Among the $438,555 Pirro collected in the most recent fund-raising period in her matchup against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton were two checks from Salvatore Promuto totaling $1,750. Promuto, a New Rochelle resident, was a target of a Connecticut anti-trust probe of trash haulers in the mid-1980s that led him and others to agree to pay nearly $800,000 to several area communities. Pirro also got $4,200 from the company run by Robert F. Ferrucci, who was...

ALBANY, N.Y. — As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton boasted of new fundraising success, Gov. George Pataki on Friday threw his political muscle behind Jeanine Pirro's troubled bid for the GOP nomination to challenge the former first lady's 2006 re-election. Almost immediately, one of Pirro's chief rivals for the Senate nomination, Manhattan lawyer Edward Cox, a son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon, announced he was quitting the race. The Pataki endorsement of the Westchester County district attorney came as Pirro faced increasing questions over why her more than two-month-old Senate campaign hasn't generated more steam and money. The Republican...