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Date:         Thu, 5 Nov 1992 08:06:11 -0400
From:         Rick George <RIGEORGE@VASSAR.BITNET>
Subject:      Mr. D'Amato Goes Back to Washington

Six more years in the U.S. Senate for Al D'Amato (I am assuming, of course,
that he is not indicted before the end of his term).  What an awful race
on the part of the Democrats--here you have a guy who the media call the
sleaziest Senator in the country and not only can't you beat him, but
you have three of the best-known Democrats in the state beat each other
bloody in the process!  My guess is that it will take Liz Holtzman's
career the longest to rebound--she finished behind Al Sharpton in the
primary and is widely thought of as the most aggressive attacker of
Ferraro.  Bob Abrams lost a lot of political stock, too.  He took
a few swings at Ferraro while Liz held her down and did perhaps the
dumbest thing you can think of when he called D'Amato a facist.  What
do you say at the next Democratic committee meeting when you manage to
blow a double digit lead against someone like Al D'Amato?  Abrams is
still the state's Attorney General, but it will be interesting to see
how the Republicans go after him in 1994 (if all the signs weren't that
he still plans to run for Mayor of NYC again, Rudy Giuliani would make
a strong challenger to Abrams for Attorney General).  There's talk of
some position in the Clinton administration for Gerry Ferraro, which
would be great for her (I like her).

D'Amato is now hedging on his "this is my last race ever" pledge, although
I think that he'd be a fool not to see the writing on the wall--even
though he won reelection, he's not super-popular.  Go out a winner, Al.

I haven't seen anything in the media on this, but I think that Mario
Cuomo lost a lot yesterday.  First, he'll have that minor thorn in his
side, Abrams, back in Albany for the next two years.  More importantly,
the $800 million bond issue that was the centerpiece of his latest
plan to revive the state's economy got shot down (56% of the state's
voters voted against it).  For the first time in his gubernatorial
career, he won't be able to blame that state's problems on Washington
in 1994, which means that he better make some progress in the next
two years (hard to do when he doesn't have the $800 million loan he
wanted).  He can't run for President until the year 2000 at the earliest.
The only saving grace is that there is no formidable Republican
lurking out there that I can think of.

And while I'm not sure that I'd like to see Cuomo on the Supreme Court, I
really would love to see the confirmation hearings.  As you know, Mario
is part pit-bull and those Senators wouldn't know what hit them.


Potential Inside Scoop:  My sources tell me that the Clintons were
checking out the Madeira School for Chelsea.  (Madeira is an outstanding
school for girls in McLean.)

And on the subject of Chelsea--give the kid a break.  She's at that
awkward age where she's full of those insecurities about her nose being
too big, or her ears aren't shaped right, or her hair isn't right.  It
doesn't help, I'm sure, that Gore's daughters look like Miss Teen USA
contestants.

...Rick