War of the Roses?

Looks like Hillary may have some competition, for her Senate seat, to be concerned about. Westchester County DA, Jeannine Pirro has announced she is seeking the Republican nomination to run against Hillary. Pirro is pro-choice, favors permanent tax cuts and opposes partial-birth abortion and gay marriage. She also has very strong credentials on law enforcement, going after pedophiles and protecting abused women. This is not the type of candidate that the Clinton's wanted to face. Pirro does have a husband problem. Al Pirro was convicted in 2000 of tax fraud and confessed to having an affair with a paralegal and fathering her daughter. You can be sure that the Clinton slime machine will be all over that. There is more in this article on Pirro's announcement.

'Pirro said she would formally announce her candidacy tomorrow, launching a three-day tour across the state that would include a stop Friday at her mother's house in Elmira.

As DA, Pirro has won praise for her Internet stings of would-be child molesters, her work with battered women, and her battle against underage drinking.

She has been a supporter of abortion rights.

A statewide poll released last week by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute had Clinton trouncing Pirro, 63 percent to 29 percent.

Pirro's strength as a candidate is handicapped by her husband Albert's conviction in 2000 on federal income-tax fraud charges, an earlier revelation that he fathered an out-of-wedlock daughter, as well as the recent allegation by a Mafia informant that Al Pirro leaked confidential material from an ongoing Westchester DA's probe.'

Indeed Pirro has her handicap and her poll numbers are not good at this time. However, 60% of those polled that support Hillary, also want her to pledge not to run for President and we know that will not happen. For Pirro, this is a win-win situation. If she wins, well that is self explanatory. If she loses, and makes it a close race, Pirro will have opened the door for a solid future in the Republican Party, with her pick of other offices to run for.

For Hillary, this could be a nightmare. Back last century, Bill Bradley, then a Senator from NJ, had serious presidential ambitions. All of the pundits and experts expected Bradley to have an easy re-election against a relative GOP unknown, Christie Todd Whitman. Bradley won a very tight election, (by about 3% of the vote), and that ended his presidential bid at that point in time. Should Hillary lose, her political career could be over. Should she win and not beat Pirro by at least the margin she beat Lazio by, her presidential bid could be in serious trouble. Dick Morris has more on this in his commentary, including a scenario where Hillary would drop out of the Senate race.

This will be a race that will garner strong national attention. It will be a very interesting race to watch develop. - Sailor