Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Don't Start With Me; I KNOW It's Late

Friday, July 7, 2000

From New York City

Actually, today's Mullings is being written from my desk at SpeakOut.com, but everything herein HAPPENED in New York City where it was supposed of have been written.

For a complete summary of my misadventures in Mullings-land, click here.

The two major every-one-is-interested-in-them political events this week are: Who will be the vice presidential picks and how is the New York Senate race going?

To answer those questions dinner was had (that's a construct familiar to those of us in Your Nation's Capital on the same order as "mistakes were made") with a senior person from the Rick Lazio campaign and a senior person from a major news organization.

An aside: I stayed in a hotel in the SoHo area of Manhattan. For those not from Manhattan, SoHo (pronounced Soh-Hoh) stands for South of Houston; Houston being a street in way downtown Manhattan.

Houston Street is pronounced "HOW-stun" as opposed to the more recognizable "HYOO-stun" of Texas fame. South is pronounced - even in New York - "SOW-th." So, you might think that SoHo meaning SOW-th of HOW-stun would be pronounced SOW-HOW.

But it's not. You would be looked upon as even a bigger rube than if you called it HYOO-stun Street.

These New Yorkers. Don't you just want to hug them?

OK, back to the story at hand.

Here's the take on the Lazio campaign: There really IS a ceiling of support through which Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham seems unable to break. It appears to be in the mid-forties. Lazio, who is all but unknown outside his Congressional District on Long Island, remains tied with HRCR in every poll.

The Lazio campaign had to go from a standing start to full speed instantly. It was like getting into the Indianapolis 500 by selecting a substitute car and driver, finding a pit crew, looking for sponsors, getting everyone out of the garage and onto pit row, starting the thing up and getting it onto the track while everyone else has been whizzing around at 200 miles an hour.

And, amazingly, finding yourself, through some Harry-Potter-is the-book-out-yet wizardry, on the lead lap bumper-to-bumper with the race leader.

There is some reason to think, having gone through all that, you have a chance to win.

It appears that most New Yorkers have either decided to vote against HRCR, or are waiting to see if Lazio looks, talks, and acts like a U.S. Senator from New York. If he can convince them he is heavy enough, he will (to finish the simile) take the checkered flag.

On the Vice Presidential national quiz show the table discussion centered around four people: House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell on the Democrat side; and Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and Virginia Governor James Gilmore on the GOP side.

Gephardt helps Al Gore by giving the Labor Unions someone to cheer for on the Democratic ticket. The downside is: Gephardt and Gore don't like each other and their staffs don't like each other, either.

Missouri has got a Senate race and a Governor's race as well as the Presidential business this year. Bush has a huge lead, Jim Talent (the GOP gubernatorial candidate) is doing very well, and John Ashcroft - after a bumpy start - seems to have his race in hand. Can Gephardt help carry Missouri? Not likely, but possible.

George Mitchell is a well-respected former Senator from Maine. He wanted to be Commissioner of Baseball but settled for being President Clinton's point man on the Irish peace process for which, although it is not going well this very minute, Mitchell got pretty high marks.

Governor Keating is atop everyone's column headed: First, Do No Harm. He is a squeaky clean former FBI guy who gained enormous credibility in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing. The next-door-neighbor issue of Oklahoma and Texas is less important after the Arkansas-Tennessee marriage of Clinton and Gore worked out pretty well for them, if not for the rest of us.

Jim Gilmore has bubbled to the surface recently mainly due to the efforts of Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist and columnist Robert Novak. Governors of Virginia cannot succeed themselves so the first order of business after their victory speech is usually to begin thinking about what they will do next.

Gilmore is very popular in Virginia, excellent on the tax issue, and having him on the ticket would help in the very tight Virginia Senate race between incumbent Democrat Chuck Robb and former Republican Governor George Allen.

Last bit from dinner: The discussion ranged into television coverage of the national conventions. ABC has announced it will be carrying its pre-season Monday Night Football game to help introduce the new booth crew to America and can't, therefore carry any proceedings at the Republican convention.

What if Clinton speaks on Monday night at the Democratic convention?

The news guy said, "Well, Clinton MIGHT make news."

I thought, "What's he going to do; confess?" I hope ABC does carry Clinton's speech. I want to hear what Dennis Miller has to say about him during the third quarter.

-- END --

Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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