Clinton: As Right as Rush?

In this year's Senate race, there's at least one apparent electoral juggernaut that is prepared to devour whatever unfortunate GOP candidate dares to rise to the bait. Democrat incumbent and former first lady Hillary Clinton has gone from political novice to one of the Senate's most formidable candidates in one term.

Clinton's star power, national profile and fierce fundraising talents have given pause to every high-level Republican considering a move to Wash-ington. Current polls show Clinton cruising to reelection over any challengers, and things are likely to stay that way.

The GOP, by all accounts, is a train wreck. When K.T. McFarland, a former Reagan White House official, announced that she would challenge former Yonkers mayor John Spencer for the GOP line in this year's Senate contest, she became the ninth name to have been mentioned-a list that has included heavyweights like former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki. However, such well-known candidates have been reluctant to step into the race. One candidate, former Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, saw her quest to win the seat as so hopeless she bowed out to run for state attorney general.

But Clinton's biggest problem might not be a Republican challenger, but dissent from within the ranks of her loyal supporters. Long a lightning rod for the political right, Clinton is increasingly become anathema to the left that has always provided her base of support.

On Feb. 10, Alan Van Capelle, director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, sent out an e-mail that caused a political earthquake. Van Capelle, who heads the state's largest and most important gay political group, stated in no uncertain terms that the incumbent Senator did not deserve the support of the gay community.

Calling Clinton "a complete disappointment," Van Capelle said the senator "does not deserve an LGBT fundraiser." He said Clinton's support of the Defense of Marriage Act insured that she would be remembered as a politician on the wrong side of history when it came to gay issues and that holding a fundraiser for Clinton in the gay and lesbian community would send her the wrong message.

Gay elected officials such as City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and State Senator Tom Duane quickly circled the wagons. But the e-mail brought to the public eye criticism that is building against Clinton from advocates for several issues: In her quest to become president in 2008, she has become too conservative for her base. Though a survey by the non-partisan National Journal shows Clinton to be in top quarter when it comes to liberal senators, she has taken a tremendous amount of heat from the left for her refusal to call for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq as many of her colleagues have.

At a January fundraiser in San Francisco, Clinton was met by members of the anti-war group Code Pink, which held aloft signs demanding that Clinton end her support of the war and calling it a "brutal occupation," all while wearing huge pink ears to illustrate that Clinton needs to listen to them.

Cindy Sheehan has accused Clinton of sounding less like a liberal and more like Rush Limbaugh when it comes to the war. "I think she is a political animal who believes she has to be a war hawk to keep up with the big boys," said Sheehan, who added that she and other liberals should resist the presidential candidacy of any pro-war Democrat like Clinton.

Former labor leader Jonathan Tasini and former Green Party activist Steve Greenfield are both challenging Clinton in the Democratic primary from the left. But polls do not include them when discussing Clinton, and a recent Strategic Vision poll indicates that New Yorkers are willing to elect Giuliani, 45 to 41 percent, instead of the incumbent Democrat.

As for higher ambition, Clinton is the former first lady to a wildly popular former President. She is the only Democrat who can run for president without appealing to the leftist base of the party, because she has the charisma and celebrity to carry her past any challenger. Though her attempts at moderation might anger the base locally (she has even angered her base of women by emphasizing the trauma of abortion), most Democrats have no problem supporting the popular Senator. Even Van Capelle admits that he still plans to vote for Clinton.

In the end, Hillary Clinton probably doesn't need to be pro-gay marriage or lead the anti-war movement to beat other Democrats. She just needs to be Hillary Clinton.

Follow John DeSio's daily political blog at http://ftl.nypress.com/