Once-Mighty New York Republicans May Face an Election-Day Rout

By Henry Goldman

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Republican Party, which once proudly gave the state Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller, is on the verge of giving it -- well, nobody.

Five weeks before Election Day, Republican candidates trail in polls for every statewide race on the ballot, risking their first complete shutout since 1938. The party's best hope this year, attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro, last week managed to dominate headlines for the wrong reason: She confirmed she is under criminal investigation for considering bugging her husband, whom she suspected of having an affair.

Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton is so far ahead in polls that most comment about her centers on a possible presidential race in 2008. And Democrat Eliot Spitzer is similarly running away with the race to succeed Republican Governor George Pataki, who isn't running again.

"The Republican Party today is in a state of chaos,'' says former U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato, 69, its most powerful figure while in office. D'Amato says the party's eclipse -- as recently as 1998, it held the governorship, the attorney general's office and a U.S. Senate seat -- results partly from opportunities it missed while in power. ``The party became atrophied in the 12 years that George Pataki was governor,'' he says. ``We didn't work to develop the bench strength."

lots more: www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ahhmzMvGwvfk&refer=us

Pataki, in addition to being a lousy governor, has failed miserably as the head rethug in New York.

And the fact that he was once considered a "hot" presidential contender (some seem to thnk he still is) shows how badly lacking the rethugs are nationally.

What a pathetic bunch the rethugs are... they amass all this power and squander it with their greed and stupidity.

as I do.