New York Republican State Committee

New York GOP fund-raiser extraordinaire Jason Weingartner appeared on FoxNews recently, only to have his friends comment on the size of his monstrous sideburns. Pictured above is a trimmed-down version of Weingartner's trademark burns, which were on display at a John Faso fund-raiser recently.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

The New York College Republican’s blog has an interesting little scoop: The Log Cabin Republicans have a PAC, whose only income is from the New York State Republican Party.

And the PAC, in turn, has contributed to a number of gay rights groups, like the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley.

Which is to say that GOP donors may be a bit surprised to see where their money is going.

From Roll Call:

"[Senator Arlen] Specter also created a new category of political joke: the Alfonse D'Amato adultery joke. Specter said he was riding a train once with the former New York GOP Senator. The porter came by asking passengers, "What'll it be, rye, Scotch or bourbon?" A minister on the train was offended, indignantly exclaiming, "Rye, scotch or bourbon?! Why, I'd commit adultery first!"

D'Amato jumped up and yelled after the porter, "Wait, wait! I didn't know that was a choice!"

The always-subtle chairman of the New York State Republican Party, apparently an Observer reader, just issued a press release hitting David Paterson for the resolution of his casino-funded plane trip and declaring "the unraveling of Spitzer's choice for LG."

Quoting The Observer at length (an, um, honor?), Minarik says:

"The sad and unfortunate truth is that Eliot Spitzer picked a running mate that will be giving him headaches for the next nine months...Unfortunately, Eliot Spitzer's choice for Lieutenant Governor is nothing more than a special-interest-supported hypocrite who is not ready for prime time."

How much mileage can be got off a candidate for Lieutenant Governor? We'll see.

The Note -- your source for Pataki-in-Iowa news -- channels Page Six: "Just asking. . . What is former New York Republican Party Chairman and Pataki confidante Sandy Treadwell doing in Iowa today and tomorrow?"  read more »

Bill Safire remarked Sunday that the way to run against Hillary is to adopt "the same campaign they used against Henry Clay.... You remember. 'Clay can't win.'"

In case you don't remember, David Wissing explains, with a caveat:

"Now the one difference between Clay and Hillary is that Hillary actually has never lost a national election. Clay's reputation as some who 'couldn't win' was earned over his three defeats whereas the thought that Hillary 'can't win' is only a theory at the moment."

A theory, I'd add, that the New York State Republican Party is doing its best to discredit.  read more »

Kaus, meanwhile, notes the absurdity of the notion that Hillary would write a blog to hit at "Hillary's characterological inhospitability to the bloggerly virtues."

CQ's Craig Crawford steps back from the field of Democratic 2008 hopefuls and offers this test of seriousness:

"Those who can't find a way to publicly speak to party concerns about Clinton's general-election appeal will not be serious presidential contenders in my book," he writes. "Instead of taking on New York's junior senator, the rest of the Democratic field is moving forward with campaigns that seem to be an exercise in collective denial, pretending she isn't there. And yet, if she is to be denied the nomination, her rivals should go negative early, before she has raised so much money and lined up so many endorsements that no one can take her down."  read more »

Crawford thinks the silver bullet is "plain talk about Clinton's 2008 chances against a Republican," which is of course, basically the opposite of the other option: attacking her on the war.

Meanwhile, the New York State Republican Party does seem to be doing its best to hand Hillary a Schumeresque margin, which she can cash in when the electability question comes up in the next primary season.

We hear Tom Ognibene is close to hiring Republican political consultant Brendan Quinn for his attack on Bloomberg's right flank.

Quinn is a former executive director of the New York State Republican Party and a veteran of the bitter post-election action in Florida in 2000. His presence on the campaign would indicate a level of seriousness about the political mechanics -- fundraising, petitioning, etc -- that we hadn't quite seen from Ognibene, and that his critics were hinting would not exist.  read more »

The two men had lunch at the Beekman Pub today, and we're told that Quinn is "very likely" to come on board. That probably means we'll see a real campaign from the right, and a headache for the Mayor.