I liked it better when he (Gingrich) was gone. <g> JLA
newsmax.com
Monday April 17, 2000; 10:35 AM EDT
Gingrich: Hill Will Beat Rudy 'Easily'
Former Speaker of the House and onetime leader of the Republican Revolution Newt Gingrich predicted Saturday night that Hillary Clinton will "easily beat" New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in New York's senate contest.
And if Vice President Al Gore loses the presidential race, says Gingrich, look for the Democrats to nominate Hillary for president in 2004.
The former speaker's comments were reported by CBS.com on Sunday.
Gingrich made the stunning predictions while addressing a Republican gathering in Richmond, VA. His forecast of an easy Hillary win reportedly drew "gasps" from the audience.
He also criticized advisors to Texas Governor George W. Bush as too inexperienced to run a national campaign. "There's too much Austin," in the Bush team, said Gingrich; a reference to Bush's home state capital.
Gingrich did not explain why he though Mrs. Clinton would be the easy winner against Giuliani, who has pulled slightly ahead of the first lady in the most recent Zogby poll.
But the New York mayor has spent the last few weeks on the defensive over a spate of controversial police shootings and has repeatedly passed up the chances to attack Mrs. Clinton where she's most vulnerable.
Vowing to keep his campaign positve, Giuliani has made no mention of Mrs. Clinton's central role in the Travelgate scandal, acknowledged by half a dozen White House witnesses depsite Mrs. Clinton sworn denials.
While Mrs. Clinton has criticized Giuliani as angry, abrasive and meanspirited -- warning voters that "you just can't fire people you disagree with when you get to the Senate" -- the mayor has made no mention of her unceremonious 1993 decision to sack travel office chief Billy Dale and his six co-workers after years of loyal service.
Though surrogates for the first lady have come to New York to launch personal attacks on Giuliani; Jesse Jackson called him "mentally disturbed" in March, the mayor refuses to respond in kind.
Neither he nor his surrogates have cited numerous on-the-record accounts of Mrs. Clinton's own abrasive personality; including reports that she's frequently abusive towards White House staff and occasionally becomes so enraged she throws objects at the president.
Though the first lady is a favorite of feminists and actually established Arkansas' first rape crisis hotline in the mid-1970's, she has yet to comment on charges leveled by Juanita Broaddrick, the Arkansas businesswoman who says Mr. Clinton raped her in 1978.
In September, Giuliani told NewsMax.com that he would not raise the Broaddrick rape allegation, saying it had no place in a senate campaign.
Neither Giuliani nor his campaign has challenged Mrs. Clinton to explain why her bodyguards assaulted several reporters during last month's St. Patrick's Day parade. (See: Hillary's Bodyguards Rough-up Reporters as St. Pat's Day Crowd Boos)
Instead, the mayor prefers to dwell on shopworn criticisms of the first lady, such as complaints that she's a carpetbagger and fibbed when she claimed she was a Yankee fan last year. |
