-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! D'Amato: Hillary Clinton's run fueled by "naked ambition" By MARC HUMBERT The Associated Press 9/18/00 4:18 PM ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Republican Alfonse D'Amato, who failed in his bid for a fourth U.S. Senate term in 1998, says Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate bid this year is being fueled by "naked ambition." In a fund-raising letter aimed at helping Clinton's Republican rival, Rep. Rick Lazio, D'Amato says the first lady "would be a disaster as our senator." The D'Amato letter, a copy of which was obtained Monday by The Associated Press, says Clinton is "all talk and no action." As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and during public hearings into the Whitewater scandal, D'Amato was one of President Clinton's harshest critics. But when polls showed the tactics backfiring on Republicans, D'Amato scrapped the hearings and his heavy criticism of the president. The first lady's campaign reacted sharply to the D'Amato letter. "It's not surprising that Al D'Amato has signed on to help Rick Lazio's campaign of insults and personal attacks," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said. "New Yorkers rejected that kind of politics two years ago and they will reject it again in November." Wolfson was a top campaign aide to Democrat Charles Schumer, who beat D'Amato in the 1998 Senate race. The Lazio campaign defended the use of D'Amato. "Senator D'Amato is a known leader and a heck of a fund-raiser. We're glad to have his help," Lazio spokesman Dan McLagan said. "Frankly, we need all the help we can get to raise hard dollars to combat the ocean of soft money she is raising." In fact, while D'Amato's popularity seemed to have waned by 1998 when he ran against Schumer, his fund-raising prowess was still much in evidence as he put together a warchest of more than $24 million. Coupled with the $16.7 million Schumer spent, it became the most expensive Senate race in New York history and the most expensive in the nation in 1998. The D'Amato letter came to light as Lazio rode the commuter rails into Manhattan from his home on Long Island to pick up the endorsement of the United Transportation Union and four other unions representing in all about 3,200 railroad employees. Clinton has picked up the bulk of union support in the race with the endorsement of, among others, the state AFL-CIO and the powerful teachers' unions. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans revealed documents showing that through the end of August, the taxpayer cost of Hillary Clinton's use of government aircraft for her political trips had topped $1 million. While the railroad worker unions had praise for Lazio as someone who "has delivered for New York state," the tone of the D'Amato letter was distinctly anti-Clinton. "It's obvious ... that Hillary Clinton moved here just to run for office. We know that her personal ambition is greater than her commitment to us," D'Amato wrote in the Sept. 6 letter to possible contributors. While praising Lazio's congressional record and "commonsense conservatism," D'Amato dismissed Clinton's campaign as a concoction of "canned speeches" and "scripted jokes." "Hillary Clinton crisscrosses our state with her entourage of spin doctors, speech writers and media moguls, giving speeches filled with empty promises and hollow rhetoric ... Hillary Clinton is a liberal's liberal," the former senator wrote. The appearance of the letter served to keep attention focused on the money-raising aspects of the campaign. Lazio and Clinton have been fighting over their conflicting proposals to ban unlimited soft money from the race, an issue he highlighted in last week's first debate of the campaign when he waved his own anti-soft money pledge under her nose. Clinton said she would sign the pledge only if he got 14 independent outside groups attacking her to agree to stop that. At least one of those groups has already refused to do so. Lazio took note of that problem on Monday. "There are two things that I've always feared in this campaign -- the people that run ads against me and the people that run ads for me," he told reporters. But Lazio predicted that "if Mrs. Clinton were to agree to the terms of this, then we'd be able to actually push everybody off." On Monday, the first lady starred at a $300,000 state party fund-raising luncheon. The debate, and Lazio's performance, were still much on her mind. "I knew I was going to share the stage. I didn't think I was going to have to share a podium," she said, continuing to criticize the congressman's aggressiveness. "There's a big difference between raising your voice and raising up the quality of education in our schools," she added. "There's a big difference between pointing your finger and reaching out a hand to improve the quality of life for people who need health care and good jobs." Copyright 2000 Associated Press. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! ****************************************************************************** ******************* A vote for Bush or Gore is a vote to continue Clinton policies! A vote for Buchanan is a vote to continue America! Therefore a vote for Gore or Bush is a wasted vote for America! Don't waste your vote! Vote for Patrick Buchanan! Today, candor compels us to admit that our vaunted two-party system is a snare and a delusion, a fraud upon the nation. Our two parties have become nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey... Patrick Buchanan <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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