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October 18, 2005
Pirro Pirro...What a Zero
I have a love/hate relationship with Hillary Clinton. I love her because she is a brilliant political strategist, because she generally believes in traditional Democratic values (even if she does not always act on them), and because conservatives hates her so much (even if they do so because they think she's more liberal than she is).
I hate her sometimes because she panders and meanders and leaves many battles unfought because they threaten her political position (but, once she's president maybe she won't have to do that!).
That said, I can't wait for Hill to eat Jeanine Pirro alive, or at least chew her up and spit her out. Pirro, the Republican District Attorney for Westchester County, New York, has been annointed by her party to run against Hillary in the 2006 Senate race.
So far Pirro's off to a great start.
Her speech last August announcing her candidacy was a disaster. In the middle of her opening she stopped abruptly, spent 30 seconds silently shuffling papers in a panic, and finally asked an aide where page 10 of was (see Vote for me because...uh, where's page 10?).
She hasn't been able to raise any real money ($439 thousand total, compared to Hillary's $14 million dollars).
And today, it was revealed, her campaign sent a fundraising letter to...Hillary Clinton (and at her old address, the White House, no less).
"Dear Hillary," You and I have been through a lot over the years...Hillary, I need to know if I can count on you to stand by my side in my campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton for the U.S. Senate in 2006...you and I know the U.S. Senate isn't Hillary's real goal. Hillary wants to use New York as a pit stop on the way to the White House..."
Brilliant. "No wonder Ms. Pirro raised so little money," quipped Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson on Monday.
When the Senate race TV commercials start being produced and Hillary is the only one who can afford them, it won't help that District Attorney Pirro's husband is a jailbird.
Albert Pirro was convicted in June of 2000 for income tax evasion, after a court ruled he conspired to hide $1.2 million by labelling personal spending as deductible business expenses.
Jeanine Pirro claimed she knew nothing of her husbands dealings, and has distance herself from him since his conviction (duh).
"Though federal tax law allows spouses to claim ignorance of their other half's business dealings," wrote New York Magazine in May 1999, "Al's list of exemptions raises real concerns -- at least about Jeanine's lack of curiosity. 'She's a bright lawyer,' says a former assistant U.S. Attorney who worked in the office now prosecuting Al. 'How could she not know?'"
"Though she co-signed several of the couple's joint tax returns (she earns $136,700 a year as D.A.), she has offered no explanations. Not about the Mercedes, which she drives each day past the $40,000 electronic gates of her $1.7 million Harrison home -- gates Al claimed as a business deduction -- or about the deductions of a $3,700 backyard awning; $10,000 in furnishings for a West Palm Beach vacation home; another Mercedes, for Jeanine's mother; cruise tickets; stereos; fine wines; cigars; toys; and even salaries for workers who baby-sat the Pirro children, picked up the dry cleaning, and took the family's pot-bellied pigs to the vet."
But let's take Pirro's word for a second, and assume she really didn't know. Uhh, she must be one hell of a District Attorney, eh?
Jeanine. Hillary is going to pound you into flour, make bread, and feed you to the people of New York.
Posted by MJuhre at October 18, 2005 04:24 PM