The Republican Party, NY Chapter, Is Disintegrating

Bruno to Pirro: Drop out of race

BY ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR
ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

November 30, 2005


ALBANY - The state's second most powerful Republican sent a tremor through GOP ranks yesterday when he said Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro should abandon her challenge of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and instead run for attorney general.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) said Pirro was more suited to be the state's top prosecutor because of her criminal justice background, and insiders agreed that the timing of his comments illustrated growing fault lines within the state GOP.

[....]

Pirro issued a statement yesterday, making it clear where her intentions stood. "Senator Bruno is a respected majority leader and I appreciate his confidence in my abilities," she said. "However, I am a candidate for U.S. Senate."

Others viewed Bruno's comments as a message to state Sen. Michael Balboni (R-East Williston) that he should not pursue a run for attorney general.

Now, couple that with this story...

L.I. GOP BOSS JOINS ANTI-WELD GOV DRIVE

By FREDRIC U. DICKER

November 29, 2005 -- ALBANY — Nassau County Republican Party Chairman Joseph Mondello has joined Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno in an effort to block the GOP from endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld for governor of New York next month, The Post has learned.
Mondello may even boycott the Dec. 12 meeting of all 62 county Republican chairs, a sit-down called by state GOP boss Stephen Minarik in hopes of lining up support for Weld.

Perhaps this is why

Weld faces school funding scandal
New York candidate headed now-bankrupt college

11/27/05


By Michael Gormley
Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Republican gubernatorial candidate William Weld on Tuesday countered criticism that he is responsible for a failed Kentucky school that he ran and that is now at the center of a federal fraud investigation.

"Nobody feels worse about the school closing than I do," Weld said. "I felt a proprietary relationship with the students."

Weld also said he gave more than $500,000 of his money in equity and loans to the Decker College trade school this summer because he anticipated U.S. Education Department approvals and the release of millions of dollars in aid. The Education Department, however, in late August said it wouldn't release the federal financial aid.

"If I had ever known there was a problem, I wouldn't have put (in) a half-million dollars of my own money in June and July," Weld said. He said he is still working to get the 3,700 affected students transferred to other programs to complete their studies.

"I am not aware of any wrongdoing," he said.

Meaning, of course, he hands the state Democratic candidate (likely, Elliot Spitzer) a golden, Bush-bashing issue. This issue gives a candidate agita, because no matter how you slice it, there's a Republican at the heart of it. If Weld blames the DoE, then its because Bush doesn't like him, and how can he be expected to work with the Federal government, and if he accepts blame for it, how well can he manage the state deficit?