AFTER an unimpressive speech kicking off his Senate run on Saturday, Rick Lazio rallied impressively the following morning. He was energetic, well-spoken and well-informed during his five appearances on the Sunday shows. And it was possible to see, in nascent form, the two tacks his campaign will take – one substantive approach, and one gimmicky.
The substantive campaign will try to draw clear distinctions between Rick and Hillary. The gimmicky one will aim to focus the public’s attention on less important matters that might have symbolic impact on voters – like her inappropriate use of White House aircraft and her status as a carpetbagger.
Lazio blended the two approaches effectively in his clever and oft-repeated line this weekend: Hillary Clinton is “no more a New Democrat than she is a New Yorker.” With that soundbite, Lazio made clear that he won’t remain silent as Mrs. Clinton continues to pose as a moderate when everybody who pays attention to politics knows she has always been the leading left-liberal voice inside the Clinton administration.
There’s no shame in that – in fact, Hillary’s leftism is one of the few indications that she might be a person of principle. But the fact that she feels compelled to hide behind a false front of moderation shows how vulnerable her campaign believes itself to be on ideological matters – even in a state as putatively liberal as New York.
That’s why Hillary found it necessary to profess herself “disappointed that my latest opponent has already started hurling insults instead of offering ideas about what we can do to improve the lives of New Yorkers.” The charge is absurd – Lazio spoke at great length about what he’d do to improve the lives of New Yorkers on Saturday, and most of what he said about her was pretty jokey – but it’s telling nonetheless.
Lazio’s criticisms are properly the subject of a senatorial race, and Hillary knows it. He believes in general tax cuts; she doesn’t. He opposes partial-birth abortion; she supports it. He stands against large-scale government intervention in the economy; she was the author of the most far-reaching interventionist proposal in the last 30 years.
By complaining so early about Lazio’s negativity, Mrs. Clinton is, I think, trying to enlarge the zone of silence that has surrounded her troubled marriage to cover the substantive differences between Democrats like her and Republicans like Lazio. When she says he’s gone “on the attack,” she wants people to think about that “vast right-wing conspiracy” she accused of trying to get her and her husband back in 1998.
That’s also the subtext of the Clinton campaign’s early effort to paint Lazio as a Newt Gingrich clone. At first blush, this seems a little foolish: After all, Gingrich has been out of public office and the public eye for 18 months now – an eternity in politics, even when you’re talking about someone as notorious as Newt.
The Hillary people have brought up Gingrich because they hope his name will serve as shorthand for “vast right-wing conspiracy.” It may work. Who knows anymore? But so far, Lazio is handling the substantive part of the “Gingrich clone” caricature beautifully. He is not fleeing from his record, but embracing it – even his votes for the Contract with America.
“What is it exactly they don’t like?” he said on Fox News Sunday. “The balanced budget, which was part of the Contract with America? Tax relief for working families, giving the ability [to those] who are self-employed to deduct their health insurance, helping people to retire more comfortably, building a strong national defense?”
What people like Hillary forget about the Contract with America they so reviled is that it was a document as poll-driven as any Bill Clinton speech. Every one of its 10 provisions scored 70 percent or better with the American people. From a distance, that stuff won’t sound too bad to New Yorkers; in fact, it may sound (if you’ll excuse the expression) moderate.
The Clinton campaign wants to make hay out of his conservative voting record, and it will have some success. But the fact that Lazio was around to cast votes for these things in the House of Representatives and to co-sponsor all sorts of squishy soccer-mom stuff is his greatest asset, as well as his most profound liability.
At least he has a record to run on.
E-mail: podhoretz@nypost.com