First Flub

In less than a week, Rick Lazio has met dairy farmers outside bucolic Syracuse, N.Y., appeared on every Sunday morning talk show, rubbed elbows with the commuter set at Grand Central Terminal, and even shopped Spanish Harlem.

He has been taking shots at his opponent all the while.

"She is no more a new Democrat than a New Yorker," he told supporters last week.

His first full week was mostly a success, but it also contained a major political flub. After accusing his opponent, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, of being a carpet-bagger, Lazio, who has touted his New York heritage, didn't even know the price of a subway fare card in Manhattan.

So much for all the accusations about Hillary riding around in limousines and being out of touch.

"When you make an error, it becomes amplified because the media picks it up and it becomes part of your personna," says political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.

Clinton supporters are hoping Lazio will shoot himself in the foot again before voters actually learn who he is. That way, the first lady's high unfavorable ratings could be rendered neutral - or at least less harmful.

For his part, Lazio, who says "I fully expect to earn this job," does not seem overly worried about a few slips of the tongue. After all, the incontrovertible fact of the matter is that he has more New York credits than his opponent.