Rudy Blasts Hill <i>And</I> Bill

New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani laughed at President Clinton's latest plan on oil prices and blasted Senate rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as an inauthentic candidate.

Marching in his fourth St. Patrick's Day parade in two weeks, Republican Giuliani was warmly welcomed by the thousands of people who lined the parade route through downtown Syracuse on Saturday.

"Send her back to Arkansas," David Skarupa of North Syracuse told the mayor as they shook hands along the way. Shouts of "Give her hell, Rudy!" and "Rudy, Rudy, Rudy!" could be heard as the Senate hopeful marched with Syracuse's GOP mayor, Roy Bernardi.

Giuliani was greeted by supportive signs all along the parade route, where none backing Mrs. Clinton could be seen. The First Lady had cited a scheduling conflict for missing the event. Both Senate rivals had both marched, separately, in the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City on Friday, when Mrs. Clinton was met at that parade by a mixture of boos and cheers, mostly boos.

"I thought she was going to be here," Giuliani told reporters at the end of the Syracuse parade.

"It might have been an interesting thing if we had (both) marched in the parade, to see the difference in the reaction of the crowd. It would have been fun."

New York U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who did march in the Syracuse parade, said, "Central New York is an area that tends to be Republican."

But Democrat Schumer called the Senate contest "a nip-and-tuck race." Recent polls have shown Giuliani with a slight lead over Clinton.

The mayor slammed both Clintons on Saturday, again raising the carpetbagger issue against the First Lady.

"This is a real authentic candidacy for the Senate, not something scripted by someone who moved in a couple of days ago," Giuliani said.

Mrs. Clinton, who had never before lived in New York until this year, moved into a $1.7 million house in suburban Westchester County just north of New York City in January.

The mayor also mocked President Clinton's call on Saturday for congressional approval of a proposed oil Northeast oil reserve to deal with any future crisis with home heating oil and gas prices in that region.

"I guess he's made some slight awakening from his napping...The president, unfortunately it seems to me, woke up for about two minutes from his nap and went back to napping again," Giuliani said.

"We Americans, and New Yorkers in particular, are suffering the price of a president who does not pay enough attention to foreign policy," the mayor added.

As he has before, Giuliani called on President Clinton to dip into the nation's strategic oil reserves to drive down current oil prices - something the president has refused to do. And Giuliani again called on the president to "face down OPEC."

Giuliani brushed aside a question about whether he was using the Syracuse and other St. Patrick's parades over the weeken to appeal to New York's Roman Catholic voters, who comprise about 45 percent of the state's electorate.

"I don't try to categorize voters. Every vote counts the same. To me there's never been a Protestant vote, a Catholic vote, a Jewish vote, an African-American vote, an Italian vote, an Irish vote," said the mayor.

"I know St. Patrick's Day parades really well," he added. "I love them."