Rudy, Rudy Everywhere
Call it a case of weekend counterprogramming in New York's U.S. Senate race.
As First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton prepared to make her Senate bid official Sunday, her likely opponent -- New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- appeared on CBS News' Face The Nation and the rest of the talk show circuit. Giuliani has yet to indicate when he will formally launch his Senate run.
The Republican mayor wasted little time attacking the First Lady's campaign as more about style than substance.
"What their idea of a campaign is sort of like a remake of image and to emphasize image," he told Face The Nation.
Giuliani touted his anticrime and job creation record as the Big Apple's mayor and his years as a U.S. District Attorney among his qualifications for the Senate.
"I've already done things for New York with 20 years of public service," the mayor said on what he thought was a key difference between himself and Mrs. Clinton.
"I've taken a city that was considered to be the most ungovernable in the country and turned it into one of the best large cities in the country."
Giuliani promised his Senate campaign would seek to convince New Yorkers that the "same kind of leadership, that same kind of approach (in New York City) can work for the entire state."
But where do the two Senate rivals clash on the issues? After all, both support welfare reform, gun control, and abortion rights, just to name a few. Giuliani's answer on Face The Nation: Tax cuts and the role of the Federal Government.
The mayor said he favors cuts in the income tax and capital gains taxes, because the Empire State receives less than its full share from each federal tax dollar it sends to Washington.
Pointing to his own record to try to paint a contrast with Mrs. Clinton, Giuliani said "you should use government last" to tackle social problems -- and gave an example.
"Let's see if we can replace dependency with self-sufficiency and increase the influence of the private sector including the charitable and religious sectors in helping with the problem of the homeless."
"I think it's a different approach. People have a stark choice here" in the Senate race, he added.
Giuliani also defended himself against fundraising letters sent out by some of his supporters, but not by his campaign. One letter claims Mrs. Clinton is far more liberal than her husband the President -- and possibly more corrupt.
The mayor said he did not see those letters coming.
"I didn't send out those letters. You could just as easily have pulled out the letters from the other side that describe me as part of the 'vast right wing conspiracy'," he said.
Giuliani added that some fundraising letters for the First Lady -- sent not by the Clinton campaign, but by what he called the "extreme left wing side" -- have labeled him as a "Nazi" and a "fascist".
Whethe mayor was asked to disassociate himself from such letters meant to boost his Senate bid, he said he could do only so much.
"I'll tell them to stop (sending the letters) and then, you know, they're going to go ahead anyway because this is the way they raise money. They demonize people...It's unfortunate that people do that on the extremes of politics."
Giuliani added, "I've been a moderate. I continue to be. I've been a mayor who has tried to find the right solutions to problems and stay away from all these 'ism's' of one kind or another."
Appearing on Face The Nation after Guiliani, the heads of the Democratic and Republican senate campaign committees chimed in on the New York race.
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said it would be "hard to tell" whether it would help or hurt the First Lady if President Clinton campaigned for her.
"That will really be up to the people of New York to decide whether the relationship with the President is an asset or a liability," he added.
But Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey said the President will -- and should -- campaign for Mrs. Clinton.
"I think the President can help demonstrate what an enormous opportunity this is for the people of New York," he said.