NY GOVERNOR'S RACE: LAZIO TANKING WITHIN GOP; TIME TO DRAFT COLIN POWELL

HERE'S WHY COLIN POWELL IS THE GOP'S ONLY HOPE TO WIN THE GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION IN NY:

NYTIMES: Even in G.O.P., Lazio’s Bid for Governor Is Hard Sell

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — Rick A. Lazio is on a tear: ripping into corruption and cowardice in Albany, blasting state leaders’ addiction to spending and taxes, warning that New York is on the verge of losing a generation of job seekers to economic decline.

“It breaks my heart,” Mr. Lazio, the former Long Island congressman, tells a few dozen Republicans here in the Finger Lakes.

“People are fed up, they’re disgusted, they’re disillusioned, and they’re scared.”

Now comes the ask. “It is our turn to fix this mess, and not to leave this for our kids and our grandchildren to clean up. Please join me in this great mission.”

Not a hand claps. Political comebacks can be tough, and Mr. Lazio’s exit from the stage, after his disastrous 2000 Senate contest with Hillary Rodham Clinton, was humbling.

But even among New York Republicans, with whom he is personally popular, Mr. Lazio’s fiery pitch for his gubernatorial campaign hasn’t yet ignited any prairie fires.

Many party regulars were deflated by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s decision not to run. And they seem resigned to the idea that Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo — whose poll numbers are formidable — will overtake Gov. David A. Paterson to be the Democratic nominee, and could be all but impossible to beat.

I DISLIKE A LOT ABOUT POWELL. A LOT.

AND YES: HE ENDORSED OBAMA.

BUT HE COULD WIN THE ELECTION AND HE'D BE BETTER THAN ANDY CUOMO, WHO --- AS SECRETARY OF HOUSING FOR CLINTON --- WAS AS BIG A CULPRIT IN THE HOUSING BUBBLE AND THE DEBACLE AT FANNIE MAE AS FELLOW DEMOCRATS CHRIS DODD AND FRANKLIN RAINES.

WITH POWELL FOR GOVERNOR AND PETER KING FOR THE SENATE, WE'D HAVE A FIGHTING CHANCE.

CONGRESSMAN KING IS A PLAIN-TALKING STRAIGHT-SHOOTING CONSERVATIVE. HE'D MAKE A GREAT US SENATOR.

(PREVIOUS POST ON POWELL FOR GOVERNOR HERE.)