KEY POINTS:
NEW YORK - In a kitchen removed from the brouhaha of 3000 Democrats assembled in the Sheraton Hotel to celebrate victory, a party aide was trying to get her ducks in a row or at least establish their proper running order. "It's Clinton first and then Cuomo, correct?" she pleaded into her two-way radio.
Actually, not quite. Hillary Clinton, who had just won re-election as a New York senator by a landslide, would have to bide her time in the parade of heroes in the main ballroom. "Ladies and gentlemen", a voice abruptly boomed. "Please welcome Andrew Cuomo!" The night was meant to be about the Democrats in New York; she would have to share the billing.
Presidential hopeful though she may be, Clinton was the filling in the sandwich between Cuomo - son of former Governor Mario and elected as Attorney-General - and the man who will succeed Republican George Pataki as New York Governor, Elliott Spitzer.
By easily winning his race - sweet relief after crashing in his effort to win the nomination to run for Governor four years ago - Cuomo has brought the family dynasty back. "They are like a phoenix reborn," commented Stanley Klein, a political-science professor at Long Island University. Spitzer, 47, as Attorney-General, roared up the Democrat hierarchy notably by taking on corruption and sleaze among the titans of Wall Street.
It was a big night for everyone. The Democrats have not had achieved such a comprehensive sweep of New York's top political jobs since 1949. But it was for Hillary that the room went thoroughly wild. She swept on stage in a hurricane of cheers and left to the strains of Baby, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.
For the throng in the ballroom - campaign foot-soldiers, party lieutenants, big-time donors and hangers-on - it was a night first for savouring victory. But two cross-currents ran through the night. There was nostalgia. (Think Cuomo and Clinton.) But there was also the future - a glint of a new generation of Democrat stars. (Cuomo, Clinton and Spitzer.) No one embodies the clash of the Democrats' past and future more than Clinton, of course.
Yes, Bill was there, the muscles in his chin tightened in affectionate pride. A past President stood four steps behind a wife who may be a future one. None of the former First Lady's aides are going to speak about 2008 this week, but it didn't take her long to start talking about nation rather than state in her speech.
She did it by taking aim at Vice-President Dick Cheney and his recent prediction that whatever the outcome of these elections the Administration would continue "full speed ahead". To which she replied: "I think the American people have said: 'Not so fast!"' With a mighty roar, the crowd showed it agreed.
Her margin of victory was far larger than after her first run six years ago. (She got 67 per cent of the vote compared with 55 per cent in 2000.) Even better, she drew support from every part of the state this time, including from some normally Republican districts.
- INDEPENDENT
