I'm looking at the Attorney General race with a mixture of amusement and foreboding. Mark Green is clearly having the time of his life (how long can it be before he buys everyone in this state a subscription to the New York Times?), doing what he does best: attack.

Here's a suggestion, made because this blog has been not unfriendly to Mark, and (if I had to hazard a guess) because the Daily Gotham editors are pretty much friendlier to Green than we are to Cuomo: Mark, lay off a bit, and tell us why you're the best choice, not that Andy Cuomo is Bush's butt boy. He's not. The same message goes out to the Cuomo camp.

I'm concerned specifically about the stature of the eventual primary winner after the smoke clears. In this year's California gubernatorial primary, the contenders, Westly and Angelides, did everything to each other but rip off hunks of flesh with trained Rottweilers. The eventual winner, Phil Angelides, was weak to begin with (Freddy Ferrer with a tan, as I wrote to a republican friend of mine who's reasonably well connected in the California party), and is presently on a course to lose his race to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governator, in turn, is using the wealth of material from the Democratic primary to smear the Democratic nominee, and it's working.

It's easy enough to laugh at Jeanine Pirro. Page 10, her husband, her hair, the list goes on. It's also a mistake to do so. In the general, she's the only republican who may stand a chance, and the last thing we need is a Democratic governor paired with a hostile Attorney General who has designs on the governorship. Maybe Mark and Andy don't remember Ken Starr, but I do. Lay off, guys, because while what you're doing to each other may be fun to watch, you're also hurting the overall agenda - and that is more important than either of your careers. While I personally prefer Green as the next AG, I could live with Cuomo; I couldn't live with Pirro.