Amid the singing of a rowdy bunch, New York gets a new governor and a new Attorney General.

DEM, WOR
Andrew Cuomo
Campaign Website: http://www.andrewcuomo.com/home.asp

REP, IND, CON
Jeanine Pirro
Campaign Website: http://www.jeaninepirro.com

LBT
Chris Garvey (Libertarian)
Campaign Website: http://home.att.net/~chrisgarvey/home.htm

GRE
Rachel Treichler (Green)
Campaign Wesite: http://www.serve.com/ecobooks/voterachel

SWP
Martin Koppel (Socialist Workers' Party)

The new Siena Poll is out; here are the numbers, with 22 days to go:

Patti Smith closed down CBGB last night. The New York Times writes an inappropriately dignified article about it.

Also in the Times: republicans are writing off Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Montana Senate seats. They're now trying to build a 'firewall' in Virginia, Missouri and Tennessee. On Friday, via Time Magazine, their 'firewall' was Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee.

Al Pirro moans that he's not getting enough attention, says the Albany Times-Union. If I may correct the gentleman, I think we've all heard more than we ever wanted to know about him, thank you very much.

Speaking of Jeanine, she debated Andrew last night, in case you missed it.

The Hillary-McCain kitty squabble continues in Ben Smith's newest column. As I laid out several months ago, here, there are good reasons to believe that neither of these two will be the 2008 nominee.

Lastly, The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle urges voters to love America, and therefore, to vote Democrat.

This is too funny. Jeanine Pirro, the embattled republican standard-bearer in the Attorney General race, has a new ad out.

The punch line is: "Andrew, attorney generals can't hide".

Problem is, that would be "attorneys general". Apparently, nobody on the Pirro campaign speaks English well enough to have caught that little malapropism in their newest statewide ad.

Someone please put this woman out of her misery. Make her go away. I can't take it anymore.

More trouble for Jeanine Pirro, reports WNBC:

NEW YORK -- There's more trouble Monday for Republican state attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro, NewsChannel 4 reported.

Financial disclosure statements from Pirro's time as Westchester district attorney have been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, according to a spokeswoman for Pirro.

The grand jury asked the Westchester County Board of Ethics to turn over more than 100 pages of Pirro's financial disclosures from 1998 to 2005.

They could include any private business involvements Pirro may have had while serving as Westchester County district attorney.

The New York Post also reports a federal prosecutor is looking into whether Pirro allowed plea deals from defendants who used the lawyer who once represented her husband.

Stay tuned.

Aside from the thigh-slapping hilarity entailed in the Jeanine Pirro wiretap story, there are some practical and policy implications to consider as you write your condolence card to her dead campaign.

If you're looking for the theme in Eliot Spitzer's tenure in office, the underlying reason for his vast popularity, it's this: the New York State Attorney General stepped into the void created when the Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District did not exercise any serious oversight of Wall Street. It's not normally the job of the Attorney General to prosecute malfeasance on The Street - but it had to be done, because the federal level just wasn't exercising its mandate. Considering the institutional power of the U.S. Attorney, it's stunning how little that office has done in the Bush era, marked as it is by egregious governmental and corporate abuses of power.

I'd think that the next AG will have a similar role to fill, because the Bush administration will still be in place for another two years (thanks again, Diebold and Nader). Both Pirro's proximity to Bush - see above - and her willingness to engage in reckless surveillance suggest that she would not be all that interested in, say, using state-level legal tools to address the wire-tapping scandal; for example, Sean Patrick Maloney campaigned on filing a lawsuit against the Bush administration over this very issue.

You know, really, with all the huffing and puffing coming from republican gubernatorial candidate whatshisname on gay marriage, it's only fair to note that straight marriage ain't all it's cracked up to be.

In fact, in the case of Jeanine Pirro, it can be downright dangerous to your political health. Consider this:

Jeanine F. Pirro, the Republican candidate for New York attorney general, said this afternoon that last year she asked an old friend, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik, to bug her family boat to determine if her husband was having an affair at a time when she was preparing to run for top political office.

That's right, who does one call when one has the suspicion that one's husband is screwing the help? Especially when John Spencer happens to be busy?

We will have fifty-six days of

Andrew Cuomo

versus

Jeanine Pirro

My head is spinning!

Not a joke: Jeanine Pirro still does not have a functioning web site. Jeaninepirro.com remains "under construction" as of today, April 1st, with eight months to go in this election cycle.

To be fair, Miz Pirro is, at 31%, the leading republican candidate in any statewide race this year. Maybe she feels that this distinction relieves her from actually having to campaign; or maybe she's not really trying all that hard. How difficult can it be to set up a web site?

Come to think of it, are any of the republicans even trying this year? Sure doesn't seem that way.