Printer-Friendly Version

(CNSNews.com) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton is "abusing the system" -- using New York State voters as a springboard to the presidency, according to a 38-year-old Republican who would like to stop Mrs. Clinton in 2006, well before the 2008 Democratic race for president.

"[Clinton] is not even running for U.S. Senate, she is running for president and she clearly has no intention of fulfilling a six-year Senate term if she is re-elected," said likely GOP Senate candidate Adam Brecht in an interview with Cybercast News Service.

"Unfortunately, she's abusing the system," Brecht said. "I think putting everyone through the charade of a Senate campaign is ridiculous. It is ridiculous for her to run for an office she does not intend to execute." Brecht is a Wall Street public relations executive and once worked for former U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato. Although Sen. Clinton has not officially announced her intention of running for a second term, most political observers expect her to do so.

"I don't know why she is putting the people of New York through this. It's kind of disingenuous and I would love to see her commit publicly to serving a full six year term if re-elected. I think the people deserve that," Brecht said.

Abandoning a congressional or gubernatorial seat midway through a term to become president would not be the first time. Both President George W. Bush and Sen. Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, left office midway through their gubernatorial terms to assume the presidency.

Brecht also criticized Clinton's Senate record.

"Nothing has been delivered. There are crushing problems in this state. We elected a celebrity in 2000, and now we need to elect a working senator," Brecht said.

"We really can't afford to indulge someone's passion for stardom any longer," he added.

Brecht said Clinton's "move to the right" on key issues like national security and defense are designed to "make her self more nationally electable."

However, former Republican U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one of the most powerful conservatives and Clinton critics of the 1990s, praised the New York senator during a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in April.

"Senator Clinton is very competent, very professional, very intelligently moving toward the center, very shrewdly and effectively serving on the Armed Services Committee," Gingrich was quoted in the New York Times.

"And I think any Republican who thinks she's going to be easy to beat has a total amnesia about the history of the Clintons," Gingrich added.

Despite Mrs. Clinton's perceived political strength, Brecht touted a Marist College Poll from last month showing him slightly ahead of the two likely candidates to run for the GOP nomination. The poll showed Brecht leading Edward Cox, a Manhattan lawyer and son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon and Jeanine Pirro, the district attorney from Westchester County.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2 3

Copyright © 1998-2005 CNSNews.com - Cybercast News Service