Prometheus 6

Quote of note:

Mr. D'Amato, who has denied even having a private conversation with Mr. Weld before this year, has a well-deserved reputation, though, not only for carrying a grudge, but also for intemperate remarks that defined him as a swashbuckling political figure. He has deprecated Representative Jerrold Nadler, who peaked at 338 pounds, as "Congressman Waddler"; referred to his challenger for the Senate, Charles E. Schumer, with a Yiddish vulgarism; and used broken English to mock Lance A. Ito, the judge in O. J. Simpson's criminal trial.

D'Amato Is Now Prophet of Doom for G.O.P. Candidates
By SAM ROBERTS

Seven years after leaving the Senate, Alfonse M. D'Amato has plunged back into New York Republican politics with a vengeance.

With potentially devastating effect, he has publicly challenged the choices of the party establishment, warning that its favored candidates for governor, attorney general and United States senator appear to be so freighted with political baggage that they will very likely lose to Democrats in November.

Mr. D'Amato insists that his primary objective is to salvage the party that he was instrumental in reviving by installing his top aide as Republican state chairman and promoting the candidacy of George E. Pataki, then little known, in the 1994 race for governor.

But, some critics, accusing him of sabotaging the party's leading prospects, contend that he is motivated by personal animus, particularly against William F. Weld, a candidate for governor. And, they say, as a thriving consultant and lobbyist, he may also be seeking to ingratiate himself with the Democrats, especially Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the leading candidate for governor, whom he has been praising effusively.

Last week, Mr. Weld, seeking to stanch the hemorrhaging, lashed back. He said the basis for their bad blood was Mr. D'Amato's antipathy — expressed, Mr. Weld said, in an expletive-laced personal warning to Mr. Weld a decade ago — for Mr. Weld's protégé, Robert S. Mueller III, now the F.B.I. director, who oversaw the unsuccessful prosecution of Mr. D'Amato's brother, Armand.