The lesson of Jeanine Pirro's failed New York Senate run is that when you cut pro—life voters, gun rights advocates, and affirmative action opponents from a Republican Senate campaign you are left with a candidacy for a 2006 election that ends in 2005.  

Despite the early exit by left—leaning Pirro, conventional wisdom still holds that only liberal Republicans can win in New York. This ignores right wing New York Senator Alphonse D'Amato who triumphed statewide three times and conservative icon Ronald Reagan who twice carried the Empire State.  Both victories came before the conservative movement armed itself with the twin swords of talk radio and the blogosphere to level the media playing field and marshal support for conservative candidates and policies.  

Despite tremendous hype, Pirro crashed and burned in a matter of months, not because she is unqualified but because she is further to the left than former Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman on several key issues important to the Republican base.  Hillary Clinton will mop the floor with a wishy washy Arlen Specter Republican, but a Reagan Republican who fires up GOP activists can raise money and force Hillary to answer tough questions about her abysmal record on terrorism.

Make no mistake, Hillary is vulnerable on the issue of terrorism.

After all, she was a major part ("Buy one, get one free") of an administration that consciously decided to treat terrorism as law enforcement rather than a military matter.  That same administration fiddled while terrorists killed eighteen soldiers in Somalia, nineteen airmen in Saudi Arabia and seventeen sailors aboard the USS Cole.  Once New Yorkers demand to know why al qaeda was at war but the Clintons were not, Hillary is in trouble. 

A conservative challenger will also hold Clinton and her party accountable for their long and embarrassing track record of supporting judicial nominees more concerned about protecting the rights of al Qaeda than the lives of Americans.

Hillary was elected pre—9/11 and her role in arranging the pardon of FALN terrorists with the blood of New Yorkers (including NYPD officers) on their hands was a mere speed bump on her way to the Senate.  With a gaping hole in lower Manhattan and 3,000 souls lost, that despicable display of putting politics above protection may become a veritable road block formidable enough to stop cold Hillary's Senate bid and presidential hopes. 

As a Senator, Hillary filibustered the most important tool our government has to thwart domestic terror attacks. She continues to play politics with our national security by refusing to state her positions on wiretapping al Qaeda and the war in Iraq.  Pirro never put Hillary's feet to the fire about her evasions on national security issues but a right of center candidate like a Mayor John Spencer  of Yonkers for example, certainly will. 

From a Republican perspective there are numerous positive outcomes that can come from a spirited campaign against Hillary.  A spirited campaign to defeat Hillary will force her to commit resources in the 2006 Senate race that she has arrogantly earmarked for her 2008 presidential run.

Unlike criticism from a weak—kneed moderate, attacks from the right on national security will force Hillary to be more of a hawk and further alienate the already perturbed Cindy Sheehan wing of her party which is presently threatening to run an anti—war candidate. If things get close or if a conservative candidate makes Hillary take stands unpopular with her party's base, she may drop out of the race, realizing that eking out a victory in 2006 while alienating hard left party activists may fatally damage her chances in 2008. 

Even if Hillary stays in the race to the end, a true Republican gives the GOP a puncher's chance in November and Hillary may be left wishing she had followed her party's strategy in the war on terror and cut and run.

The New York GOP needs to stop cajoling moderates into running for the Senate because a moderate can neither beat Hillary nor damage her presidential aspirations.  New York has already been attacked twice and remains a prime target.  Our state cannot afford to reelect Senator Clinton, a proven failure at fighting terror who puts her own political fortunes above her duty to protect her constituents.  New York Republicans must rally around a conservative candidate with the guts to tirelessly hammer from now until Election Day upon this truth: Hillary cares more about her political future than she does about defeating the terrorists — and her record proves it. 

Kieran Michael Lalor is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Founder of the Eternal Vigilance Society.