Sean Doherty on the candidacy of K.T. McFarland for the GOP Senate nomination to run against Hillary Clinton:

Furthermore, being able to call herself a "Reagan Republican", rather than a "Bush Republican", offers KT a myriad of benefits. Harkening back to another time when Republicans were clearly right (in the public's and history's eyes) on national security is preferable to having to ride along on what are Bush's rather risky Presidential coattails.

Remember: Reagan won New York in 1984.

Hillary Clinton is no Walter Mondale. But if, as Tom Suozzi hopes, this is the year of the Centrist in New York, McFarland can certainly force Sen. Clinton to spend some of her war chest in 2006 instead of carrying it all over for the big race in two years.

Within a few months, there will be a "whisper number" for Clinton to meet in her re-election (60 percent of the vote? 70 percent? 80 percent?). Keeping her below that number will likely be the Republicans' best hope. And it sounds like many Republicans believe McFarland stands a better job of doing that than Spencer.