C  o n f i d e n t i a l o r n e r   At the premiere of "Price of Glory" starring Jimmy Smits (above right) were (above left) The Craft's Robin Tunney, ...Gerry Cooney, (right) The Sopranos' Pussy. Premiere of Joe Gould's Secret: Mario & Matilda Cuomo; (below) Illustrator Al Hirshfeld The Judds at Westbury Music Fair Photos by Steve Azzara

Claire's Choice

Trapped in what is proving to be one of the toughest choices since beer commercials forced a choice between "less filling" and "tastes great," Queens Borough President Claire Shulman has been noticeably silent in the Rudy-Hillary battle.

The lifelong Democrat, who has been one of Rudy’s staunchest supporters on the other side of the aisle (she took his side against Dem Ruth Messinger in 1997), is in a pickle as she faces the end of her term in 2001.

If Claire continues backing Rudy, she jeopardizes her future in the Dem party if she wants to run for public office after she leaves Queens Borough Hall. Some have speculated that Claire will run for Public Advocate or that she’ll opt for a City Council seat and try to succeed fellow Queens pol Peter Vallone as Speaker of the increasingly powerful City Council.

It’s your turn, Claire.

Sounds of Silence

They say silence is golden. That could be true for button-lipped interim Chancellor Harold Levy.

The play-it-close-to-the-vest former business executive is not telling anyone his long-term intentions for the Chancellor position. But his silence is, apparently, scaring away qualified applicants for the permanent Chancellor role.

Board of Ed officials said that only a meager crop have applied for the job. "The perception created in the media is that Levy is a candidate," said board member Ninfa Segarra.

Even though the Board hired two private recruiters and spent a fair amount of money on a search for a Chancellor, the results have been disappointing.

Maybe it’s not just Levy’s presence that is scaring away applicants. Could it be that educators see
the Mayor’s roadkill of Fernandez, Cortines and Crew and don’t want to leave a secure job to be next on the Mayor’s firing line?

Pickin' on Rudy

If he wasn’t acting like such a bully in the Patrick Dorismond case, you’d probably start feeling sorry for Rudy Giuliani. He’s getting attacked from all sides of the Democratic Party these past two weeks.

First, Comptroller Alan Hevesi calls him a "liar" and questions some City contracts with an old crony of Giuliani’s. Then, Rev. Jesse Jackson questions Hizzoner’s mental soundness. Public Advocate Mark Green, Rudy’s least favorite nemesis, piles on and digs up an old statute to drag the Mayor to court over the release of Dorismond’s juvenile sealed records.

And then, to add insult to injury, Peter Vallone and the City Council overrode three Mayoral vetoes and passed new laws over his objections. "In all
my years as both speaker and member of this Council, I have not seen anything like this," said Vallone.

The three rebuffs in one week may be a record — in his first six years in office Giuliani was
overridden only 13 other times. Veto overrides of Giuliani’s Democratic predecessors were rare.

"They’re carrying out a political program," the Mayor complained to the News last week.

And it’s only April. Only 200 plus days till the Senate election. Should be a fun political summer.

E-MAIL your items to: NYConf@NewsCommunications.com

NYConfidential by Michael Schenkler with: Tom Allon, Steve Azzara, Peter Catapano, Ira Cohen, Richard Fasanella, Tamara Hartman, Joshua Kaufman, Barbara Jarvie, Evan Kapitansky, Timothy McDarrah, Mike Nussbaum, Mary Reinholz, Dee Richard.