By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Bill Clinton came to town last Thursday night. It is always special when he comes our way. He was the guest speaker at the annual pre-election fundraising dinner for both the Queens and Nassau Democratic Parties.

His availability got them to schedule their blasts the same night. It also enabled other bigwig Dems to kill two birds on one night.

Chuck Schumer, Elliot Spitzer, Alan Hevesi, and Gary Ackerman were able to press flesh in both impressive turnouts.

But the evening belonged to Bill. He is magic. He is magnetic. He is our President...for New York, he will always be.

Now I’ve been to the Queens affair before. So when a friend invited me to the Nassau Dem Annual Fall Dinner at the Crest Hollow Country Club, I went. Nassau, our neighbor to the east, is home to a newly invigorated Democratic Party. County Exec. Tom Suozzi is only the second Democrat elected to preside over the more than 100-year-old County.

Tom Suozzi

Along with Suozzi’s huge victory came the rebirth of Democratic politics on an island long dominated by Republicans. And the turnout of over 1,500 at the dinner where ticket prices started at $500 and went up to the stratosphere was indicative of the rebirth of a well-run, thriving and powerful operation.

It was a different crowd than Queens. It was younger, with more business people and an underlying commitment to an ideology seemed to unite the diverse group.

Carl McCall

I knew a number of the people there and, during the cocktail party, was immediately thrown into the role of political analyst.

“Tell us,” I was asked, “are we going to lose line B?”

The fear that Carl McCall could finish third to Tom Golisano was not uncommon in the large room of committed Dems. I’ll tell you, as I told those who asked last Thursday, “No, it ain’t gonna happen.”

McCall is not going to win; he’s not going to come close, but he’s going to come in second. He will, however, be closer in vote total to Golisano than Pataki.

The fear to the Dems of finishing third is more than one of ego and appearance. The order of finish in the Governor’s race determines the “ballot line” the party has for the next four years. The appointment of Election Inspectors, members of the Election Boards throughout the State as well as other rights and perks belong to the two major parties. It is the Governor’s race that is used to determine the ballot order of parties in the State. Although it has never happened in New York, Golisano finishing second would mean the Dems would be replaced by the Independence Party in sharing the political appointments which are election-related.

During a recent chat, City father Henry Stern – the last person elected to City Office on the Liberal Party line – suggested to me that the legislature could and would act to retain many of the rights for the Dem Party in such an event. However, he pointed out that the Republicans would extract an awfully heavy price from the Dems for such a life preserver. Such are the ways of the political process.

Ray Harding

It was clear that few, if any of the 1,500 people at the dinner expected a McCall miracle. Even when exhorted to rally behind him by speakers from the podium, the crowd responded with a lukewarm reception. McCall was dead and even the national Democratic Party was trying to get away without having it cost too much.

While the Dems were worrying about preserving line “B,” the few surviving Liberals in New York State have a real worry about preserving their party. Unless a party receives 50,000 votes on its line during the Governor’s race, the party loses its accreditation in the State. Enrollment is void and a line is only available through the awkward and expensive petitioning process.

Once the powerful third party in New York, the Liberal Party has slowly moved down the ballot giving way to the Conservative and the Independence Party.

Once the champion of progressive politics in New York, the Liberal Party has become the personal patronage mill and power toy of party chief Ray Harding. Nearly void of ideology, the party’s line has been available in exchange for jobs and business. One such job resulted in scandal in the Giuliani administration when Harding’s son Michael used his commissionership to finance his jet set lifestyle.

The Liberal Party’s gubernatorial standard-bearer is Andrew Cuomo, who reluctantly stepped aside from the Governor’s race when Democratic Party elders convinced him that he couldn’t win and could do more damage than good. It seems now that Andy, who was in attendance at the Nassau dinner, was certainly more charismatic, a better campaigner and likely more electable than McCall. But Andy’s withdrawal did nothing for Carl — except deprive him of a victory that might have helped propel his lackluster campaign and likewise did less to save Cuomo’s political future in the State.

Elliot Spitzer

The big loser from the Cuomo withdrawal could be Harding and his Liberal Party. Failure of Cuomo to attract 50,000 votes could spell the end of the party in New York or at least a set back that will take years to recover from.

There will be progressive Dems abandoning McCall in the voting booth in an attempt to save the Liberal Party. There will be others happy to see Ray Harding lose control of a once noble operation which he corrupted. But when they realize their vote can’t help McCall, we expect to see a number of old-time liberals go home to the Liberal line.

And the cocktail party gave way to the dinner and as everyone who has been with Clinton before expected, he was running late.

The President is notoriously and continuously late. Clinton loves people and loves to stay and chat. So while we sat in Nassau, Schumer, Spitzer and Dem. County Chair Jay Jacobs kept things going.

Of particular note, was the absence of Carl McCall or of any presence of his campaign. Although late in the evening Jacobs said that McCall’s wife, Joyce Brown, had been there. There was little more than light applause for the mention of the party’s standard-bearer.

The food was good, the company very good and the speeches fine.

An Elliot Spitzer anecdote was worth retelling for my Democratic readership:

Driving a car, according to the State Attorney General, is just like politics and running our country. Handling the shift in a car is no different than the two party system and steering our nation.

If you want to go forward, you push the lever to “D.”

And if you want to move backwards, Spitzer concluded, you push the lever to “R.”

Nassau County Exec. Tom Suozzi, who introduced Clinton, did so with his own cute spin:

I was born on Long Island and always had the dream that I could grow up and be President. Then along came Bill Clinton. He was so smart.

He read a book a day. Could give a detailed speech on any subject and had command of history and every legislative issue that faced our nation. He was brilliant.

I recognized, that I was not smart enough to be President.

But I was wrong.

Then we elected George Bush and I knew for sure, that I was more than smart enough.

Bill Clinton was captivating. He always is. He didn’t, as I expected, summon up the spirits to bring life to a dying Carl McCall. He lent his support to the Democratic effort for Governor, but spent his several minutes extolling the virtues of his party and his administration. He did so with compassion and with his heart. He reserved his cheerleading for Tim Bishop, the surprisingly competitive Dem. Congressional candidate in eastern Long island. Political junkies may want to watch that one.

He worked his magic, preaching to the converted, pitting Republican ideology against Democratic performance.

I’ve met the President twice before — had my photo taken with him both times. The first time was in the first year of his Presidency and the last time in its final days. His hair grew grayer, his face now shows the lines of stress, but his eyes are unchanged. He looks right at you – at each person he talks to – and in his eyes is the vision of the world as a better place and mankind hard at work making it better.

Yes, Bill Clinton concluded, the personal attacks that marred his life in the White House were a small price to pay to work for the good of labor and management, business and the environment, the poor, the less fortunate and peace throughout the world.

It was a great night for the Dems on Long Island. It was a great night for the Nassau County Democratic Party. It was great night for the Queens Democratic Party.

But as far as having an impact on next Tuesday’s election, Elliot Spitzer’s metaphorical car has been on cruise control for the past eight years.