The Lavender and Green Blues As St. Patrick's Day approaches, local pols are thinking about the Irish-American parade and what controversy will ensue this election year if the Irish-American gay and lesbian group, dubbed the Lavender and Green Alliance, is once again prevented from marching with their fellow countryfolk. Last year, parade organizers barred the group from joining, and the ruckus that accompanied the group's attempt to march anyway resulted in a number of arrests and a political black eye for Assemblymember Jim Brennan, who has an excellent voting record on gay rights issues. Despite a call issued by Lambda Independent Democrats, the gay and lesbian political club, for all elected officials to boycott the event, Brennan marched, along with Jack Carroll, president of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats and a potential candidate for Stephen DiBrienzaís Council seat.

But Brennan and Carroll are both progressive Democrats who clearly felt uncomfortable with the situation. In fact, Brennan traditionally hosts the pre-parade breakfast, and he has always invited local gay and lesbian residents. "It's a mixture of ethnic pride and politicking," said Tom Flood, a Lambda board member who normally attends the event. But this year, the parade organizing committee, in response to Brennan's inclusive breakfasts, has pulled the breakfast from him. Additionally, the committee has ostracized Carroll, who was on the committee last year. "They did not ask me to be on the parade committee," said Carroll, whose father was a founder of the parade. When asked if the decision to cut him out was painful, Carroll said, "It most certainly is."

Carroll said that he has not even thought about whether he will march again this year, and Brennan was tied up in Albany and unavailable for comment at press time. His chief of staff, John Keefe, had no comment. Members of the parade committee did not return calls for comment at press time.

This year, Lambda is again being shut out, and is again calling for a boycott by elected officials. And this year, of course, is an election year for Brennan, with the Council race next on the schedule. "[The committee has] taken the breakfast from Jim, they won't invite him to anything, so why doesn't Jim just do what's obvious here and say enough of the bigotry, enough of the hatred, I'm not going to support this," said Dan Tietz, president of Lambda. "I don't understand why Jim thinks there's a political cost in that."

Sources say that Brennan still values the old-school Irish-American population as part of his constituency, even though his district is being increasingly populated by young progressives, gays and lesbians."Look who's moving into Windsor Terrace," said Tietz. "It's not the Irish. They're leaving." Tietz said that Keefe told him Brennan has not made up his mind yet, despite the indignities heaped upon him by the committee.

"Is it gutless? I don't know if it's gutless," said Tietz. "I just can't figure out the political equation here." Last year, the equation was pretty clear, said Flood. "However they want to spin it, they chose not only to march in the parade, but in the front of the parade when we had made it very clear to them that that was unacceptable," he said. "Jim tried to have it both ways by marching with us and having his lackies take pictures of us and then sending us the pictures. Jim was talking out of both sides of his mouth last year."

Despite Brennan's non-commitment at this point, Tietz said that Keefe told him that Brennan was currently scheduled to be in Syracuse on March 19, the day of the parade, which could be a built-in escape route. The hurt feelings engendered by last yearís debacle notwithstanding, Tietz and Flood said that Brennan and Carroll were good people, and that the resentment was fading, although not entirely. Any softening of feelings is good for both of them, who will want the support of the gay and lesbian communities in their election bids -- Carroll especially so, since he could be involved in a four or five person primary.

E-Politics Ever since Vice President Al Gore invented the Internet, the medium has been hailed as a harbinger of universal democracy. But the fact is that aside from a proliferation of partisan Websites and few public disclosure sites, the digital age has yet to truly dawn on the country's political landscape. But now the State Senate Democrats are pushing a novel invention intended to capitalize on the potential of the Web: the e-petition, which can be found at sendem.com. The e-petition is being circulated to gather names of New Yorkers in an effort to push the Senate Republicans to repeal the marriage tax penalty from the state income tax code. Last year, the Democratic proposal was rejected by Republicans by a party-line vote. The Democrats' proposal calls for raising the deduction for married couples from $13,000 to $15,000 -- the deduction allotted to two single filers. On average, a married couple in New York pays $138 more annually than they would if they were single people filing separate returns.

Surfers can sign the petition online, or they can download it and circulate it the old-fashioned way, either posting it at a public place or going door-to-door, and then sending it via snail mail to state Senator Martin Connor, the Minority Leader. Howard Graubard, Connor's district director, said that the e-petition has helped create a broader base of support for the proposal. "We're reaching a statewide constituency of people not normally associated with what the media likes to define as Democratic causes," he said. "This year we want to deliver the message to (Senate Majority Leader Joseph) Bruno." According to the last count, 1,200 people have signed the petition online.

The Mouse That Roared The Conservative Party, all but dismissed by Mayor Giuliani, will run a candidate in the Senate race, said Jerry Kassar, the partyís chair in Brooklyn. If fact, the party has to run a candidate or risk being emasculated. The party's strength is based, almost exclusively, in its ability to push Republican candidates to the right as they pursue the state's 174,000 registered Conservatives. In the face of a Republican candidate who is not willing to budge, the Conservative Party is forced to show them what they missed.

"Our raison díetre is to run candidates and show the Republicans there is a third section of the public," said Kassar. Whether it is Rep. Rick Lazio or someone else -- Kassar declined to discuss specific names, but said Party leader Michael Long was talking to others -- the party will run someone to show Giuliani that Conservatives can either help him or hurt him, whichever he chooses. "We're in this business to push our philosophy and beliefs," said Kassar, who added that despite the registered number of Conservatives, the line normally delivers between 280,000 and 350,000 votes.

If they don't run a candidate, then Giuliani will absorb those Conservative votes by default, rendering the Conservative Party useless. But of course, what if they do run a candidate who simply cuts into Giuliani's pie and helps send Hillary to Washington?"ìWe very much care about that, but it canít be our overall consideration, because then we would just be an appendage of the Republican party," said Kassar.

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