"Obviously it's an issue ... You've either got to stick with it or you've got to work yourself out of it and explain your change of mind about it," Giuliani said in an interview taped yesterday for CBS's "Sunday Edition" with Marcia Kramer.

Mrs. Clinton said last May that it was in the "long-term interest of the Middle East for Palestine to be a state" - comments that were decried by Israel and quickly branded by the White House as "not the view of the president."

Giuliani insisted he still hasn't decided whether to run for retiring Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's seat, but he told CNN that if Mrs. Clinton jumps in, it would be a "great challenge ... probably one of the things that pushes you more toward doing [it]."

Mrs. Clinton also played coy - although she huddled alone with Moynihan at the White House for more than an hour and was reaching out to a network of fat cats, advisers and consultants.

The meeting with Moynihan is one of several she has planned over the next month, including one with AFL-CIO labor boss John Sweeney.

"We had a good talk ... I did not give her any advice. I answered questions," Moynihan said after the lunchtime meeting. He said they discussed "vote counting" and that the First Lady didn't say when she'll make up her mind and didn't discuss how she'd cope with a tough race in the wake of Whitewater and Sexgate.

He said Mrs. Clinton "didn't ask me" to support her, but added: "Of course, I'd support her if she did."

President Clinton said yesterday his wife would make a "fabulous" senator.

But the scandal-racked Clinton also said the will-she-won't-she frenzy was "a little premature," noting that his wife has "just been through a very exhausting year" and that he wanted her first to "take some time, get some rest, listen to people on both sides."

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan) said Mrs. Clinton might wait until as late as June to decide what to do.

Meanwhile, at least one fat-cat Democrat - Rangel wouldn't identify him - has offered the First Lady a Park Avenue apartment so she can establish New York residency.

Rangel denied Mrs. Clinton is merely playing games to divert attention from Sexgate and bask in the flattering publicity.

"She has too much class to do that to Nita Lowey," Rangel said, referring to the Westchester congresswoman most likely to run for Moynihan's seat if Mrs. Clinton doesn't.

-- Marilyn Rauber, Midknight, and Maggie Haberman - 2/21/99