What a difference a weekend makes. On Friday, August 5, Jeanine Pirro made a round of calls letting friends know she’d settled on running for governor. By Monday morning, though, word was out that Ms. Pirro would challenge Hillary Clinton for Senate. Now, precisely four months later, she’s under considerable pressure to make yet another shift down-ticket and go for attorney general. At this rate, by Christmas the Westchester District Attorney will be running for county legislator.

Ms. Pirro’s indecisiveness began overshadowing her considerable talents over the summer. Her handlers reserved space at the State Capitol for a campaign announcement several times, only to see the permits expire as Ms. Pirro repeatedly refused to make up her mind. Potential candidates often have second thoughts about jumping into a race, but usually they know which office they want.

Ms. Pirro has turned this process on its head, letting out that she was running well before she had any idea what she was running for.

Flash back to June 4, a warm Saturday night in Albany when hundreds of political operatives gathered in the subterranean convention hall beneath the theater known as “The Egg.” The event was the annual Legislative Correspondents Association dinner, the state capitol’s version of the City Hall press corps’s “Inner Circle” and Washington’s Gridiron Club dinner. Albany reporters performed a series of skits satirizing state politics, and invited political figures then take the stage.

Ms. Pirro brought down the house by poking fun at her image, promoted by People magazine, as America’s sexiest prosecutor. Her performance was reminiscent of Mrs. Clinton’s skit during the 2000 dinner, in which she clutched a carpet-bag while adorned in a Yankees cap. Reporters watching Ms. Pirro’s performance this year were convinced this match-up would be great to cover.

But then Ms. Pirro got cold feet. She spent the summer fretting about what office to seek, even while making clear she would indeed ask voters statewide to elect her to something. New York Republicans were remarkably patient with the woman who appeared their best hope to take Senator Clinton down.

And they had plenty of national company. Karl Rove’s emissaries visited New York to let Republican officials here how much they were counting on Ms. Pirro, as a moderate Republican, to bloody Senator Clinton in advance of her expected efforts to return to the White House. If Ms. Pirro could force Mrs. Clinton to the left, their theory went, the senator would suffer sure defeat in red states, and have more trouble in less-liberal blue states, if she does become the Democratic nominee for president.

Mr. Rove’s team never thought their dream candidate would suffer such a rocky start. First Ms. Pirro fumbled her announcement speech. Since then, she’s failed to raise much money, even though Republican leaders thought fundraising would be a cinch given she’s running against a Clinton.

And now, in a bizarre twist, some party leaders are worried she’ll do more harm than good – especially if her campaign does gain momentum – because Senator Clinton is probably unbeatable. For Joseph Bruno, the Republican majority leader of the state Senate, the worst nightmare is Ms. Pirro losing but actually giving Mrs. Clinton a run for her money – and in the process generating big Democratic turnout that jeopardizes his party’s slim majority in the state Senate.

If Senator Clinton does wind up in a close race, or even a sensational race that isn’t close, Democrats could be more likely to vote. Republicans don’t want a heavy Democratic turnout, because that would risk Republican seats in the state Senate – especially downstate in the city and on Long Island.

National Republicans, of course, aren’t especially worried about New York State’s legislature. They’d much rather see Ms. Pirro stay in the Senate race, hoping that at some point her campaign takes shape and ultimately wounds Mrs. Clinton enough to destroy the senator’s national ambition. But Mr. Bruno has his majority to protect, and that explains why he’s leading the call for Ms. Pirro to run for attorney general – which is a polite way of asking her to get out of Senator Clinton’s way.

If Ms. Pirro does leave the Senate race, the two most likely Republican candidates are little-known conservatives. John Spencer has no image outside Yonkers, where he was mayor, and Edward Cox, despite his strong reputation in New York City’s legal community, is rarely mentioned without reference to his status as President Nixon’s son-in-law.

Even with Ms. Pirro out of the Senate race, Democrats could still show up in droves next year. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi are poised for a primary brawl, and the winner will likely face Massachusetts’s indefatigable former governor, William Weld, in the general election. But clearly a race with those names won’t generate nearly as much interest and publicity as a real race involving another Clinton who wants to be president.

If you believe Ms. Pirro, this is a moot issue – she says she’s in the U.S. Senate race to stay. But that could shift dramatically next week, after state Republican leaders gather for their winter meeting. The plan is to make a public push for Ms. Pirro to run for attorney general by touting her law enforcement credentials. Perhaps Ms. Pirro will buck her elders and hold firm as a candidate against Senator Clinton, but not likely. Ms. Pirro’s friends learned months ago that she doesn’t always mean what she says about her political plans.

Mr. Goldin is a host of NY1’s “Road to City Hall,” which airs weeknights at 7 and 10:30 p.m.