Newsday from New York, New York • 4

A Day Later, Sen. Kennedy Has No Regrets referring to the 1980 campaign when he sought the Democratic nomination but was vanquished by Jimmy Carter. With Kennedy out of contention, the prospects for New York Gov. Mario Cuomo were enhanced, according to political observers. Asked to assess Cuomos presidential chances, Kennedy said: "I know that he may very well be considered.

I think he'd be a very strong candidate. Mayor Edward 1. Koch of New York said Cuomo was the only individual "universally mentioned in discussions regarding possible Democratic challengers, and Kevin Phillips, the conservative political strategist, said Kennedys withdrawal left Cuomo in a most advantageous position. "Its a clear benefit for Cuomo because you're getting rid of three denominators they Kennedy and Cuomo share. Theyre northeastern, theyre Catholics, and theyre liberals.

So you're opening up some nice demographic avenues for him, Phillips said. Cuomo insists that the Kennedy decision will not affect hiB determination to run for a second term as governor of New York and to remain in the job. "I'm not planning to run for president, Cuomo said. For now, at least, Kennedy's pledge is more likely to be taken seriously than Cuomos. But serious as his intentions may have been, Kennedy demonstrated at yesterdays press conference that he was in good humor.

At one point, a reporter joked that, as a potential presidential hopeful, Kennedy was much like like an "800-pound gorilla that had to be pushed aside, Kennedy smiled, gazed at his stomach and said: Tm not quite that any more. The senators diminishing girth had been the subject of intense discussion in Washington, where observers assumed he was losing weight in anticipation of a national campaign precisely the sort of speculation that Kennedy said he found distressing. Kennedy, a senator since 1962, met with reporters as follow-up to his announcement Thursday that he would not seek the presidency in 1988. Reporters asked Kennedy if his decision were based on personal crises the 1969 accident on Chappaquiddick Island that claimed the life of a young woman riding in Kennedys car and the breakup of his marriage in 1983 but the senator said those issues had not been major factors. By Derrick Jackson Staff Correspondent Boston At ease and evidently in a jocular mood, Sen.

Edward M. Kennedy said yesterday he did not regret dropping out of the 1988 presidential race, although he remained "a person of ambition who one day would like to as chief executive. 'Tve always stated I want to be president." Kennedy told reporters at a 15-minute news conference. "I still want to be. But, Kennedy, 53, said he did not care to enter the next presidential dertiv nor did he want his political ef-fi-cu eness to he diminished by public speculation.

"Ht-re I dont go again quipped the Massachusetts Democrat, apparently Bill to Cut Deficit Rejected By Alison Mitchell Neicsday Washington Bureau Washington The 99th Congress ended its first year in acrimonious partisanship last night, leaving behind as a casualty the $74 billion deficit reduction measure that was to have been the centerpiece of the year-long battle against spending. After a day of private strategy sessions, a weary Senate twice refused, by votes of 35-29 and 35-30, to approve the House version of the three-year package of spending cuts and taxes. Republicans, in essence, argued that they had to kill the bill in order to save it since they had learned that it faced a certain veto by President Ronald Reagan. "It seems to me that now we need to complete the process, keep it alive. salvage something, said Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole The Senate named negotiators to try to draw up a new compromise on the measure with the House when Congress returns at the end of January.

But Democrats scoffed that by then, with a new 1987 budget fight on the horizon, and more Bpending cuts for 1986 required by the Gramm-Rudman balanced budget bill, agreement would be impossible. The delay will Continued on Page 9 For Those Who Didnt Return Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, who returned to Fort Campbell, from peacekeeping duty in the Sinai Thursday, march yesterday in honor of comrades killed inlast weeks charter jet crash in Newfoundland. Sale of Hotel Items Marks Condo Switch By Ron Howell Sydelle Shaw, grandmotherly but sprightly, admitted to feeling a little guilty as she bought some of the greatest bargains of her life yesterday. "I just dont feel right about it, she said, as she held a brass-plated table she bought for $10. iw was one of several thousand lamp i Sha No Pass, No Play, No Carols city filed actions against Trump, charging him with trying to harass tenants out of 100 Central Park South.

The actions are pending, according to John C. Moore in, head of the tenants association at the building. The Barbizon Plaza Hotel, which boasted a quiet elegance and its own theater, was built in 1930. As Shaw walked through the 36-story hotel looking for interesting items to buy, she said she felt a piece of tradition was lost. "It was very handy to know there was a restaurant here and that you could just walk right in, said Shaw, who lives in an apartment building nearby.

"You take away landmarks and you dont feel like youre in New York anymore. Jordan Wachtell, a spokesman for Trump, put the closing of the Barbizon Plaza Hoi el in a more positive light. "Donald Trump is going to transform this magnificient site into a beautiful residential tower that will include probably the greatest views of Central Park the public has ever seen, Wachtell said. people who browsed through the Barbizon Plaza Hotel, buying towels, desks, lamps, pianos and chandeliers being sold by the Trump Organization, the hotels owner. On Dec.

14, all remaining guests of the 800-room hotel were put out, making way for conversion of the building into a "residential tower, a spokesman for owner Donald Trump said. The hotel is next door to 100 Central Tom Bean, Texas (AP) Gov. Mark White called the incident "unfortunate, but Chuck Millers family had harsher words for a state rule that kept the boy from singing Christmas carols to a nursing home audience that included his blind grandmother. Chuck, a seventh-grader who failed life science, was barred Wednesday under the "no pass, no play rule from joining his classmates in singing carols at a nurs ing home where his grandmother, Lois Miller, 77, lives. "We had already told my mother that he was going to get to come," said Chucks mother, Jackie Miller Kingston.

"She said, Oh, I can already see him and hear him singing to me. It was pretty hard to go up there and tell her that he wasnt. "I think if Governor White was in my position, he would regret making the law. I really and truly do, said Kingston. Park South, a 14-story apartment building where tenants are fighting attempts by Trump to evict them.

Tenants there say the developer plans to merge the buildings into luxury V. Earlier this year, the state and the.