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Hil: Looks aren't anything

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

October 24, 2006

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wishes politics weren't such a beauty contest.

During a campaign stop upstate yesterday, Clinton (D-N.Y.) shrugged off a Daily News report quoting her Republican rival John Spencer as saying she had paid "millions" for cosmetic surgery, while questioning husband Bill Clinton's taste in mates. Yesterday, Spencer said the statements were fabrications.

"I prefer to campaign on real issues," a bemused Clinton said after visiting a Watervliet senior citizens center. "Everyone has to judge for themselves what they think is appropriate or inappropriate ... I think it's unfortunate that when you don't have anything positive to say about the issues, you can get off in some pretty swampy territory."

Spencer reportedly made the comments to columnist Ben Smith during a Friday flight to Rochester for the first Clinton-Spencer debate. "I don't know why Bill married her," Smith quoted Spencer saying.

The former Yonkers mayor reportedly added: "She looks good now."

Spencer told The Associated Press yesterday that the story was a "fabrication," and a spokesman called it "the worst kind of tabloid journalism." In a statement, a Daily News spokeswoman said, "The quotes attributed to Mr. Spencer are accurate, and we stand by Ben's article."