Spencer: Hillary victim act "getting old"

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's underdog Republican challenger accused the former first lady and her husband on Wednesday of engaging in timeworn theatrics with their criticism of President Bush's handling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

"Once again, President Clinton is wagging his finger with righteous indignation and once again, Hillary Clinton is rushing to his defense," said former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer. "This act is getting old and the American people realize it."

The broadside from Spencer, with its reference to the Clintons' behavior during the early stages of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, came as the political world buzzed about the former president's testy interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that aired Sunday.

In the exchange with Wallace, the former president contended that, unlike him, the newly installed Bush administration ignored bin Laden until the Sept. 11 attacks.

"They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try; they did not try," he said. He also attacked Wallace for a "conservative hit job" by asking about his administration's failure to get bin Laden.

His wife said Tuesday that "my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take these attacks."

But in his statement, Spencer said, "the time has come to stop the theatrics and come clean with the American people." He called Clintons' attacks part of "a cynical attempt to return the Clinton name to the White House. If the Clintons truly want to defeat terror, they should back our president, not attack him."

Polls show the senator far ahead in her bid for re-election, a race many think is a prelude to her running for president in 2008. Her campaign has been seeking to portray Spencer as an extreme conservative out of step with the average New York voter.

Spencer beat Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, a Reagan-era Pentagon official, in the Sept. 12 GOP primary. The senator easily beat an anti-Iraq war challenger, Jonathan Tasini.