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Something’s Ugly In The Senate Race (And It Isn’t Hillary Clinton’s Face)
October 24th, 2006

Far less opinion has been offered about the two debates between Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her GOP challenger, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, than about remarks Spencer made about Clinton’s looks to Daily News political reporter Ben Smith on the airplane up to the second debate. Spencer said, according to Smith, that the former first lady had been ugly, but had spent millions of dollars on plastic surgery. “You see a big picture of her back then?” he was quoted as saying. “Whew.”

Spencer initially denied saying this, Clinton more or less laughed it off (and her spokesman denied she had any cosmetic surgery), but Marie Wilson did not find it funny.

Writing in the Daily News, Wilson, the president of the White House Project, which tries to put women in leadership positions, pointed out “this isn’t the first time that a woman campaigning for office has been maligned based solely on superficialities,” and cited the experience of Elizabeth Dole when she ran for president in 2000. “When an opponent or a reporter focuses on trivialities, like a woman’s hair, hemline or husband, he undermines a woman’s authority.”

Phil Reisman of the Journal News, who covered Spencer when he was mayor of Yonkers, said if Spencer really uttered the reported comments, he was being “ungallant and mean.” On the other hand, he got some publicity out of it – something he could certainly use – and he was being himself: “He is not a practiced, sound-bitten political cyborg whose profile was molded in the plastic works of the D.C. beltway. Clinton gives off the aura of a pre-programmed cyborg. Spencer is the opposite. He’s a Yonkers guy - unpolished, combative and self-taught. If Yonkers had an official dog, it wouldn’t be a poodle. It would be a pit bull. Spencer can be refreshing, charming and funny. And he can be pit-bull nasty.”

The American Thinker, a Web site that describes itself as “devoted to the thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans,” insinuates there may be some truth to Spencer’s comments, judging from “Senator Clinton’s changing facial landscape over the years” but they were better left unsaid; “such mean-spirited comments on looks will do her no harm and him no good.”

Fred LeBrun of the Albany Times Union saw the story as benefiting Clinton, because it took the attention off of substantive issues like the still-failing upstate economy: “In 2006, the public and media buzz is whether she’s had a face-lift, and whether she’s going to run for president. From a U.S. senatorial re-election strategy, you couldn’t ask for a better scenario. It’s not exactly a free ride, but awfully close.”

Update:The coverage has not ceased. Elaborating on this idea of a free ride, Media Matters for America quotes Tucker Carlson on MSNBC arguing that the Daily News story “almost seems like a plant” by the Clinton campaign, because “that’s how she wins in every case, when people think she’s wronged” – and that she is the benefit of “a double standard” in which she implicitly says to voters “Treat me like a man” while her opponents get flattened for not treating her like a lady (Remember Rick Lazio?)

By Jonathan Mandell on October 24, 2006, 9:40 am
In category: Electoral Politics, Voting
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3 Responses to “Something’s Ugly In The Senate Race (And It Isn’t Hillary Clinton’s Face)”

  1. Bozly Says:
    October 24th, 2006 at 10:48 am

    The HYPOCRISY of such chatter along with the “Spencer Defenders” is appalling..The GOP is shameless these days and NOT what sane, thoughtful, respecful folks want to be associated with. The snarky comments regarding anothers physical looks is but a personal opinion and shows SHALLOW CHARACTER for sure but utter hypcrisy of declaring oneself of having “values” that encompass anything akin to being able to be percieved as having even a modicum of ability to be respectful and PROFESSIONAL leaves Spencer in the dustheapings of what was once considered a political party that did have values that were to be aspired to and embraced. Just as the fanatical christian elements have defamed Christianity by their determined fanaticalismaticals, the GOP party has slithered down another slippery slope and does NOT bode well for those of us who have been aligned with a grand ol’ party that we thought we knew and COULD respect and be respected for being so aligned. It is a truly tragic state of affairs these days (meant in too many ways…) and perhaps it is in the best interests of the GOP to have them take a time out and allow the Dems to become the majority. It will NOT put in enough “brake” points, but it could serve as a break and perhaps a chance to get back on a track that truly serves the greater common good of all. The present incarnation of what passes as the GOP political party needs a severe wake up call !!!

  2. Edward Picciuti Says:
    October 24th, 2006 at 3:43 pm

    Looks are important in politics and loife. That said, it is not anything to base your vote onunles your an idiot.

  3. Edward Picciuti Says:
    October 24th, 2006 at 3:46 pm

    Who would vote for a Senator, based on looks?
    That is the least important attribute a canadate posses.
    Please tell me he was just being nasty and is not that dumb.

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