Newsday- SPINCYCLE

Monday August 21, 2006

From Newsday's Spincycle:

SPINCYCLE: Newsday's guide to politics and politicians

 

Symbiosis defined: "The living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms."

Political symbiosis defined: Liberal Democrat Hillary Clinton and conservative Republican Peter King attending the same events, supporting the same causes, laughing at the same jokes - and defending Clinton from Republican attacks. ...

The media waited until Clinton emerged Wednesday from a 9/11-related event in SoHo where she'd appeared with King - one of many initiatives the two have worked on together.

King and Clinton had a brief and apparently intense conversation before they faced the cameras.

Clinton said the ad by Republican candidate John Spencer attempting to slam her as an Osama bin Laden ally was "a terrible injustice." The press could not resist asking the Republican, King, for his response. He did not criticize Spencer, but said of Clinton: "I would never question her integrity or her absolute commitment to winning the war on terrorism."

Was King suckered into the political flap? No way, he said in an interview the following day.

That intense conversation before facing the press was Clinton warning him, "It could get a little tough out there," and giving him an out, he said.

- WILLIAM MURPHY