Mountain of Judgment

NEW YORK - The two Republicans vying to challenge Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton this fall tore into each other Wednesday in a debate dominated by angry accusations of personal and professional misconduct and abject dishonesty...

While married to another woman, Spencer fathered two children with his then-chief of staff and substantially raised her salary. He eventually divorced his first wife and married his chief of staff...

"That's something that, in 1998, the Republican Party impeached President Clinton for exactly the same behavior," McFarland said to gasps from the audience. "If you'd been in the military, you would have been court-martialed. If you worked in the federal government, you would have been subject to indictment."

Spencer angrily shot back, saying McFarland had unfairly insulted his children and lied about his record...

So much time was spent discussing Spencer's private life that Carter finally turned the tables, asking McFarland whether disclosures about her own messy past — she accused her father in 1992 of sexually abusing her as a child — were relevant to her fitness to serve.

"That was 50 years ago. I've addressed it. I have nothing further to add," McFarland said...

When asked to pose questions to each other, McFarland cited instances when Spencer had threatened to kill Gov. George Pataki and had used ethnic slurs against Italians and Chinese.

"Is this how you plan to conduct yourself?" McFarland asked.

Spencer said he'd apologized for using crude language and for making jokes that fell flat.

"I'm human," he said.