Tonight’s televised debate between Republican Senate candidates John Spencer and K. T.McFarland was a down and dirty brawl. The only thing they didn’t do was pull each other’s hair out.

If you watched it, you saw Spencer repeatedly come close to a Captain Queeg moment, something that’s very familiar to anyone who has been on the receiving end of one of his paranoid rants. The tone got nasty. Tempers were barely contained and most of the time Spencer was on the defensive.

At one point, when McFarland demanded that Spencer not interupt her, Spencer replied, “Sure” and then gave his mirthless “Heh, Heh, Heh” laugh. If that wasn’t sinister enough, he also said at one point that he planned to pray for McFarland before he goes to bed tonight. Whoa, how’s that for the kiss of death?

That’s how entertaining it got.

McFarland jabbed at Spencer’s personal life. Over and over again, she brought up the affair he carried on with his current wife, Kathy Spring Spencer, and the two children they had while he was mayor of Yonkers and married to another woman. She attacked him for running up a budget defecit, padding the city payroll with relatives, and raising property taxes. She mentioned his gaffes, including his use of the expression “Chinaman’s chance,” which made headlines when he said it on my WVOX radio show “High Noon” last summer.

Spencer responded by saying that McFarland was not telling the truth. “Shame on you,” he said several times. In fact, he used variations of the word “lie” as well as “half-truths” and “innuendos” at least a dozen times during the one-hour New York 1 debate which aired state-wide and was picked up in Westchester by Cablevision’s Channel 12. The word “scurrilous” was another favorite pulled from the Spencer lexicon.

After giving a long list of allegations concerning Spencer’s financial stewardship, McFarland said, “To me that’s not a fiscal conservative. It talks a good game, but you don’t walk the walk.”

Spencer then said McFarland must get her information from The Journal News. She admitted to being a subscriber. To which Spencer said triumphantly, “There ya go! There’s the problem! Ladies and gentlemen, none of it’s true.”

Spencer mentioned The Journal News by name two other times, which must have driven Cablevision crazy since it appears they have a policy prohibiting the local Channel 12 news broadcasters from even hinting that the newspaper exists beyond the all-purpose phrase, “according to published reports.”

Spencer hates the paper. And during the debate, he inadvertantly raised its profile. Now they know us in Buffalo, thanks to Spencer. Sample: In answer to a McFarland charge, he said, “Again, what The Journal News did to me…”

What’s that clicking noise? Sounds like somebody rubbing ball bearings. And hey, who stole the strawberries?”

BEST MOMENT OF THE DEBATE:
It came when McFarland turned to Spencer ala Ann Richards-Lloyd Bentsen-Ronald Reagan and said, “John, the problem with you is that you’re just like the Clintons. You’ve taxed and spent like Hillary and you’ve behaved like Bill.”

It certainly seemed like a canned remark.

Spencer positively sneered. “As you can see, that was probably worked on for months by her staff, saying, ‘Let’s get that sound bite, you know. Let’s get that sound bite. Let’s get the headline.’ What nonsense.”

And what a mess the New York GOP is in.