Metro

I’m nuts for you, too, Chris

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton (Reuters)

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He’s no two-timer.

Mayor Bloomberg went out of his way yesterday to demonstrate he’s still politically enamored with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, despite a momentary politcal flirtation with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Without explicitly denying that he tried to enlist Clinton to run for mayor, Bloomberg heaped praise on Quinn as his partner in government and someone who’s played a major role in many of his own successes.

Quinn is leading the Democratic mayoral pack in early polls for 2013, and had been widely assumed to be the one most likely to win the mayor’s endorsement.

“This administration, I think, has been phenomenally successful,” Bloomberg said during the groundbreaking ceremony for Hudson Yards, where he was joined by Quinn. “I take great pride in it. It would not have happened without Chris Quinn being the speaker of the City Council for the last eight years.”

A question about why he chatted up Clinton several months ago about possibly entering the race for City Hall was deflected by the mayor with a question of his own.

“Did you hear me say that?” he challenged the reporter who posed the query.

The mayor then tried to make a joke of the whole thing.

“Look, I’ve run for mayor three times,” said Bloomberg, as Quinn stood by his side. “I considered a fourth. Chris and I talked about it, encouraging me to do it. But I said, no, that’s enough.”

To make certain everyone understood that the mayor was joking, Quinn squished her face and moved a finger in a circular motion around the side of her head to make it clear she thought the idea was crazy.