Metro

Eliot’s lame ‘duck’ on affair rumor: Spitzer refuses to say if he has a lover

STUMPING: Eliot Spitzer greets a commuter yesterday in Brooklyn, but the married pol wasn’t talking about his love life. (
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Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer still finds it hard to say “No.”

The married candidate for city comptroller was asked three times yesterday about persistent rumors that he’s having an extramarital affair — but he refused to put the rumblings to bed.

“Some people are pushing a negative story about an extramarital affair you might be having,” a reporter said point-blank to Spitzer.

“I am so tired of the personal attacks, and I’ve answered all those questions,” Spitzer replied outside the Borough Hall subway station in Brooklyn, where he shook hands with potential voters for a half-hour.

“The public cares about what I did in government,” he added. “That’s what I’m going to be talking about, and that’s what the public is going to be voting on.”

The Post reported in May that Spitzer and his wife, Silda, were living apart — although his spokeswoman insisted he was simply spending more time with his ailing parents 20 blocks away. She also insisted that the disgraced ex-governor and his wife — who has yet to make an appearance at a single campaign event — were “still a couple.”

Last week, The Post reported that Silda, 55, is quietly biding her time until the election, after which she plans to formally split from her scandal-scarred hubby. He stepped down as governor in 2008 after getting caught up in a high-priced-hooker sting.

Spitzer, 54, has refused to address the possibility of a divorce and yesterday reiterated that voters don’t care about his personal life.

“We’ve said everything we can say about that, and these are attacks that are coming out of left field and frankly . . . the public cares about what the public should care about,” he said. “The public frankly is a lot smarter in this regard than some folks in the media.”

An aide tried to end the impromptu press conference, but Spitzer took one more question and a reporter gave him a chance to “reject” the rumors.

“I have said everything we’re going to say about this,” Spitzer concluded.

Asked about the evasions, a political pundit told The Post that they’d be impossible to maintain for long — especially given Spitzer’s close comptroller primary race against Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

“Once you’ve been caught in any sort of major infidelities — whether it’s hookers or d–k pics — every question is fair game. And if you can’t answer the question, you’re basically confirming the worst,” said the Democratic operative. “For Spitzer, it’s an even bigger problem, though, because he started his campaign with the lie that every thing was all hunky-dory between him and Silda,” he added.

“That means he can’t answer what would otherwise be a fairly straightforward question about an acceptable [dating] situation.”

Spitzer found some support yesterday.

“He’s for the poor people,” said Veronica Holsford, 62, of Crown Heights.