Hillary Clinton turns 60, counting big bash cash

Hillary Clinton's 60th birthday party hauls $1.5 million for presidential campaign. Singer Elvis Costello, entertaining: "I always throught it was impolite to talk about a lady's age.'' Photo by Newsday.

by Glenn Thrush

The key numbers from Hillary Rodham Clinton's birthday extravaganza Thursday night were 60 -- her age -- and $1.5 million, the approximate amount of cash she raked in thanks to Elvis Costello and Billy Crystal.

The Clintons have always blurred the lines between personal, political and financial, and Thursday night's party at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre, with 3,000 paying guests, was perhaps the crowning example.

"Happy Birthday, Mrs. President," crooned Costello, echoing Marilyn Monroe's serenade of President Kennedy.

Clinton, standing under three giant pictures of herself, took the stage with a dig at Rudy Giuliani, the Yankees fan who said last week that he's rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series.

"I have been a fan -- and I remain a fan -- of the Yankees, no changes, no looking to curry favor with anybody else," said Clinton, turning the tables on the mayor, who has derided her loyalty to the team as political pandering.

Crystal made repeated references to Giuliani's baseball flip-flop, saying it was like Ann Coulter declaring she's kosher.

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Bill Clinton, standing next to his daughter, Chelsea, introduced his wife by recalling their meeting at Yale Law School 37 years ago. "She was just 23 when we met -- the poor child didn't know any better," he joked.

The campaign's birthday celebration offered Clinton an opportunity to reach out to older women, a group that's proven surprisingly Hillary-phobic.

"Women over 60 are going to be a tough sell for her," said Hunter College politics professor Andrew Polsky. "This is a generation of women who came of age before the era of feminism, and a higher percentage of them spent their lives as housewives who didn't have a career. To them, she's had an untraditional life and an untraditional career and that makes them uncomfortable with her."

A July New York Times survey found that her popularity decreased as women grew older. Nearly half of women over 64 had a negative view of Clinton, compared with about a quarter of women under 45.

Clinton seemed genuinely moved by her husband's introduction and choked up when acknowledging her 88-year-old mother in the front row.

The birthday also was also a serious cash generator, raising around $1.5 million, a campaign source said. The event was followed by a second, more exclusive gathering at the Russian Tea Room, where the Clintons greeted about 100 friends and top donors.

"I always thought it was impolite to talk about a lady's age," said Costello. At the end of his set, he serenaded the senator, who has backed off her 2003 vote to authorize the Iraq invasion, with his 1970s hit "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding?"