NYC- Former President Bill Clinton wasn’t about to let just anybody attack his wife – especially a gay Republican operative.

Clinton fired back yesterday, suggesting that political consultant Arthur Finkelstein, who has launched a “Stop Her Now” campaign, is suffering from “self-loathing.”

Finkelstein married his male partner in a civil ceremony in Massachusetts in December, with a few of his conservative clients at the nuptial.

“… He went to Massachusetts and married his longtime male partner and then he comes back here and announces this,” Clinton said at a Harlem news conference.

“I thought, one of two things. Either this guy believes his party is not serious, and is totally Machiavellian in his position, or there’s some sort of self-loathing there. I was more sad for him.”

His decision to bring up Finkelstein’s sexuality hearkened back to a similar remark made by John Kerry in an Oct. 13, 2004, presidential debate.

In responding to a question whether homosexuality was a matter of choice, Kerry said, “I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as.”

Finkelstein did not return calls for comment.

Republicans believe that if Hillary Clinton can be defeated in her Senate reelection efforts in 2006, it would kill her chances of running for the presidency in 2008.

Her husband appeared in Harlem to announce a $10 million initiative aimed at eradicating HIV/AIDS among children in Africa.