Senator Clinton provoked chortles in Colorado this weekend when she likened President Bush to the gap-toothed cartoon icon Alfred E. Neuman, best known for gracing the covers of Mad magazine for the last 50 years. In New York, however, Mrs. Clinton’s Republican and Conservative opponents weren’t laughing.

Yesterday, they pounced on the senator’s remarks, describing them as “divisive,” “childish,” and evidence that Mrs. Clinton cares little about New York State and is single-mindedly pursuing the presidency in 2008.

“Hillary Clinton routinely attempts to portray herself as a moderate, but statements like this prove that she is one of the most divisive, partisan figures in American politics today,” said Kieran Mahoney, a spokesman for one of Mrs. Clinton’s possible GOP opponents in the 2006 Senate race, Westchester district attorney Jeanine Pirro.

According to the Associated Press, Mrs. Clinton – in Colorado under the auspices of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank – said on Sunday, “I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington.” The basis of Mrs. Clinton’s comparison, the AP reported, was Neuman’s “What, me worry?” slogan, which the senator said described Washington’s approach to difficult issues.

Mrs. Clinton has linked Mr. Bush to “Neuman” in the past, but her comments in Colorado seemed to provoke particular ire, as New York Republicans unleashed their outrage upon the senator and accused her of jeopardizing her constituents with juvenile behavior.

Thomas Basile, a spokesman for another of Mrs. Clinton’s possible GOP opponents in 2006, Edward Cox, told The New York Sun: “It’s certainly not in the best interests of New York to have its senator, who should be fighting for homeland security funding, who should be fighting to upgrade our infrastructure, to be engaging in childish namecalling with the members of the Republican leadership and the president of the United States.”

The chairman of the state Republican Party, Stephen Minarik, predicted that Mrs. Clinton’s insult would actually diminish the stream of benefits from Washington to New York. “Mrs.Clinton’s out of power in Washington,” he said. “She’s supposed to be working with people across the aisle.”

The senator’s attacks on the president, Mr. Minarik added, should be taken as evidence that the senator is interested only in pursuing the White House in 2008.

“She’s spending more time in Aspen, and paying attention to people in Iowa and New Hampshire, than going to bat for New Yorkers,” he told the Sun.

Saying that Mrs.Clinton’s swipe at the president fell within the Howard Dean tradition of shrill political sound bites, Mr. Basile said Democrats “lack ideas,so they resort to this acerbic rhetoric to motivate their base.”

The chairman of the New York State Conservative Party, Michael Long, said he saw a greater danger in Mrs. Clinton’s antics.

“We are at war with terrorists,” Mr. Long said, noting that Mrs. Clinton’s jibe came a mere four days after the subway bombings in London that killed at least 50 Britons. “And here we have a carpetbagger United States senator with remarks like this. It displays to the enemy that America is torn apart, when it’s really not.”

Mr. Long said that Mrs. Clinton’s abuse of the president was, moreover, vindication of Mr. Bush’s adviser, Karl Rove, whose comments about Democrats’ tepid response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – delivered at a Conservative Party dinner in Manhat tan last month – incited a furious response from Democrats nationwide.

“I think this proves that Karl Rove was right on target,” Mr. Long said. “That’s what he was talking about that night. It shows you the liberal mindset these people have, and the carelessness they show when dealing with American security.”

Yet if Mrs. Clinton’s likening of the president to a cartoonish magazine icon was met with rather fierce rejection from the right, it was at least greeted with aesthetic appreciation among the cartooning cognoscenti.

A longtime scholar and editor of cartoon anthologies, and the author of an online encyclopedia of cartoon characters, toonpedia.com, Don Markstein, said he found Mrs. Clinton’s comparison apt, at least on a physiognomic level.

“He looks just like him,” Mr. Markstein said, comparing Mr. Bush to Alfred E. Neuman. “The ears, the stupid grin.”

In Rochester yesterday, Mrs. Clinton was asked if some people might be offended by the comparison. “That is for people to decide, but I think if you look at the facts, the real concerns of the American public are not being addressed,” she said, according to the AP. Asked if Mr. Bush had a “what-me-worry?” attitude, she said, “I think Washington does.” A Democratic political consultant who represents the New York State Democratic Committee, Howard Wolfson, agreed.

“It’s unfortunate that New York Republicans have become apologists for the Bush administration’s record budget deficits and failure to adequately fund homeland security – policies that are wrong for New York and wrong for the nation.”

In any case, Mrs.Clinton is not the first to elevate Neuman to the presidential level. Since 1956, the year after his debut in Mad magazine, the publication has frequently portrayed him as a presidential candidate, running on the slogan: “You could do worse, and always have!”