Daily News from New York, New York • 4

Changing of the Guard Didn't mean to undermine legality of Bush presidency AS' VV 1 Hit: A I 'ZJi v-' By HELEN KENNEDY DAILY NtWS WASHINGfON BUREAU WASHINGTON President Clinton tried yesterday to take the sting out of sarcastic comments he made about George W. Bush's election, saying he was just kidding around and wasn't trying to undermine his successor. "It's not the first time or probably the last time the Supreme Court will make a decision with which I do not agree, but I did not call into question his legitimacy," Clinton told reporters in the White House Rose Garden. "I intended to have no impact on that." Republicans have been in a snit since Tuesday, when Clinton lavished praise on Al Gore's campaign manager, Bill Daley, at a raucous party in Daley's honor in Chicago. "By the time it was over, our candidate had won the popular vote, and the only way they could win the election was to stop the voting in Florida," Clinton said to roars from the partisan crowd.

The comment didn't sit well with the Bush camp, and on Thursday the President-elect shot back. "He can say what he wants to say, but January the 20th I'll be honored to be sworn in as the President," Bush said. Though Clinton made it clear yesterday he believes Bush won on a suspect technicality, he tried to gloss over his remarks. "I was having a good, old-fashioned little bit of fun with Bill Daley and his brother and his friends," Clinton said. "It was all in good fun and everybody laughed about it, and most everybody agreed with what I said, because it was all a bunch of Democrats." Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, members of the U.S.

Commission on Civil Rights accused Secretary of State Katherine Harris of presiding over a disaster and trying to blame others as the panel concluded a two-day hearing on alleged voting irregularities yesterday. "It was a disaster for your state as well as for the rest of the country and the way people feel about having faith in the system of this country," said panel member Victoria Wilson. Among the witnesses was the Madison County elections chief, Linda Howell, who testified that the state mistakenly listed her as a convicted felon. Harris, a Republican, deferred most questions to Florida's elections director, Clay Roberts, saying she had delegated him to run the day-to-day operations of her department's elections division. Even though many Democrats question the legitimacy of Bush's election.

Bush aides said his inauguration speech will not be affected by the Florida electoral debacle. "It's the type of speech the Presidentelect was going to give no matter what the margin in this election," said spokesman Ari Fleischer. "It's going to be a speech generally about bringing the nation together, a unity speech." Bush planned to rehearse his delivery this weekend at his ranch in Texas, after working with his staff on the wording during two drafting sessions this week in Washington. "I heard him say he would have given the same speech whether Florida happened or not. This is him to reach out to people, to unite, to appeal to common values," said communications director Karen Hughes.

1 Newt tMra Services -1" 3 AP f.j Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris is questioned in Tallahassee about state election mess by U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. -4 Frez trading Oval Office i i Skin cancer test for Clinton for aini6i Hail in THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Doctors told President Clinton yesterday they found a small, possibly cancerous, lesion on his back but said it could be treated on an outpatient basis and was not a threat to his health. After Clinton's final presidential physical examination, doctors at the Bethesda Naval Hospital also reported that his cholesterol count was up, though his weight was the same as it was at his last physical, in 1999. Dermatologists said they found a small, flat, suspicious lesion on Clinton's back.

"He's had sun damage spots before, but this is the first time he's had spots suspicious for skin cancer," said Dr. David Corbett, retired chairman of the hospital's dermatology department. Doctors said the spot was "very suspicious" for basal cell skin cancer, so it was biopsied. The test results will be released next week. 1 1 "Basal cell carcinoma is the mosl i common type of skin cancer," Corbetf said.

"It's a little locally growing type of skin cancer, not a threat to his health or anything. It's a very small spot." Aside from the lesion and his high cholesterol, the outgoing President is in good health and ready to resume life as a regular citizen, the doctors said. "He's been undergoing a lot of busy activity and traveling, so he was, I don't think, in the top shape he wanted to be in," said Rear Adm. Connie Mariano, the White House's senior physician. Clinton, on his way back to the White House, admitted that his eating and exercise habits were part of the problem.

"My cholesterol is a little too high 56-" cause I haven't exercised and I ate all that Christmas dessert," he said. By LEO STANDORA DAILY NtWS SIAf WRITER President Clinton is on the verge of signing a lease for a suite of offices in Carnegie Hall Tower on 57th St. slightly to the right of the Russian Tea Room sources said yesterday. Clinton, whose lease on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington will run out next week, will take over a full floor near the top of the 60-story high-rise, real estate insiders said.

The digs will put Clinton within easy access of Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Cirand Central Terminal his favorite spot in New York and any number of McDonald's restaurants. Neither the White House nor Rockrose Development, which handles Carnegie Hall Tower, had any immediate comment. Sources said the deal is close to clinched and it will cost taxpayers dear- iy- At $85 to $90 a square foot, the estimated annual rent on the suite would be an eye-popping $650,000. But broker Gordon Ogden, who has been showing space to Clinton's people, said that's only part of it. "Not included would be the cost of buildout what it takes to fix up an office," he said.

That tab could run as high as $200 a square foot. Sources said the 56th-floor suite previously housed the offices of Tina Brown's Talk magazine. Because the Carnegie Tower offices are relatively small near the top, Clinton was able to taken an entire floor. This would allow the Secret Service to control elevator access to the suite..