BLOOMBERG SHOULD PULL A ROMNEY

Bloomberg's Chance To Take On Ahmadinejad (NYSun)
"Diplomats at the United Nations were sent into disarray yesterday when President Ahmadinejad of Iran declared that he intended to attend the General Assembly of the world body on September 19 and to debate his country's nuclear program with President Bush, who is due to address the Assembly that day," The New York Sun reports. Just as Governor Romney has refused to provide protection for Iran's President Khatemi, Mayor Bloomberg at a minimum could do the same for Ahmadinejad. And as today's New York Sun editorializes:

Mr. Romney put out a long and exceptionally thoughtful statement explaining his decision. By our lights Mr. Khatemi's visit is more like the calculated insult that was represented by the appearance of Yasser Arafat at a concert at Lincoln Center in 1995. Mayor Giuliani had, as U.S. attorney in New York, been involved in investigating crimes in which Arafat had been implicated. He understood how inappropriate it was for Arafat to be at Lincoln Center and had the PLO chief ejected. At the time, the State Department in Washington and the goody-goody-two-shoes were in a terrible swivet.

At a minimum Mayor Bloomberg could instruct city hotels and restaurants not to serve the Iranian leader, and he could lead a pro-Iranian freedom rally outside U.N. headquarters while Ahmadinejad is inside. Sending a message that while New York may have to host tyrants as part of hosting the U.N., it's not something we're proud of.