The New York Daily News reports that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his aide’s response to former governor Sarah Palin weighing in on the proposed Ground Zero mosque:

Andrea Batista Schlesinger, a former head of the left-leaning Drum Major Institute who is now a policy aide to Bloomberg, fired back on her Twitter page. “Mind your business,” Schlesinger wrote, followed a moment later with, “Whose hearts? Racist hearts?” She later deleted the tweets, saying she regretted her “curt response,” but stuck up for the proposed Islamic cultural center — just like her boss. Bloomberg said he didn’t agree with Batista Schlesinger that Palin was baiting racists, “But I certainly agree that freedom of speech is just as important as freedom of religion,” he added.

When Mayor Bloomberg is right, he’s right.

Last night, on Fox 5 TV in New York City, retired FDNY firefighter and 9/11 survivor Tim Brown of theBravest.com and 64th District Leader Paul Newell discussed the Cordoba House * mosque:

In case you did not fully catch Paul Newell’s filibuster, he asked, “You are calling Imam Rauf a Muslim terrorist?”

Tim Brown replied, “I did not.”

Mr. Brown added:

“Today, we tied Imam Rauf to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Society of North America … the ISNA is an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial.”

Yet instead of taking Mayor Bloomberg’s sage advice to allow freedom of speech, Mr. Newell tried to drown Mr. Brown out with Islamophobe-baiting. You would think Mr. Newell would be at least curious about how Rauf is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and the ISNA.

Are you curious?

If so, stay tuned for the answer.

——

* Note — While it has been announced the proposed Cordoba House mosque and Islamic Cultural Center has changed its name to ’51 Park Place’, they have yet to figure out what to rename the 7-year old Cordoba Initiative.