Ten months from now he's supposed to preside over the re-nomination of President Bush at the Republican National Convention in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden.
But that didn't stop "Republican" New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg from playing sidekick to notorious Bush-basher Martin Sheen for the city's celebrated Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center last night.
Sheen, a notorious critic of Bush's war policy in Iraq, was supposedly on hand to help turn the ceremony into a what he described as a tribute to "all our servicemen stationed in faraway places."
But the star of NBC's "West Wing" has marched and spoken at several peace demonstrations over the last year, protests that critics say had distinct anti-American undertones. Worse still, in past speeches Sheen has personally attacked the president "a white-knuckle drunk" and "a moron."
A month before the war started, the Hollywood Bush critic appeared in an anti-war TV ad where he urged viewers to participate in a "virtual march on Washington ... by calling, faxing and e-mailing the U.S. Senate and the White House."
Bloomberg's kibitzing with Sheen follows his very public squabbling with Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay, where the mayor urged New Yorkers not to support charities backed by Delay.
He also helped scuttle the Texas Republican's plan to host GOP convention-goers on a cruise ship docked on the Hudson.
In 2001, retiring Mayor Rudy Giuliani set a different tone, hosting first lady Laura Bush for the tree-lighting ceremony.
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