It turns out that on the eve of the Battle of Iraq, Mayor Bloomberg was hosting a champagne reception at Gracie Mansion for a gaggle of appeasement oriented United Nations diplomats. At the moment of the United Nations’ greatest perfidy, our Benj. Smith reported yesterday, the mayor of New York City was declaring March 12 “United Nations in New York Day.” Now Governor Pataki has just fired from the board of the United Nations Development Corporation the man who called the mayor out for his misguided diplomacy by labeling the mayor “a little lap dog to the United Nations.”

Leo Kayser’s comments may not have been the most diplomatic ever heard from a director of the UNDC. But they did get at an important truth. Whereas Mayor Giuliani made a concerted effort to convey the message that the United Nations’ various thugs and dictators are unwelcome here, Mr. Bloomberg has been unnecessarily solicitous of these types. On top of breaking with Mr. Giuliani’s past policy and meeting the Red Chinese leader last year, the mayor has backed a deal under which the American treasury, instead of all U.N. dues payers, would secure a $1 billion loan for renovating the U.N. campus.

Mr. Kayser particularly has taken the mayor to task for breaking a deal set up by Mr. Giuliani to sell three buildings at United Nations Plaza. The mayor was acting at the behest of a U.N. Secretariat is can only be said is riddled with anti-Americanism. According to Mr. Kayser, the sale could have netted $57 million cash upfront for the city and few million a year afterward. Mr. Pataki had little to gain by pushing out Mr. Kayser, and he certainly owes no political debts to Mr. Bloomberg, who recently sided with the state Legislature in overriding the governor’s budget, raising taxes on both income and sales across the state and extra in the city.

Mr. Bloomberg defended his stance toward the United Nations yesterday by saying, “The diplomatic community is phenomenally important to this city.” He also said, “Having good relations with an industry that has a lot of people working here is part of government’s job, and we will continue doing that.” But this is nigh the only industry in which the mayor has shown interest. The bodega owners he has given the back of his hand. The bar and restaurant proprietors he couldn’t care less about. The Republican Party is in some state when a stalwart gets fired and goes out with a call for the Republicans to get back to “fiscal responsibility, low taxes, free markets, and limited government.”