We’re thrilled that New York will host the Republican National Convention in 2004 — not just because it’s good for the city’s economy, but because of the hope that some of the national party’s politically competitive, tax-cutting spirit will rub off on Mayor Bloomberg. Mr. Bloomberg’s current political personality was on full display when he hosted most of the overwhelmingly Democratic City Council for a brisket dinner at Gracie Mansion Monday night. As our Benj. Smith reports at page 1 of today’s New York Sun, the mayor chose the occasion to praise the courage of those who voted for his 18.5% property tax increase — implying something less than courage of those few who dissented. Two Republicans who voted against the tax increase walked out of the dinner, to their credit, when the mayor pledged political support for the council Democrats who supported his tax increase.

The mayor may feel that it is necessary to go out of his way to show that he is a Republican in name only in a city as heavily Democratic as New York. But doing so is hardly playing a gracious host, either to his party colleagues in the City Council or to the national leaders who will descend on the city next year. One hopes the mayor will learn some manners between now and then. Or start exhibiting some interest in rebuilding the Republican Party in this city, a process that is difficult to do while the party’s leader is backing tax-raising Democratic incumbents running for reelection to the city council. For now, we’re all left with the bad taste of the Bloomberg tax hike, Republicans and Democrats alike. This use of Gracie Mansion — as a venue to serve city-sponsored brisket and brownies to the Democrats who backed his tax increase — gives new meaning to the phrase feeding at the public trough. It only confirms our longstanding view that before the mayor raised taxes on the city’s property owners, he would have done well to cut the city’s expenses and add another private property to the city’s tax rolls by selling off the mayoral mansion.