Some would say it's about decorum. His.

I say it's plain political hypocrisy and homophobia.

The man who claims to be a mayor for all New Yorkers says he will march in the St. Patrick's Day parade again this year.

Parade organizers have long banned gays and lesbians from marching under their own banner, a policy that a federal judge upheld on the grounds of religious freedom 10 years ago.

Bloomberg excuses his insult to all New Yorkers by insisting that it's not up to him to tell parade organizers who they can exclude.

"If I were running a parade, I'd run it differently," he said. "But you know, [if] you're invited to somebody's house, you don't walk in and tell them how to decorate, or what to serve or what the conversations should be."

City Councilwoman Chis Quinn didn't let this one go by:

"I actually find the mayor comparing discrimination and gay civil rights to upholstery, curtains and other decorations offensive," she said. "That's bizarre."

Begging your pardon, Mayor sir, but last October you very dramatically boycotted another celebration of ethnic pride on grounds which you refuse to apply to this one. Columbus Day parade organizers vetoed your marching with two cast members of "The Sopranos," complaining that the hit HBO show negatively portrays Italian-American life, so you treated the stars to lunch elsewhere while the parade was in progress. On the day before the big event you marched in a different Columbus Day Parade in the Bronx, boasting,

"It's great to be in the Bronx and it's great to be at a parade where you can march with all your friends," Bloomberg said as he walked with local officials.

It's obvious that you do not consider the New York area's two million queers to be your friends, and it's absolutely clear that they mean nothing compared to two millionaire television stars.

Hoping to offend only those who should be offended, I finish with a rhetorical question. The Mayor agrees with the atavistic professional Irish in New York who own the Parade, and one federal judge, that their precious rally is first and foremost a service of a religion whose cult members are forced to represent themselves as heterosexual. If their St. Patrick's Day Parade is about the Catholic Church and exclusivley-procreative sex, why are they bellowing and guzzling and pissing in our streets instead of praying in church or fucking and making babies?

Ok, one more rant. None of the devotees seems to have had any problem with a still-married Mayor Giuliani participating in their rites three years ago by prominently marching with his mistress, Judith Nathan.