Speaking of Mayor Bloomberg’s dubious activities, Hizzoner apologized last weekend for admonishing a blogger who accidentally played his tape recorder aloud during a Thursday press conference on gay marriage. A fair scolding, right?

Sure, but one big problem: that blogger is disabled Michael Harris. Even after Council Speaker Christine Quinn not-so-quietly pointed out to the mayor that Harris was in a wheelchair, Bloomberg, completely void of any human compassion, stared at Harris and said, “It’s a little too important for playing music. Let me start again, because this is just too important to get disruptive, and maybe we should just take everything outside.”

Word of the day: awkward!

Also keep in mind that blind Gov. David Paterson is standing right behind the mayor. By law, anything involving Paterson must be awkward.

Harris eventually silenced his recorder after a minute-long pause. But in the coming days, he demanded an apology from Bloomberg, labeling his actions as “obnoxious” and “out of line.” Even potential mayoral election opponent Rep. Anthony Weiner called Harris and offered support. But the lovable mayor didn’t relent:

“I don’t think we need the distraction. And we’re going to stop and wait until somebody finds what their tape recorder is, or whatever’s playing, and fix it. And it has nothing to do with anything else other than that. And if it was you, I’d stop the same thing. You have a responsibility to make sure you don’t disrupt other people.”

Gee, thanks Mike. Bloomberg did eventually issue an apology to Harris, who called the truce “sufficient.”

The mishap probably won’t hurt Bloomberg’s mayoral campaign too much, especially considering that everybody and their mother are volunteering for Mike 2009. But scolding a man in a wheelchair (and defending it) doesn’t really help ease the pretentious-rich-dictator criticism.

And don’t count on the disabled vote either.

Photo: Flickr courtesy of CarbonNYC