During an interview on “Good Morning America” today, Mayor Bloomberg continued to defend the Park51 project, specifically, and First Amendment rights in general – even for sentiments with which he disagrees, like a Florida pastor’s plan to burn a copy of the Quran to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11.

But he was very careful not to take a personal position on the mosque/Islamic center proposed near Ground Zero.

“What is clear is that government should never get involved in restricting what you can say, which includes who you can pray to or where you can pray,” the mayor said.

“And that’s the issue. This is a First Amendment issue. And I think a lot of this is rhetoric in a campaign, and it’s a disgrace. This is not a campaign issue.”

“…I’m the government, and I should not express my own views as to whether it should be or should not be built here.”

It’s interesting to see the mayor, who has launched an impassioned and intensely personal defense of the mosque, making this distinction.

He also played down reports that his position on this project is rooted in part in discrimination his Jewish parents experienced when they purchased a house through their Christian attorney in the Boston suburb where he grew up, saying he was just four years old at the time and doesn’t remember it.

“…It’s probably hard to find anybody in this country that if you go back in time they or their ancestors didn’t come from a group that was discriminated against,” the mayor said.

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