Tom Bernstein

Governor Pataki, the last defender of the ground zero Freedom Center, pulled the plug today, citing "controversy."

On the political front, this frees Jeanine Pirro and Ed Cox from their uncomfortable position to the left of Hillary Clinton. She had freely denounced it while they, bound to Pataki, held back.

More broadly, though, as Matt Schuerman got at in his piece on the subject in today's Observer, this is about the collapse of the center. There used to be uncontroversial ideas -- freedom, say -- and people -- call them moderate Republicans -- who embraced them. Tom Bernstein seems to be the last of that species. And Pataki is left sounding a bit plaintive:

"I strongly believe in this nation's core principle of freedom..."  read more »

It started as an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, but a campaign by some 9/11 families to push the International Freedom Center off Ground Zero has gained such momentum that the museum is now pushing back. In the type of letter meant to head off official recriminations, center co-founder Tom Bernstein, of Chelsea Piers fame, and board member Paula Berry, whose husband died in the attacks, promise to include stories about the victims into the museum's "Freedom Walk."

The Daily News editorial board was convinced, and it now joins The New York Times and Newsday in backing the museum.

The Post, of course, is holding out.

It seems the connection between the Trade Center attacks and freedom is something we need explained to us again and again, because it doesn't come naturally to us. Mr. Bernstein, in an interview with the Observer in May, said of 9/11 and the subsequent Bush administration's actions, "Some people think that it was an attack on freedom. Other people think that because of the attack, their freedom was challenged." Today, he told The Real Estate, "I think that 9/11 was an attack on freedom. Freedom is the antidote to terror and to tyranny and it always has been and it always will be."  read more »

We are still having a hard time seeing how Sept. 11 victims fit in among freedom fighters like Moses and Nelson Mandela. Wasn't part of the atrocity the fact that we were just going about our daily business? The museum's exhibit is meant to make those connections clearer—-if the governor doesn't stop it first.

--Matthew Schuerman

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