Pat Dollard

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NY Daily:

The mayor slammed reports that Govs. Cuomo and Chris Christie were angling for larger roles at the Ground Zero ceremony.

“We’re trying to keep focus on families, and that’s where it belongs,” Bloomberg said. “This day is not above any of us, it’s about the families of 3,000-odd people who lost their lives 10 years ago.”

“When it comes to 9/11,” Hizzoner added, “I don’t think the public is interested in some of these probably made-up stories about political squabbling that really take away from the solemnity of the occasion.”

Ceremony organizers – who are now inviting first-responders to watch from a nearby park – have been overwhelmed with requests to attend the 10th anniversary commemoration.

President Obama will be the first sitting President to attend the ceremony, but the number of other politicians allowed to attend will be restricted.

Only members of Congress from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will be permitted – and Bloomberg said the city had to turn down several foreign dignitaries.

Bloomberg denied that either Cuomo or Christie asked for a larger role, but admitted that Christie’s staff asked that Donald DiFrancesco – the occupant of the Trenton statehouse on Sept. 11, 2001 – be allowed to participate.

The city agreed, though officials said DiFrancesco had never before asked to be involved.

The politicians that attend will not be giving speeches and will instead only recite selected poems and readings.

“Are we stupid?” quipped a source close to Cuomo. “We’re going to give a speech in the middle of a reading? That’s just what we want to do, piss off 3,000 families.”

Because of space limitations, first responders who toiled at Ground Zero will not be able to participate in the ceremony – but they will be invited to watch the remembrance on video screens installed at nearby Zuccotti Park, Bloomberg said yesterday.

“It’s a little bit better,” said David Jacobs, a volunteer who worked for weeks at Ground Zero. “If it wasn’t for the first responders, the Pit never would have been cleaned out or remains found.”