Great News: Bloomberg to Add Opinion to His Media Empire: His Opinion, Of Course

Nah, no conflict of interest here.

The mayor's mega-company, Bloomberg L.P., announced it is adding opinion pages to its media platforms, and the opinions will be the mayor's.

Conflict of interest? You betcha -- for anybody else. But with a billionaire at City Hall, the rules never seem to apply.

Remember term limits? Or that deputy mayor who moonlights as head of Mike's charity programs?

Or that the mayor pays some city employees extra to work for him personally? Or that employees shuttle among his company, his charity and City Hall? Or that city employees get fat bonuses for working on his campaigns? Or that so-called good-government groups suck up his contributions while supporting his policies?

Beyond rubber-stamping their approval of his every move, the lackeys at the city Conflicts of Interest Board seem to assume that Bloomberg is above the rules because conflicts must be about making money. His unprecedented mingling involves spending money, ergo, he has no conflicts.

That's a dated and narrow definition of "interests." His interest is public power and he uses his personal wealth to buy it.

Consider the timing of his firm's move into national and international opinion. It just happens to come as he gears up for another potential presidential run.

But as he reminds us hourly, he's not running.

Sure.