Note To City: Coordinate Message!

You can either downplay the report (“‘We were aware of the plot and took the appropriate precautions,’ Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department’s chief spokesman, said . . .”) or claim that it proves once and for all that Homeland is too chintzy, but you can’t do both. That is, except when it behooves you to do one or the other:

The chilling al Qaeda plot to release deadly cyanide gas in city subways makes the federal government’s decision to slash anti-terror funding for the Big Apple all the more insane, two powerful New York pols charged yesterday.

House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-L.I.) said the newly detailed poisonous-gas scheme “makes it all the more ridiculous and dangerous and inexcusable” that Department of Homeland Security cut the city’s funding by 40 percent.

“Police Commissioner [Ray] Kelly laid out 17 attacks or attempted attacks against New York that we know about. DHS knows it, and this is absolutely disgraceful,” he said.

. . .

President Bush is likely to get an earful about the cuts when he visits the metropolitan area today.

King, who will be traveling with Bush aboard Air Force One, plans to quiz the president about the cutbacks.

And Mayor Bloomberg, who has strongly protested the cuts, will greet Bush when he lands in New York on his way to speak at the Merchant Marine Academy commencement in Kings Point, L.I. — and can be expected to join in the criticism.