Have We Really Gotten To The Point Where A Second-Tier Mayoral Candidate Can’t Make An Inappropriate Tiananmen Square Comparison Without Folks Getting All Worked Up About It?

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I’m kind of enjoying Howard Wolfson taking mayoral hopefuls to task on their OWS grandstanding:

Stringer said “any time a police force comes into a park in the middle of the night and arrests 200 civilians is definitely a cause of concern,” adding that he was troubled by allegations of violence against protesters and the treatment of reporters, who were forcibly penned blocks from the park and subject to arrest.

“Zuccotti Park is not Tiananmen Square,” had said.

But Wolfson said that comparisons to Tiananmen and Iraq were uncalled for.

“That is an insult to the men and women of the NYPD who carried this out professionally,” he said.

“That kind of rhetoric is so overblown and so outrageous and so indicative of people who are not squaring up with the facts,” said Wolfson, claiming that these officials had failed to address the central question — whether tents at tarps should be allowed.

“The central issue before this mayor, at this time, was whether or not tenting and tarping and camping can continue at Zuccotti Park.

“And not a single statement by any of the mayoral aspirants addressed that issue,” he said. “They all ducked the central issue before this mayor and this city yesterday.”

Wolfson called on all of the mayoral candidates to come forward with their positions on whether the Occupy Wall Street encampment should have been allowed to remain.

“Anyone running for mayor ought to have a position on this issue,” he said, adding that those who supported the tents, “should have been willing to say that. That’s what it means to step up and run for mayor.”

Stringer shot back on Twitter Wednesday evening, tweeting Wolfson, “kudos on ur #OWS work, but ur not in a position 2 tell reporters what 2 ask after keeping them away from Zuccotti & arresting them.”

My hope is that in some magical alternate reality, all borough presidents will be forced to communicate only in short bursts of no more than 140 characters. And it will feel so good to finally unfollow.