Bloomberg not expecting help from Bush during mayoral election

Pro-gay New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said he'll be too busy to attend President Bush's inauguration this month, but he is also not expecting any assistance from Bush as his own campaign for reelection gets under way. Bloomberg, a Republican, said he enjoys a cordial relationship with the White House and Bush, whom he lobbies for federal aid for New York. In fact, he called the president "a very charming guy." But he also said his politics remain different from those of the current Republican establishment. "I'm very much pro-choice, I'm pro-gay rights, I've been in favor of gun control, I'm against the death penalty," he said in Monday editions of The New York Times. "And those are things that conservative Republicans aren't" Bloomberg appeared at a Times-sponsored forum at the City University of New York Graduate Center and spoke about a few platforms of his reelection campaign, which included strengthening the school system, redeveloping Manhattan's West Side, and continuing to reduce citywide crime.