Paladino vows to fight mosque near Ground Zero

Flanked by construction workers in hard hats, with Ground Zero as a backdrop, Carl Paladino vowed to use "whatever legal powers" available to a governor to stop an Islamic center from being built nearby, but backed off an earlier pledge to halt the project with eminent domain.

Later last night at the Smithtown Elks Lodge, the Republican gubernatorial nominee held another of a series of "Mad as Hell" rallies he plans to stage across the state. Paladino also visited Staten Island, hitting key constituencies in conservative areas of New York City and its suburbs as the election campaign enters its final days.

As commuters streamed by at Ground Zero, Paladino called the Cordoba House at Park 51 project - a proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center by nearby City Hall Park - "an affront, a symbol of conquest, a symbol of triumph over the American people."

Paladino then donned a red, white and blue construction hat and signed a sheet in a binder, becoming one of more than 30,000 signatories to the 911 Hard Hat Pledge, a two-paragraph anti-Cordoba House statement drafted by construction worker Andy Sullivan. Many are construction workers who say they will refuse to work on the project.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic nominee for governor, supports the mosque, as does Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, and most of the city's Democratic elected officials.

Asked how he would stop the project, which has gained zoning approvals but faces financial difficulties, Paladino didn't offer specifics. He distanced himself from using eminent domain, which experts said would be illegal with a house of worship.

"People try to lock me in because I said eminent domain but there's many, many alternatives - in addition to just pleading them to death," Paladino said. "Where there's a will there's a way."

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, chairman of the Cordoba Movement and organizer of the project, said in a statement that he was "saddened" Paladino's opposition and offered to meet with him.

"Mr. Paladino is simply misinformed. Cordoba stands for the values of understanding, trust, and tolerance for which the Cordoba Movement stands. The Cordoba Movement seeks to recapture the Golden Era when Muslims, Christians and Jews peacefully coexisted, flourished, and prospered," Rauf said.

In Staten Island, Paladino greeted commuters at the terminal for the ferry to Manhattan in the morning before hitting the borough's main business district on New Dorp Avenue to shake hands with shoppers and business owners.

The events were traditional political fare, something Paladino had avoided for most of the month of October. The Buffalo developer, who at 64 is running for office for the first time, said he was now "doing all the things that politicians do, though I'm not a politician."

Despite trailing Cuomo by 20 points in a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, Paladino predicted a victory on Tuesday.

"It's going to be a close election, and we'll win by a few percentage points," he said after a lunch with aides at a Greek diner of sausage links, scrambled eggs, home fries and French toast.He left a $15 tip on top of the $44 bill.