Metro

Axing Jay a liberal NBC laugh gaffe

Bring back Jay Leno!

He hasn’t left the building yet? Maybe there’s still hope.

This boneheaded move stands to go down along with history’s greatest mistakes:

The ascent of Anthony Weiner. Tiger Woods, too. The public disembowelment of former NBC “Today’’ show host Ann Curry.

Now we can add to this list the painful decision that, come February, the miserable Peacock Network, which brought you the (mercifully) canceled “Smash,” is showing the door to the host of “The Tonight Show,’’ a gent who’s grown, like a comfortable shoe, into America’s Sweetheart.

NBC reportedly was so determined to rid itself of Leno, it agreed to pay him $15 million to get lost.

What a loss.

At age 63, Leno isn’t your standard, liberal cup of java. He’s witty and sprightly compared to CBS’s crankypants lefty David Letterman, 66, whose continued existence on the TV dial is a mystery for the ages.

And, amid the vast landscape of TV talkers, including, but not limited to, HBO’s odious Bill Maher, Leno harbors a filthy, little secret.

He’s the lone conservative to swim in the shark tank of Republican-bashing, President Obama-worshiping TV hosts. The kinds of misogynists who demonize Sarah Palin.

Leno has been merciless of late when riffing on government scandals. Such as the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups.

“I was going to start off tonight with an Obama joke,’’ he said this week, “but I don’t want to get audited by the IRS, so forget that . . .”

The alleged administration coverup of last year’s deadly terror attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya?

“The White House has a new slogan about Benghazi: Hope and change the subject,” Leno said last week. “Remember the old days when President Obama’s biggest embarrassment was Joe Biden? What happened to those days?”

This may explain why NBC, a network that screams to the left (remember when it censored the words “under God’’ from the Pledge of Allegiance during the 2011 US Open golf tourney?), can’t wait to see him go.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the trash heap of retired talk-show hosts: Leno has caught fire.

The ratings leader in his time slot, Leno positively crushed Letterman and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel in the just-released early May sweeps ratings.

And while Leno’s replacement on “Tonight,’’ Jimmy Fallon, 38, won his 12:35 a.m. time slot with “Late Night,’’ his numbers aren’t nearly as impressive as Jay’s. (The untested Seth Meyers is to replace Fallon.)

Awkward.

The audience already misses Jay, who’s become a kind of friend. But NBC suits refuse to see that people resent the way he was mutilated, like Curry, by the clueless network that bumbled Olympics coverage. (Tape-delaying Missy Franklin’s backstroke gold medal? Please.)

Jay treated his ouster with humor and grace, singing a duet with replacement host Fallon.

“I had to call David Letterman and tell him he didn’t get ‘The Tonight Show’ again. Awful! Terrible!’’ he quipped last month.

“He’s like the dying patient trying to comfort all the people around him,’’ said a TV source. “The way [NBC] treated him was just stupid.’’

Hollywood publicist Michael Levine predicted that NBC’s attempt to lure young viewers with Fallon will fall flat.

“Many people whom I speak with under 30 have little relationship with TV. Most don’t even own one,” Levine said.

He’s not surprised that Leno was treated like dog meat. “Networks are increasingly not known for their ‘class.’ Jay is a great talent and will be fine in the long run.’’

NBC made a costly late-night mistake once before, replacing Leno with Conan O’Brien in June 2009, only to change its collective mind seven months later and bring Jay back.

The network will regret booting Jay again. I may have to skip NBC from now on.

Tawana is lovin’ that liar limelight

Twenty-six years after she destroyed lives by falsely claiming she was raped by six white men, Tawana Brawley had the gall to play the victim.

Brawley, 40, was honored at a New Jersey fund-raiser for a kids camp last weekend. Attendees, who treated Brawley like a rock star, stuffed bills in envelopes for the “Tawana Brawley Defense Fund.’’ It covers legal costs for the lawsuit she lost to former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones, against whom a teenage Brawley invented rape accusations in 1987.

“Let’s let this young queen Tawana know we love her to death,’’ crowed the master of ceremonies, retired City College professor Leonard Jeffries, a man who has claimed, among other outrages, that “rich Jews’’ financed the slave trade.

Not present was Brawley’s onetime “adviser,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose career as a “civil-rights leader’’ was kick-started by Brawley. The new Sharpton avoids her like a disease. Better late than never.

Moral disability

Despicable, rich Manhattan moms have cracked the secret to cutting lines at Walt Disney World. They’re hiring disabled guides, at $130 an hour, to ride scooters to attractions that normally require more than two hours’ wait — then escort entire families inside in a minute, The Post’s Tara Palmeri reported. (Disney said it’s “investigating.’’)

Long lines at Disney are a universal scourge, like death and taxes. But with enough money and chutzpah, at least one of life’s unpleasant hardships can be bought off.

Clintons in a pickle

It looks as if Anthony Weiner may take the plunge. Heaven help us.

The disgraced former congressman has hired a campaign manager and is expected to announce he’s running for mayor as early as next week, sources told The Post. One wonders how unappetizing this turn of events will be to Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

With the ex-secretary of state widely expected to run for president in 2016 and the ex-president still dogged by his romp with Monica Lewinsky, the former first couple needs a junk-obsessed sextaholic in their lives the way a fish needs scuba gear. They do love Weiner’s wife and Hillary’s ex-top aide, Huma Abedin, according to The Post’s Page Six.

It’s not too late to give it up, Anthony.

Grace amid the grieving

After unspeakable horror comes joy.

Upper West Side couple Marina and Kevin Krim endured the nightmarish slayings of adorable Lucia, 6, and Leo, 2, allegedly at the hands of depraved nanny Yoselyn Ortega. Now the Krims are having another child.

Their little boy is due this fall, a year after the unimaginable tragedy, the Krims announced. The child comes into the world as little brother of Nessie, 4, who was at swim class when her siblings were taken.

This gives me hope. I pray this family finds peace and love.