Metro

Shel-Mike ‘shame’ tiff

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, state poli tics’ most powerful Orthodox Jew, is making it clear he doesn’t agree with Mayor Bloomberg’s claim that opponents of a proposed mosque near Ground Zero “ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

“I believe people are entitled to their opinions. Disagreement is one of the fundamental principles of our country,” said Silver, who supports the mosque as a “freedom-of-religion issue.”

“People have a right to agree and disagree,” he said when asked about Bloomberg’s harsh criticism.

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As if the state GOP didn’t have enough problems — saddled with lackluster candidates and financial difficulties in what is expected to be a big year for the Republicans nationally — party activists are calling for the ouster of its $150,000-a-year executive director, Thomas Basile,

Basile, a top aide to already-embattled state GOP Chairman Ed Cox, is described by activists in the Legislature and among county leaders as an arrogant, ineffective prima donna out of touch with the party’s operations.

Several activists said they were upset that Basile had apparently commandeered Cox’s office at GOP headquarters, where, they charge, he has been acting like he, and not Cox, is the party leader.

“When county chairmen show up to meet with him, they’re offended big time that Basile sits in ‘the chair,’ the chairman’s chair, in the chairman’s office,” said a longtime party activist.

“People have even seen Basile sit in the chairman’s seat even when Ed [Cox] is there to meet folks, and that doesn’t go over well,” the activist continued.

Others claimed that Basile had hung a picture of himself, and not of Cox, on the wall at party headquarters and flaunts a pair of White House cufflinks that he received while working in the George W. Bush administration.

“The truth is that Tom Basile is not helping Ed Cox,” said one of the state’s best-known Republicans.

Basile contended the criticism was coming from disgruntled individuals unhappy with his efforts to manage the party’s day-to-day affairs.

He said he had Cox’s permission to use his office and was, indeed, the proud owner of a pair of White House cufflinks.

But he insisted he had never hung a picture of himself at the party’s headquarters.

Cox expressed strong confidence in Basile’s performance.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com