"It's a local matter"

“They got nothing to do with New York and they don’t care about New York,” said the 56-year-old from Brooklyn, igniting a Marlboro Light. “They are trying to create propaganda.”

This is a point of consensus for New York’s entire body politic, from the center’s most vocal opponent to its most full-throated defender.

“Newt Gingrich is talking about Nazis and whatever, I mean, that means nothing,” said Rep. Peter King, a Republican who has led the local opposition to Park51, a 13-story Islamic center that would include a prayer space with an imam, a 500-seat auditorium, a pool, senior center and meeting rooms. King, a plainspoken Long Islander, argues that the center would be insensitive to the families of Sept. 11 survivors, but noted that some of the most prominent national opponents to the project had taken their rhetoric too far, and until very recently, didn’t seem interested in New York at all.

“First of all, this is real America,” said King, sarcastically using Palin’s phrase for the homeland. “The people who detached themselves from New York are all of a sudden embracing New York.”