"Ouch"

In the unlikely event Michael Bloomberg is deluded enough to run for president, the New York mayor will tout his qualifications as a manager: the unfettered communication he allows in City Hall's open bullpen; the executive's ability to delegate to trusted subordinates; and the Bloomberg founder's general air of competence. It's inconvenient, then, that his financial information company, still ultimately controlled by Bloomberg and carrying his name, is such a hazardous place of employment.

The suit by female employees who claim they were eased out after becoming pregnant? That's probably par for the course for a big company. And one can overlook the mayor's loyalty to Matthew Winkler; the Bloomberg editor did, after all, ghost Mayor Mike's autobiography.

But it's pretty inexcusable that construction on the company's Upper East Side headquarters makes the New York Times' easily shattered new tower look like a work of craftsmanship. The 220 injuries at the Lexington Avenue skyscraper prompted a federal safety official to write "ouch" next to the figure in an internal e-mail. Which is the sound Candidate Bloomberg would make as soon as the attack ads addressed, no doubt unfairly, his management record.