Alert! Lame duck New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has decided not to endorse a candidate in the 2013 mayoral race.

Except: Bloomberg already handed his erstwhile disciple (and ex-front-runner) Christine Quinn a de facto endorsement less than a week ago, in the same interview he accused Quinn’s chief competition, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, of running a “racist” campaign.

She did a very good job for seven and a half years of keeping legislation that never should have made it to the floor, that would have been damaging to the city, from ever getting there. And she deserves a lot of the credit for what’s gone on in the city in the last seven and a half years. I thought the Times was right in their editorials on Lhota and Quinn. I’m very pleased about that.

The Times, of course, endorsed Quinn. (The paper also endorsed Joseph Lhota, because of the primary. But nowhere in the same interview with New York magazine does Bloomberg praise Lhota.)

Stop lying, Mike.

[Image via Associated Press]