Bad rap for Chuck!

By Henry Goldman (with our commentary)

Feb. 2 -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg got not only a Groundhog Day’s forecast of an early winter’s end today - he got what he asked for. When Staten Island groundhog Charles G. Hogg stepped out of his hut - like cage in pursuit of his shadow, he appeared to become so frustrated with Bloomberg’s teasing him with corn-on-the-cob that he bit the mayor’s hand.

At a City Hall news conference, the mayor quipped that “security concerns” forced him to place “a limit to what I can say.” The groundhog attacked (defended himself) at about 7:20 a.m., the mayor said.

He faced no risk of rabies (how about Chuck??) because the animal has lived in captivity since it was born two years ago

at theStaten Island Zoo, mayoral press secretary Stu Loeser said.

“If the district attorney wants to press charges,

I leave it to the Staten Island District Attorney to do so,” Bloomberg said. (maybe Chuck wants to press charges!)

Still smarting from the incident, with a bandage around his left index finger where Loeser said the groundhog had drawn blood after biting the mayor’s gloved hand, Bloomberg described his furry assailant as a “terrorist rodent that might very well have been trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.”

yes, that al-Qaeda's new tactic - suicide groundhogs. watch who you're prodding with those corncobs, sheeple!

A video of the event shows the mayor teasing the mammal over an ear of corn, giving it a nibble and then yanking it away. Bloomberg also grabbed the animal with two hands and held him up to the cheering crowd as Charles G. Hogg struggled to get free. what a jerk!

For the record, Charles G. Hogg didn’t see his shadow, indicating an early spring.