JETS REMAIN RAIL $ERIOUS

June 9, 2005 -- Refusing to give up on plans to build a West Side stadium, the Jets yesterday said they want to go ahead with the $250 million purchase of the MTA rail yard as a city councilman proposed an end run around Albany lawmakers.

"Stadium or no stadium, we have said to the MTA that we are prepared to buy this property. You have to ask them about their intentions," Jets spokesman Matt Higgins said after a rally in City Hall Park for the stadium.

MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said the agency is "weighing all its options," but would not comment further on the proposed sale and whether Madison Square Garden's previously rejected bid of $400 million might now be reconsidered.

Two days after the stadium was dealt what appears to be a fatal blow at the Public Authorites Control Board, the Jets and their union backers continued to insist that the project remains alive. Tom Topousis

I STILL LOVE MIFFED MIKE: JOE
By KENNETH LOVETT in Albany and DAVID SEIFMAN in N.Y.

June 9, 2005 -- Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno insisted yesterday there's nothing but "love" between Mayor Bloomberg and him despite recent tensions over the doomed West Side stadium.

Bruno said he doesn't believe that Bloomberg and his friends will cut off campaign donations, although he hasn't spoken to the mayor about a Post report yesterday quoting a source saying the mayor was shutting down the gravy train.

"I don't take things personally," Bruno said.

"Frankly, sometimes people in the heat of the moment say some things that they don't really mean. I think that the mayor loves me and I love the mayor."

Withholding campaign funds could create an all-out war at a time when Democrats have made great strides in the Senate and are pushing to wrest control from the GOP next year.

Bloomberg and his friends donated more than $200,000 to Bruno and Senate Republicans in the past few years.

"I have enough judgment in the mayor that the mayor has enough good judgment to understand that life goes on," Bruno said.

Bloomberg's chief spokesman Ed Skyler yesterday didn't deny The Post's front-page report.

"It looks like anonymous speculation and the mayor is focusing on how we can keep New York City moving forward," Skyler said.