I bumped into the Archbishop of New York in the corridors of the Albany State house, and had to ask him: “What’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like Albany?” “Well,” he countered with a grin “I’m not giving last rights!
Perfect! Gallows humor even from Timothy Dolan! Call it the new normal. A governor facing two ethics investigations is battening down the hatches, damning the torpedoes, moving full speed ahead into a perfect storm the likes of which the state has never seen. Like the great quote from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” Paterson asks us to ignore the pink elephant in the room, to pretend that his only problem is a $9 billion budget gap.
On Monday, March 8, the room was Brooklyn Borough Hall, and we got a glimpse of the old David Paterson, the pre-domestic abuse scandal Dave, the pre-Racino scandal Dave, the pre-Yankee ticket scandal Dave. It was the Paterson who, despite so many faults, still was fiscally courageous, if only because it was the one way to boost his sagging poll numbers.
Paterson did not tell the audience what they wanted to hear. In fact, it was quite the opposite. “We’re open to your suggestions,” he said. “But what we also need to hear is how we pay for it.” The crowd was actually receptive to the governor. No wonder he was in Brooklyn, and not in Albany, where he wore out his welcome after months of beating up on the equally hapless Legislature. This nightmare makes you long for the good old days, like back during the Senate siege in July. As one pol told me, “Those were the days of dysfunction. Now we don’t function at all.”
There are those who say that the Yankee ticket perjury rap is piling on. And politically, they do have a point. After all, how many VIPs inside the stadium during the World Series actually wrote out a check? I think we can grant the governor and his son the freebies.
In one of the great ironies of this case, the approval rating of none other than Andrew Cuomo has taken a 13-point tumble, and 22 points in the non-white community. Does everyone know that Paterson requested the investigation? The polls really don’t matter now, except maybe the polling of a grand jury. The governor admits he can’t talk about these cases, for fear of antagonizing investigators. But his supposed defense in the domestic violence cover-up case is starting to trickle out. Paterson’s friend, private investigator Bo Dietl, says Paterson told him that he didn’t know there was an order of protection in the case, and that he’s known the woman for seven years, and that she called him to say she wasn’t spreading any rumors.
There was probably a time, a long time ago, where we might have simply taken the governor’s word on this. But there have been so many words, and so many people in Albany say the governor and the truth are not always in sync. But this week, David Paterson did speak the truth about the budget. “The day of reckoning is here,” he said.?
The day of reckoning for David Paterson could be coming very soon.??
