NY Gubernatorial Follies...A Continuing Series

Well, it’s been an eventful week for new New York Governor David Paterson. Sure he became Governor but since then it’s been pretty much an embarrassing revelation a day.

Today Paterson hit the daily double, with not one but two announcements.

First, it turns out he spent state money on hotels purportedly so he could be on call to take part in legislative negotiations at the capital at a moment's notice. This despite the reality that the Lt. Governor rarely plays a role in such negations and oh yeah, he owns a house about 20 minutes from the capital building.

Hmmmm….what could David Paterson be doing in a hotel?

Now comes word that as a younger man he dabbled in pot and coke!

In reference to cocaine, Gov. David Paterson, 53, said in a television interview that he "tried it a couple of times" when he was "about 22 or 23."

"And marijuana probably when I was about 20," he said on the NY1 cable news station. "I don't think I touched marijuana since the '70s."

"More Americans have tried a lot more during that period of time and gone on to lead responsible lives and hopefully have lived their lives to their fullest," he said.

I don’t think any of this will doom Paterson. He’s very popular among just about every political faction in Albany and no one is out to get him. When it came to Spitzer the only line was to see who got to push him over the cliff, not to defend him. Paterson will have lots of defenders.

That said, this scandal a day thing is getting annoying. When people in Arkansas and Louisiana are laughing at you (and with good reason), you know you’ve got problems.

Excelsior!

posted by DrewM. at 10:16 PM

| Access Comments