Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 1752 } Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posted: Mon 21 Sep 2009 19:30 Post subject: Obama asks NY Gov to step aside
Quote:
Dead man walking: President Obama's request turns Gov. Paterson into lame duck
Elizabeth Benjamin
daily news staff writer
Updated Monday, September 21st 2009, 8:44 AM
Paterson bucks Bam: I'm still going to run in 2010: Obama administration asks Paterson not to seek reelection Bam goes on all-out media pushGov. Paterson is a dead man walking.
The governor may insist he intends to buck the White House and run in 2010, but President Obama has fixed it so Paterson is the lamest of lame ducks and virtually unable to accomplish anything that might resurrect his poll numbers.
In doing so, the Obama administration has done the seemingly impossible by making Albany even more dysfunctional than it already was - at least in the short term.
"We're going to have to go back for a special session sometime this fall, and this is going to be a cloud over the governor's head. It could be problematic," said state Sen. Jose Serrano, a Bronx Democrat.
The Senate, still trying to recover from the 31-day stalemate after the June 8 coup, was already reluctant to help the unpopular governor close the $2.1 billion budget gap. The President's no-confidence vote is an even greater disincentive: Why make cuts constituents will hate to help a guy who's toast?
Paterson can't even gracefully quit because the question of whether it was legal for him to appoint former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Richard Ravitch lieutenant governor has yet to be decided by the state's highest court.
And who wants the state left in the hands of Senate President Malcolm Smith, a guy best known for temporarily losing the Senate majority?
New York Democrats were stunned by the Obama administration's heavy-handedness, noting it's the third time the President meddled in local politics.
Despite a prior preference for Caroline Kennedy, Obama later cleared the field for Paterson's handpicked U.S. senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, asking her toughest potential primary challenger, Long Island Rep. Steve Israel, not to run.
Next he tapped John McHugh, one of just three remaining Republicans in NewYork's congressional delegation, to serve as secretary of the Army, sparking a special election in McHugh's upstate district.
Now Paterson is in Obama's cross hairs.
"I don't like what they did then with Gillibrand, and I don't like what they're doing now," said Rep. Jose Serrano, Sen. Serrano's father and - briefly - a contender for the seat Gillibrand landed. "What I don't like most is that they dissed [Paterson] in public."
Adding to the weirdness of it all, the news of Obama's message leaked just as he is poised to spend three days in New York, including an upstate swing where he will be greeted at Albany International Airport by none other than David Paterson.
"This couldn't wait until next week after the President left New York?" asked one incredulous Democratic operative. "The whole thing was sloppy."
A source involved with the administration's deliberations over how to handle Paterson admitted the way this played out was not ideal, but insisted the short-term mess is worth the long-term gain.
"We needed to send a message to Rudy Giuliani that if he decides to jump in [to the governor's race], it won't be against this dysfunctional candidate," the source said. "Let's be clear: We don't need a prominent Republican hectoring us from a blue state."
"Sure, [Paterson] has been further exposed, but it's not as if anybody other than [Assembly Speaker] Shelly Silver was running the government anyway."
Now that it has sowed seeds of doubt against Paterson by expressing a "preference" he take a pass on 2010, the White House plans to sit back and let time - and nervous New York Democrats - push the governor the rest of the way out the door.
Few were stepping up yesterday to wholeheartedly endorse the idea that he should run, not even Rep. Serrano.
"The governor will make his own decision," the congressman said. "The governor is a Democrat, and I don't know at what point the White House gets involved in these things."
If someone is a stronger candidate for the Dems, like Andrew Cuomo, push this current sitting gov aside.
No big deal here. From what I read, Patterson is not that strong enough to win. Add that he got there because of Spitzer, that is more baggage.
I saw this story being discussed on Geraldo this weekend.
The people of NY deserve to have a choice between the best Rep and Dem candidates running for gov.
Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 1752 } Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posted: Tue 22 Sep 2009 20:54 Post subject:
Quote:
September 22, 2009
Categories: New York
Paterson blames weak Obama record for friction
Well, this is going to make David Paterson a lot of friends in the White House, as he tries to put himself in the president's shoes:
If you look at it from their perspective, they haven’t exactly been able to govern in the first year of their administration in the way that other administrations have, where you would have, theoretically, a period in which the new administration is allowed to pass the needed pieces of legislation.
One of the things that has made the White House angriest at Paterson is his linking his woes to the president's. The last time was about race, of course, which made it worse.
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