Paterson Hammered On Senate Process
The newspapers were not friendly to Governor Paterson today over what has been widely viewed as a botched handling of picking a replacement for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Daily News’ Bill Hammond said Paterson was wrong in blasting Caroline Kennedy’s credentials yesterday and was indecisive throughout the process, writing “Let Paterson be the last governor to appoint a senator from New York. No one could foul it up better, anyway.”
Jacob Gershman, in writing for the New York Post, said Gov. Rod Blagojevich had a similar take.
The Times wrote that maybe it was Paterson who took the “oaf of office,” on Inauguration Day.
All of the bad press is obviously not good news for a governor who has been deemed the “accidential governor”—a phrase he doesn’t take kindly too—after taking over for disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer last March.
Paterson’s poll numbers have taken a tumble in recent weeks and his pick of Kirsten Gillibrand today is expected to anger liberal Democrats in New York City and even those in western New York, some of which have grumbled that the Albany area isn’t the same as their region.
“I’m going to recommend (Buffalo Mayor) Byron Brown primary here,” one angry prominent western New York Democratic operative said.
And Paterson has ticked off the Kennedys and the Cuomos, some Democrats said, let alone the Obama administration, who wanted Caroline Kennedy as the Senate pick.
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the problem with this governor is having become governor
due to the resignation of elliot spitzer he does not
have an electoral base and has to attempt to develop
on before his is up for election in 2010….He strikes
me as a very decent man and a bright man as well but
not the executive type..ie he is not a true leader who
can make decisions in a decisive manner…the kennedy
fiasco is just the tip of the iceberg…if they are
talking primary in buffalo already….you can bet that
andrew is lurking in the wings….he in fact would win
a three way primary in my view since he has a base
he has been elected and he is decisive…wait till
the polling starts showing rudy stompling patterson
but not beating andrew
He’s proven to be the steamrolled rather than the steamroller. Despite his family’s nefarious Apollo Theater background, I, too, think he appears to be a decent man. Problem is, he’s in the shark tank without the shark repellent.
I would agree with the first part of the Consultant’s analysis but disagree with the second. Unless Andrew wants to be hated by African-Americans whose trust he lost after the McCall challenge, Andrew won’t do anything.
Gillibrand’s father used to date Zenia Mucha and was heavily connected to Pataki. He did quite well as a Democratic lobbyist dealing with a Republican administration. Hopefully for Gillibrand’s sake her father is mentioned in passing but it doesn’t look that way.
He probably should have just picked Kennedy earlier and been done with it. No one could have blamed him. He did not do so because obviously he didn’t really want to pick her. He did the decent thing but not the politically astute maneuver.
it would not have been politically “astute” for him
to pick someone who could not communicate and who had
no prior public service..she would have embarassed him
demonstrated that his judgment sucked and ruined his
chances for election come 2010