Dead man walking: President Obama's request turns Gov. Paterson into lame duck

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Dead man walking: President Obama's request turns Gov. Paterson into lame duck
Elizabeth Benjamin
daily news staff writer

Monday, September 21st 2009, 4:00 AM

Xanthos/NewsGov. Paterson is a lame duck, writes Elizabeth Benjamin. Take our PollPaterson's choice
Should Governor Paterson listen to the White House and not run in 2010?

Yes, his Albany is in disarray.
No, he should make up his own mind.
I'm not sure.

Related NewsArticlesPaterson bucks Bam: I'm still going to run in 2010Obama 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 ofthe Army, sparking a specialelection 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."

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