Again?

makes me glad (4.00 / 3)

to be an Upstater.  Wow, haven't felt that way in a long time.  Because really, isn't our guys' sleaze pretty much small potatoes?  Now that Joe Bruno is gone, who really can hold a candle to the Downstate pols?

Downstaters:  It's ALL THEM now.

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by: NYCO @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 17:13:21 PM CST

PS... (4.00 / 2)

The sleaze used to be tolerable when the Downstaters were actually GOVERNING instead of just warming their asses on their inherited seats.  It used to be a "New York State thing" to be mainly winked at, or at best goo-gooed at, but ya know?  I'm starting to think it's maybe, possibly just a New York City thing, after all.  When you roll that long in the treasure bath, eventually you do get shriveled.

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by: NYCO @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 17:18:44 PM CST

[ Parent ]

P.P.S. (4.00 / 2)

Do any Democrats really think this is good?  Honestly, maybe it really is a barrel of monkeys linked to one another.  If Spitzer goes down, and Paterson goes down, who's to say we're not going to get a Cuomo surprise someday?

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by: NYCO @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 17:21:49 PM CST

To repeat myself: (4.00 / 3)

The likelihood of this kind of thing happening if the Governor were a woman are SUBSTANTIALLY less.

That said, this is one way that Paterson can keep his "mighta been a contenda" fiction about destiny and whatnot while still getting the hell off the stage.  So, maybe he is setting himself up so he can blame his demise on some poor floozy instead of his own poor record of governing.  Go home semi-retired with a big pocket full of campaign cash collected from the likes of Exxon-Mobil and the other hydrofracking companies, claim he might run for an office again someday, and spend it on "expenses."

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by: robinia @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 17:52:03 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I dunno (4.00 / 2)

I'm not hearing much, but what little I've heard actually sounds like nothing particularly Spitzerian in scope.  (How could it be?  Paterson isn't the Great Pumpkin.)

Ha.  Spitzer is coming to Syracuse next week for a talk on some political subject.  Part of his "Rehabilitation '10: I've Done My Time, Now Give Me Some More of Yours" tour.  I wonder if he will even show his face in town now, if something gets published.  Or if the local media will have the guts to ask him to comment on Paterson.

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by: NYCO @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 18:24:20 PM CST

[ Parent ]

First woman governor of the state formerly known as Upstate NY (4.00 / 2)

I nominate Joanie Mahoney, Onondaga County executive.  Yeah, she's GOP but I think she's done a decent job here on environmental issues, she's photogenic, and was an outsider in her own party.

Which Dem woman pol would you have in mind for this new position, Robinia?  I'd be interested to hear, since I do feel funny about touting a GOP pol on a Dem board.

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by: NYCO @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 18:28:07 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Hm (4.00 / 1)

One thing you can say about upstate NY politics, it is that the bench of women state-level officials is thin-thin-thin. Susan Johns is pretty effective, but I hear she has a wicked temper.  Dunno about Savino. Catherine Young (also a Republican) would do really well in an upstate-only contest (not that I would back her).  Went to look at the Assembly members to refresh my memory.... and their website still lists a bunch of empty dots on the "Assembly Members" page.  Really lame.

Actually, I do know who I really like: Donna Lupardo.

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by: robinia @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 20:07:09 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Then she'll never win the GOP nomination anyway (4.00 / 1)

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by: nrafter530 @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 21:09:12 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Clarification (4.00 / 1)

She ran for mayor of Syracuse and narrowly lost.  The local GOP tried backing someone else for Onondaga County exec, but she won the primary, which was a pretty big deal.  She's the daughter of Bernie Mahoney, a former Assemblyman, so it's not like she's not "one of the family" or anything in the GOP... just a little black-sheepy in that particular year.

A lot of GOP women, you get the sense that they're total puppets of the GOP establishment, but I don't get that feeling from her.  Onondaga County now has a female county exec and a female mayor of Syracuse, so I think the next few years are going to be interesting.

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by: NYCO @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 21:42:00 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Honestly? No. (0.00 / 0)

It's been bad enough that's he's been incompetent, if it's as bad as seems to be hinted, it's yet one more thing that turns off voters.  

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by: Norbrook @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 20:28:32 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Whoop-de-do. Another "scandal." (0.00 / 0)

Ineptitude and corruption continue to drag down Albany, but apparently what it takes to get the public outraged is catching el supremo in Washington, DC with a hooker or in a broom closet with his secretary. Aaaaaaaaarrrrrghhhhhh!

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by: JohnS @ Sat Feb 06, 2010 at 09:13:44 AM CST

unfortunately those scandals (0.00 / 0)

tend to be the ones where it's clear that trust was violated, in ways many people can understand instantly.

Which doesn't explain the "It's Okay If You're A Republican" - think Vitter, Ensign, etc. - but does, I think, make it clear why these scandals can have a lot more effect than the ongoing nightmares elsewhere in state government.

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by: simonstl @ Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 09:13:57 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Cue The Cuomo Announcement... (0.00 / 0)

...what a mess this entire state is.

We've got some work ahead of us.

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by: NYBri @ Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 15:50:37 PM CST

yes, though (0.00 / 0)

not having seen the news actually break, I'm starting to wonder whether it actually will - or whether we'll just have a constant drip of not quite news, or even, perhaps, a stop.

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by: simonstl @ Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 16:04:13 PM CST

[ Parent ]

mebee (0.00 / 0)

..it's all just rumors the Obama administration planted to get him to step aside.

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by: robinia @ Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 18:31:26 PM CST

[ Parent ]

my reaction (0.00 / 0)

is unlike with Spitzer where I wanted him gone immediately.  If something is up, I'd like to see Paterson take a few people down with him.

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by: NYCO @ Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 20:08:21 PM CST

[ Parent ]

No. (0.00 / 0)

What a mess the NY Democratic establishment is.  You know, the establishment that comes from "down there."

Don't drag MY part of the state into this business.

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by: NYCO @ Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 20:11:23 PM CST

[ Parent ]