It wasn't a good week for Governor Paterson at the end of January and the beginning of February isn't looking much better. He made a giant mess with the Senate appointment process by trying to be secretive when the media kept pressing him for information he didn't want to give. Then it all blew up in his face and he hasn't recovered from that. He couldn't even respond to SNL mocking him again. And now he can't even retain control over the budget.
From The NY Post:
APOLITICALLY impotent Gov. Paterson has told a secretmeeting of worried business leaders that there's nothing he can do about Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's plan to hike income taxes on the wealthy.
"He told them to call Shelly about the taxes, that that's what they should do," a participant at the secret gathering -held just over a week ago at the Manhattan home of real-estate mogul Jerry Speyer, CEO of Tishman Speyer - told The Post.
"He said he doesn't want the tax hike, he's not pushing for the tax hike, so he said it's important that they call Silver," the source continued.
Another source said, "People were flabbergasted by the governor's comments. He seemed to be saying he wasn't in charge. He seemed weak.
He certainly sounds weak. Nevermind that he held a secret meeting with business leaders for the moment (how about one of those with the rest of us?). The fact that he just handed off responsibility of whether the tax will be added or not shows a Governor in disarray. Paterson has tried to be all things to everyone and in the end has lost himself completely. If he had any principles left, that budget would have had a more progressive income tax and a plan to help the people of New York. It would have given him the political capital to push through a smart plan to deal with these trying times but instead he has managed to anger everyone. And now that he has given up on trying to protect the one group that liked the budget, the most well-off among us, they don't care for him either.
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