Via Ben Smith, word on what’s happening with David Paterson:
PIX News has learned that federal prosecutors are investigating Governor David Paterson’s awarding of a lucrative contract to a politically connected group to run a gaming center at Aqueduct Raceway.
The embattled Governor who appears to have dodged the bullet of rumors and innuendo that had been circulating over a purported “bombshell” story being prepared by the New York Times, is now part of a probe by the Eastern District U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
So a Times story about Pateron’s sex life is a bombshell, but federal investigation isn’t?
Update. The comments on the Smith’s post are amazing:
See what happens when you disobey Obama. The transparency would be funny if this weren’t so frightening.
He shoulda seen it coming. He was told by “THE ONE” to step aside in New York and make way for someone else to run and he refused. He should have realized what the Party of the Politics of Personal Destruction was going to do to him. Doesn’t matter if any of this is true or not. He can clear his name after he’s out of the way.
The Chicago way !!!!!!! obee told you not to run pitty pat ! do not cross the hope and change candidate !!!! becasue its politics a susual with him- Chicago Politics !
You lie down with Drudge, you get up with fleas.
jamie
It’s pretty early so you may have forgotten, but our political media is insane.
Gozer
Yes. Wangs and Hootie-Hoos are only news worthy.
Morbo
Nothing like comments at Politico to remind one that most “independents” aren’t really independent at all.
scav
I apparently didn’t watch the episode where this blood feud to the death originated. When’s the rerun?
robertdsc
Arnold in Raw Deal sounds apropos:
“Resign or be prosecuted. Any way you want it.”
On the lighter side, I do think Gillibrand has turned out to be a fair choice. Hope she isn’t splattered with this mess.
DougJ
@robertdsc:
Aqueduct is way out in Queens. I doubt any of this touches Gillibrand. (If it were Saratgoa..)
c u n d gulag
Well, it’s all understandable if we remember that Obama is a vampire and Patterson is a werewolf and that all Democrats are some variable in between, and that the poor Republicans are “juss plain folks” watching this unpatriotic horror movie playing out in front of their eyes.
And of course, this horror flick is being covered by the MSM who are all Zombies.
Keith G
Chicken or egg?
I wonder if the interwebs lead to more crazy nutheads or is it the case that a relatively constant number crazy nutheads now just are able to be “heard” on a
regulardaily basis.geg6
Man, Doug. Are you New Yorkers pining for some kind of do-over so you can get Spitzer back? And the idea that Obama is orchestrating this when you have people like the Cuomos and Schumer in the mix of major power brokers in the state? Anyone think those guys can’t run their own organization and need Chicago to show them how to do it? And Paterson gets a pass on a series of stupid missteps and now possible criminal activities for which, apparently, he holds no responsibility and it’s all just a hit job? Seriously? Will anyone buy that in New York?
Bruuuuce
Politics as usual in New York State. If it weren’t for the folks behind him in line, I wouldn’t mind seeing Paterson get the boot. As it is, I’d rather he got elected out, then put in the slam for his transgressions.
On the other hand, I’m rocking a Snoopy Happy Dance: Hiram Monserrate (my scuzzy State Senator) got pitched from office by his fellows yesterday. Even better, we got to put in a replacement in a special election in March!
*heads off to bed after the overnight shift, whistling and grinning *
arguingwithsignposts
I don’t get that whole “Chicago way” thing. I mean, yeah, Chicago politics are nasty and all, but is it really that much worse than the “New York” way?
mr. whipple
Pumas.
El Cid
The worst thing about Chicago style rough politics is how they always put a dill spear right in the bun.
arguingwithsignposts
I guess this requires the obligatory Chicago way link.
ETA: Rahm = Sean Connery, right? Obama = Kevin Costner? “I have sworn to put this man away with any and all legal means at my disposal, and I will do so.”
The Grand Panjandrum
Fixed.
parksideq
@geg6: I never understood why the right keeps acting like Obama’s some kind of mob boss (outside trying to smear him in any way possible). If he’s such a ruthless mobster, why haven’t Boehner and McConnell woken up with horse heads in their beds yet for obstructing his agenda?
Besides, Paterson was going down in flames at this point, shady contract deals or not. Hopefully this means he drops out of the primary and Cuomo can just coast to the general.
OT: DougJ, hear about Monseratte yet?
John Quixote
Graft and corruption? Not a bombshell.
Sexual indescretions? Now that’s obviously a bombshell.
Also.
chopper
@geg6:
i miss spitzer. honestly.
chopper
@El Cid:
yeah, it’s that stuffed-crust politics i keep hearing about.
Felictiy Simpleton
I see that some BJers are getting in, but I can’t access this site unless I go through Google. I tried the …./index/html and the …./text.html and not even that is working today. Is it all the snow? I’m sad without my morning lurk. So unusual for Felicity to get sad. Boo Hoo. Can somebody help? Thanks!!!!
geg6
parksideq: I don’t even think Long Islanders (who I’m told are not Obama fans) would buy the idea that Obama’s “Mob” is more ruthless or powerful than their own home grown, regardless of party affiliation.
demo woman
Once again this is good news for McCain.
Chyron HR
I think Sarah’s found a running mate who won’t outshine her.
JGabriel
@The Grand Panjandrum:
And, apparently, tertiary stage syphilitic dementia.
.
chopper
@geg6:
yeah, new yorkers aren’t exactly known for agreeing that another city’s anything is bigger, better or tougher than theirs.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Yeah, you really wouldn’t expect either of those stories to be newsworthy in New York.
.
Linda Featheringill
Good morning, folks.
Out here in the hinterlands, we believe that politics in New York and in Philadelphia and in the whole state of New Jersey and in Boston are just as dirty as they are in Chicago and St. Louis and the whole state of Louisiana.
I don’t know how guilty or innocent Paterson is but I suspect he got himself into this particular mess and will have to extricate himself by himself.
norbizness
Why would somebody race in an Aqueduct?
parksideq
@geg6: Not sure about Long Islanders, but I know that Staten Islanders definitely don’t like Obama. But that’s ok because every other borough forgets they exist.
As far as mobs go, John Jr. Gotti was just mistried for a third time recently. We have enough trouble with real mobsters to worry about the wingnuts’ imaginary ones.
jibeaux
Personally, I think if you’re manly enough, you can take on Obama and the “politics a susual”. Paterson should just be manlier.
Srsly, if I read enough of this type of thing, I become pretty convinced that a solid third of the country has undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. It would explain a lot. So the question is, for thinking that, am I in that third?
scav
knowing local politics is run entirely by community organizers without experience wielding deep-dish pizza and strange condiments on buns suddenly makes things slightly clearer.
Malron
Do I smell a new meme?
jibeaux
@Linda Featheringill:
Hell, our former governor had a secret email account for doing state business with, which was “Nick Danger” spelled backwards (by one account the governor generally wrote backwards — wtf?), instructed people to delete emails nightly, lots of shady use of campaign funds, got his wife a plum do-nothing job at a state university at several times over her previous salary at a job which actually involved teaching, and many other bizarrely shady things, and I doubt that’s been much of a blip on the national news scene. I guess we also have John Edwards, so ol’ Easley’s kind of hiding in his shadow a bit. I bet he appreciates that shadow….
danimal
I’m going to have to agree that this ain’t Chicago-style politics.
It has that Mena, Arkansas, Vince Foster, how-many-of-Clinton’s-friends-and-enemies-are-dead feel to it with a side of don’t-mess-the-Cuomos.
El Cid
@danimal: I heard that two kids died on a Chicago train track. Chicago. I think we all know what that means.
debit
@El Cid:
Chicago. I think we all know what that means.
Annoying amounts of toll booths? Outrageous cab fares? Booze in grocery stores?
And why can’t I ever get blockquote to work for me?
scav
@El Cid: pizza?
Aimai
I love the idea of new York politicians as a kind of sweet Polly purebred tied to the traintracks by evil Chicago. I thought Chicago was defintionally the second city?
Aimai
Napoleon
@debit:
Combined with the crappiest highways imaginable.
arguingwithsignposts
@Aimai:
I understand there are big shoulders involved too.
arguingwithsignposts
You know who else did things “The Chicago Way”? Hitler.
jeffreyw
@arguingwithsignposts: Something about hog wrestler to the world or something like that, too.
Comrade Darkness
So a Times story about Pateron’s sex life is a bombshell, but federal investigation isn’t?
Because the mob scares the newpapers?
Sly
@geg6:
Speaking for myself and no doubt many, many others: Yes. I don’t have any particular gripes about Patterson beyond what I would say about any pol during times of financial catastrophe and the shameless preening of NY Republicans (they literally shut down the state legislature over the summer, and one of the two Democrats who helped them just got kicked out on an unrelated misdemeanor conviction while the other is being investigated for corruption) but Spitzer would have at least been more vocal in his scorn of all the assholes in state government. Of which there are plenty.
So we’re only getting to the point where a politician who likes screwing hookers looks good because everyone else likes to screw us.
Oh, they barely have any influence. Harold Ford’s been attacking the party establishment for the past few months, and look how his Senate campaign has taken off.
Imagine of the U.S. Senate was 51-49 with a Republican majority, Lincoln and Nelson switched parties to give them that majority, Nelson got kicked out because he beat up his wife and Lincoln is under FBI investigation, Mitch McConnell stepped down and got indicted for corruption and fraud, and Biden has taken over the Presidency after fourteen months because it was revealed that Obama liked hookers a whole lot. Oh, and one of those hookers now has a gig on Fox News.
In other words, NYS has its share of institutional baggage and so does the state party, but most of this shit is incidental.
Patterson’s was given a whole lot of leeway and took the “We all must come together and govern effectively in a time of crisis” approach. Which is fine if you (a) have an opposition that recognizes a crisis and the necessity of not staging a parliamentary coup during it or you (b) follow the refusal of cooperation with a sustained campaign of attacking them for putting their own petty ambitions above the state. Patterson didn’t have (a), and didn’t do (b) once he realized it, and everyone at least in the Democratic party recognizes this.
So no one is going to buy it.
JGabriel
@arguingwithsignposts:
Yeah, but you know who did things “The New York Way”? FDR and Stalin, that’s who!
And we all know who won WWII.
Wait, what?
.
El Cid
@debit: Flashback to The Clinton Chronicles, distributed by countless Talebangelical and rightwing outlets and flogged on rightwing radio throughout the 1980s.
Just like Bill Clinton murdered two kids using a train or smashed their heads and dumped them on train tracks or perhaps had his Shadow People murder them in order to cover up his drug smuggling operations, the Obama body count begins.
The phrase “it was proved” means that a grand jury was convinced that they were murdered, and it obviously was Bill Clinton regardless of one of the area residents having testified her boyfriend had talked of having killed the boys for stealing cocaine from him, but we know that really this was conspiracy from the Governor’s mansion.
Elise
I think you meant PUMAs. Those comments read like PUMA comments.
debit
@El Cid: Holy shit. I knew about the Vince Foster thing, I knew about the “the Clintons had my cat killed” crazy lady, I knew about the “Hillary is a lesbian” (who nevertheless had her lover, Vince Foster killed) but I never heard about this. Batshit insane doesn’t begin to cover it.
henqiguai
@El Cid (#13):
Um, thanks Cid. Put a really stupidly inappropriate cartoon in my head, and I really am trying to do some coding this morning.
JGabriel
Sly:
Yeah … uh, I live here, and even I’ll admit that when you get that much “incidental”, it’s time to start thinking “systemic”.
Very nice and accurate summary of the NY State political situation for those outsiders that aren’t already familiar with it, though. Kudos.
.
Comrade Darkness
The right wingers should look up what happened to the CEO of Qwest after he refused to break the law for them.
Also former Governor Siegelman.
But this could also be just more right wing projection and they don’t give a crap how criminal their side is when in power. More likely.
And I’ll add Spitzer himself to that list. The DOJ never bothers with prostitution cases, but somehow made some crazy exception for the guy trying to rein in Wall Street. Right.
rob!
Wow, who knew the 2009 World Spelling Bee Champion reads Politico?
Sly
@Aimai:
It’s a well known fact that Tamanend, the Native American leader after whom Tammany Hall was named, is Algonquin for “He who has become preeminent and is expected to have enthusiasms.”
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@norbizness:
Because if the horses are thirsty then the water is right there!
Sheesh, that was easy.
;)
JGabriel
Comrade Darkness:
Bingo! The GOP works that way, so they automatically assume we do too. Or just want to paint the Dems as guilty of their own sins, so they can say both sides do it.
Works either way.
.
dmsilev
@parksideq: It’s amazing, isn’t it? On the one hand, Obama is the Hopey-Changey Fairy, and on the other he’s the second coming of Al Capone.
Dear wingnuts, would it be too much to ask that you pick one vaguely self-consistent set of smears to use?
-dms
Bill In OH
@Napoleon: Obviously you’ve never been to southeastern Michigan.
El Cid
@dmsilev:
Yes. They refuse to unilaterally disarm from their well-stocked armory of irrationality and fevered screams of unreality.
Comrade Darkness
Wait, we need body bag examples.
How about Michael Connell? Bush webmaster, IT guy.
Dead just before he was due to testify in the long ignored 2004 Ohio election case.
The man’s surviving family and the bloggers are the only ones trying to keep an investigation alive. Can you imagine what Fox news and the rest of the media would be doing if the political ties of these parties was switched? Another summary site about Connell..
I’m fine with aggressive investigations into suspicious doings of those in power. It’s the utter hypocrisy when the media turn into sycophants and cheerleaders when it comes time to do their fucking jobs and the right needs to be watched and questioned.
The Republic of Stupidity
@arguingwithsignposts:
Or any small southern town, for that matter?
AhabTRuler
@jibeaux:
Firesign Theater FTW!
The Republic of Stupidity
@JGabriel:
I beg to differ, but Stalin always did things “The Moscow Way”…
your f*cking pizza shows up two f*cking weeks late and is f*cking frozen solid…
The Republic of Stupidity
@debit:
Holy Shi-ite… Vince Foster was a LESBIAN?
How did the MSM ever miss THAT story?
PurpleGirl
@geg6: One must also remember Sheldon Silver (D), Assembly member since 1974 and Assembly Speaker since 1994.
ericblair
@dmsilev: Dear wingnuts, would it be too much to ask that you pick one vaguely self-consistent set of smears to use?
I hope not, because that’s the best indicator for Looney Conspiracy Theories. The target of your paranoid delusions is: a) dumb and/or weak enough to be easily noticed plus publicly denounced by said paranoiacs, and; b) insanely clever and powerful to prevent any retaliation and cover up any evidence acceptable to non-crazy people.
The best are the really bright kooks who have developed all-encompassing pan-conspiratorial Theories of Everything. We should really start putting drugs in the water to calm these people down.
Or…do we already?
El Cid
@ericblair: The Sandinistas are creating a Nicaraguan soshulist hellhole soon to collapse — and they’re also only two days from Harlingen, Texas and they’ve got a couple Soviet fighter planes! Quick! Arm the
terrorists to blow up hospitalsContra freedom fighters to SaveUsAll!jibeaux
@AhabTRuler:
Yes, as you might imagine, the newspaper accounts have been painstakingly explaining the origins of the nickname, as well as debating why it was written backwards. There is It Was Written On the Door That Way In Firesign Theater Theory, and there is the Governor Was Basically Dyslexic Theory. As far as I know, no one has advanced the Governor Really Wanted To Be Straight Up Nick Danger But The Name Was Already Taken In Gmail Theory.
JGabriel
jibeaux:
It’s amazing how frequently the media misses the most obvious explanations. It’s almost like they’re paid to get it wrong.
.
Midnight Marauder
@dmsilev:
Easy peezy when you’re the Antichrist, baby.
IM
At least according to Bertolt Brecht:
andrewtna
I’ll predict tomorrow’s news today. Aqueduct is all Joe Bruno.
The Raven
Torture isn’t a bombshell, illegal war isn’t a bombshell, a blowjob’s a bombshell.
Government, brought to you by the National Enquirer.
mcc
So why hasn’t the New York Times published their story yet? Stupid vaporware.