Gov. Paterson Knew What He Was Doing

At my fiancee's organization, she says the staff often talk about preventing the low-income students they tutor from sabotaging their potential success when they're on the brink of a breakthrough. Too often students shy away from triumph, as they subconsciously do something to thwart themselves, she says. Maybe Gov. David Paterson of New York should give her office a call, as the circumstances of his withdrawal from this year's gubernatorial race seem to be subconsciously intentional. He'd never say it aloud, but in the back of his mind, he doesn't object that he has to step aside.

Paterson, a Democrat, suspended his campaign last Friday, only one week after starting it, because he called the woman who filed a restraining order for domestic abuse against one of his top aides, who was her boyfriend, the day before she was due in court for the case. Turns out she never showed, the case was dismissed and Paterson now rightfully looks like someone who used his political power to intervene in the justice system. (It certainly doesn't help that his state police unit seemed to be even more heavy-handed about it.) This isn't the sort of thing you do when you're a governor, especially when you're criticizing a state senator -- the indefatigably obnoxious Hiram Monserrate -- for having his staff influence the girlfriend who Monserrate abused.

Or maybe it is the sort of thing you do when you're Paterson. All incumbent politicians' poll number are low these days, but his were particularly abysmal, rarely passing a 20 percent approval rating. Few politicians wanted to support him for re-election. Everyone else hoped New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo would challenge him in the Democratic primary. Lots spoke poorly of Paterson's gubernatorial skills and/or interest. Legislators didn't seem to respect him. Any fiscal or ethical reforms he tried to make were derided. Perhaps he just wanted out, plain and simple. Intervening in a domestic abuse case -- and hiding it -- isn't exactly the easy way to go about it, and now Cuomo's office has opened an investigation. Any reasonable, intelligent person would realize this, and Paterson should qualify as such. But when you're mentally and physically exhausted, if not broken, maybe there are some tiny axons firing in the back of your mind, pushing you ahead, against all rationale. Everyone else wanted him out. How quickly and suddenly that actually happened just seems a little too convenient not to think that Gov. Paterson didn't want out too.

Finally, it's worth noting that the Times is now responsible for ending the political careers of two consecutive New York governors. (Spitzer was before Paterson, and remarkably, both downfalls happened in the lifetime of this blog; that's proof it's become a veteran.) As a friend noted, Paterson was essentially Humpty-Dumpty -- things were already quite close to collapsing -- but the Times' Albany bureau gave that final, deserved push.