Mayor Bloomberg was “very critical” of Gov. Paterson during a private powwow with Republican leaders yesterday and said former Mayor Rudy Giuliani would make a “great governor,” The NY Post reports.

“He was very, very critical of Paterson,” said one source who attended the meeting.

“He said he thinks if Paterson’s the [Democratic] nominee [in 2010], Giuliani would have to run. He said he’d spoken to Rudy a while ago and said [the former Republican mayor] was thinking about it but hadn’t made up his mind yet.”

Bloomberg, who is courting Republican leaders for his re-election campaign this year, also said he thought “Rudy would beat Paterson” handily, another source said, citing recent poll numbers.

Polls conducted by Sienna College and Quinnipiac University showed Giuliani crushing Paterson.

Meanwhile, the NY Times reports that reeling from a series of setbacks, Gov. Paterson has embarked on an ambitious shake-up of his administration, turning largely to veterans of the Clintons’ far-flung network to try to steady the situation.

The rebuilding effort comes as Mr. Paterson faces the lowest public approval ratings of his first year in office and is struggling to negotiate a budget during the state’s worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression.

Mr. Paterson, in an interview on Friday, acknowledged that he had made mistakes in recent months and said that overhauling his staff would be a first step toward righting his administration.

(Sources: NY Times / NY Post)