Two months after playing the race card, Gov. Paterson said on Saturday he has been subjected to “degrading” attacks because he is blind.

Paterson complained about several editorials and columns that he said negatively referenced his disability as well his buffoonish portrayal on “Saturday Night Live” in which he is “bumping into walls.”

“Anything I did got associated with the fact that I do have visual impairment,” he said during a speech before the state chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. “That’s an insult.”

Perhaps still stinging from the furor he created this summer when he claimed to be the victim of a racist media trying to keep him from running next year, Paterson said he does not believe the criticisms of his performance as governor is because he’s blind.

“It’s not the reason that my decisions are questioned. That would happen to any governor,” he said.

But he said his disability is “the reason that you hear these hostile, nasty remarks.”

He said one editorial proclaimed after a top aide left that he has no one left to read to him. He said another piece said someone should take him to “touch” the buildings at Ground Zero to prove the rebuilding had begun.

“Where is that anger coming from?” Paterson asked. “Where is that blatant hostility coming from? And I’m not blaming the media here because the media often just reflects the attitude of society.”

The pieces were not exactly as he portrayed. Paterson said he can take the shots, noting that unlike 70% of blind people nationally, “I have a job and I will be keeping my job for four more years.”

But the attacks on him could influence how others, particularly potential employers, view everyday blind people.

“The society where that attitude, where that anger, where that vitriolic conduct is excusable when it’s raised on a governor, think of what happens to an individual that just got out of college and doesn’t have an opportunity and is now sitting home when they should be working.”

As for “Saturday Night Live” and their portrayal of him “bumping into things,” Paterson warned, “I’m going to bump into ‘Saturday Night Live’ one day and they’re going to get what’s coming to them.”

(Source: NY Daily News)