A bitter Gov. Paterson is blaming Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for his political demise, angrily contending that “despite all I did for him,” Silver conspired to oust him from office.
Paterson is also accusing the powerful Silver of seeking to force his resignation so the speaker’s longtime friend, Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch, would replace him, sources have told The Post.
“David truly believes he gave Shelly all these big favors, including appointing Ravitch and naming the new chief judge, and that Silver turned on him anyway,” said a source close to Silver.
“He’s saying ‘despite all I did for him,’ Shelly turned against him.”
Paterson defied legal precedent and appointed Ravitch as his lieutenant governor at Silver’s urging last July.
A lawsuit followed, and while Paterson’s actions were declared illegal by a state Supreme Court justice and a unanimous Appellate Division, it was approved by the state’s highest court on a 4-3 vote.
The deciding vote was cast by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, Silver’s childhood friend who was named to the high court by Paterson at Silver’s urging a few months earlier.
Paterson told associates that Silver began seeking his ouster months ago, well before last week’s bombshell allegation that he and his staff sought to block a Bronx woman from seeking an order of protection against David Johnson, the governor’s longtime aide.
The associates said Paterson believes Silver turned against him last fall after concluding that the governor would campaign against the Legislature as part of his own election strategy.
Silver himself rejected Paterson’s claims. But he pointedly suggested that the governor’s decision Friday not to run for office resulted from political missteps that predated the latest scandal.
“I believe a lot of people believed he was going to do it [not run] anyway,” Silver told The Post.
Meanwhile, Silver suggested Paterson may have to resign from office because of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s newly begun probe into the conduct of the governor, key aides and the State Police in the Johnson order-of-protection affair.
“I think the governor will make a decision [on resigning] based on what the attorney general’s findings are,” Silver said.
(Source: http://www.nypost.com/)
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12 Responses
Andrew Cuomo is the one responsible for this Mr. Governor. Don’t forget about his role!
Quite natural for politicians to blame others for their falls and failures. Of course Silver will try to unseat a Democrat who he views as hurting the party’s prospects in the elections. Isn’t that what the Democratic Speaker as a party leaders hould be doing? Paterson, this is called sour grapes. You weren’t good to begin with, you have no clue how to govern, and you should leave. Oh by the way, take your fellow Democrat leader in the White House with you. He also has no clue.
this not surprising since Paterson wants to change the way things are done in Albany were as Sheldon silver wants to keep the status quo.
This Silver is a real problem for our community.
Whether we like it or not, we Orthodox Jews are associated with him, and the resentments he causes are projected on us.
#4 tell this to Dov Hikinid.
We need Reb Joe Lazar for city council. He will clean up this whole mess, ( If YWN would let this msg stay.)
Reb Joe Lazar is a Democrat. He will not clean up the mess but add to it.
deepthinker, you are absolutely right about Shelly Silver. But, I still agree with Mark Levin about this. Andrew Cuomo was behind this.
The conspiracy theories around here are ridiculous — both by Paterson and by the commenters.
isbainanoshim:
How will Lazar being in City Council clean up the whole mess in Albany? It’s OK to advocate for the guy but he will have nothing to with the State.
Let’s keep our messes straight: we have our little mess of a City Council but the City is basically functional and we have our big mess in Albany. And Albany is dangerously dysfunctional.
Why would Andrew Cuomo dirty his hands with this mess? He already was a shoo-in to win the primary.
Great, mabey we’ll get rid of that “BUM” too
Moose613, Cuomo is for sure a shoo-in because he got rid of Paterson.