Does the Gillibrand New York Senate Appointment Make David A. Paterson A Bungling Governor Or America's Shrewdest Politician

Gov. David A. Paterson bypassed a couple of better-known contenders yesterday and appointed Kirsten Gillibrand, a low-profile congresswoman from the rural, conservative Hudson Valley, to New York's open Senate seat. Caroline Kennedy at the last minute dropped out of consideration, but was she ever a contender?

Patterson may have been the savvy one as his primary goal perhaps was to shore up his own position and balance the Democratic ticket for 2010, which will see the governor, the appointed senator, and the state's senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, on the ballot and in his corner...

Caroline Kennedy, the only surviving child of president John F. Kennedy, and Andrew M. Cuomo, the state's popular attorney general, were considered the early front-runners for the seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who became secretary of state. In choosing Gillibrand, Paterson may have gained allies among women and Upstate voters. But he has also angered backers of Kennedy and Cuomo, alienated some key constituencies, and made it more likely that he and Gillibrand may both face primary challenges next year.

The Gillibrand appointment, which came after an excruciating and at times haphazard two-month selection process, may have been the most high-profile decision to date for Paterson, who is in many ways an accidental governor, coming to office last year after Eliot L. Spitzer resigned because of a sex scandal. "Everyone in town is furious with him," vented one Kennedy friend, who called the selection process, which included Kennedy's mysterious eleventh-hour withdrawal for unspecified personal reasons, "a fiasco."

Gillibrand's centrist voting record sets her at odds with most of her Democratic colleagues in New York. See Keith B. Richburg at the washingtonpost.com has the rest of this story

New York's Cocaine Smoking Governor David Paterson Nominates A Black Man As State's New Police Superintendent

First HNIC Gets Busy Trying To Avoid His Own Drama

Governor Paterson announced today that he is nominating Harry Corbitt to be the superintendent of New York state police, replacing Preston Felton.

Corbitt, who retired as a colonel from the state police in 2004, is a former deputy superintendent of internal affairs for the agency. During a 26-year career that began in New York state's west-central region, he also held command positions with with the Thruway detail.

Corbitt's selection must be confirmed by the state Senate.

Meanwhile, a hotel sex scandal is brewing for Paterson that is definitely not a good look for the brotha. Today, the gov's latest confession is he smoked cocaine and weed back in the day.

We here at 3BAAS really like this guy, as do 58% of recently polled New Yorkers. But 13 overnight stays and you're only 20 minutes from home. Ah... we're just a tad bit concerned. Details.

Governor Paterson, You've Got Some 'Splaining To Do!

IS EVERY POLITICIAN ON THE PLANET GETTING LAID OR WHAT???

A day after his predecessor's sex scandal propelled him into office, Gov. David Paterson revealed Tuesday that he had affairs with a "number of women," including a state employee, but said that does not affect his ability to lead.

Paterson had admitted one affair in a newspaper interview hours after taking office Monday, but gave a fuller accounting at a news conference with his wife at his side.

One of Paterson's "jump-offs" gets her 15 minutes. And another chick is a former Olympian.

"Several years ago, there were a number of women," Paterson said. "The public wants to know who its elected officials are and sometimes, even though you are human, and you are someone who just has feelings and has faults, there comes a time, perhaps, when you have to tell the public."Paterson said that the affairs happened during a rough patch in his marriage, and that the employee did not work for him. He insisted that he did not advance her career, and that no campaign or state money was spent on the affairs.

The admissions dampened the mood in the Capitol, where legislators had chanted Paterson's name and cheered after he was sworn in Monday.

The details keep coming at NEW YORK GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON ADMITS TO MULTIPLE EXTRA

With Spitzer's Hooker Gate And The McGreevey's Alleged Gay Threesomes, David Paterson's Run Of The Mill Affair Seems So... 90's!

Another Governor, Another Sex Scandal???

The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state's new governor, David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife had extramarital affairs.

In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago.

In the course of several interviews in the past few days, Paterson said he maintained a relationship for two or three years with "a woman other than my wife," beginning in 1999.

As part of that relationship, Paterson said, he and the other woman sometimes stayed at an upper West Side hotel — the Days Inn at Broadway and W. 94th St.

He said members of his Albany legislative staff often used the same hotel when they visit the city.

"This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point," Paterson conceded in his first interview Saturday. "But I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on."

In a second interview with Paterson and his wife Monday, only hours after he was sworn in to replace scandal-scarred Eliot Spitzer, Michelle Paterson confirmed her husband's account.

"Like most marriages, you go through certain difficult periods," Michelle Paterson said. "What's important is for your kids to see you worked them out."

The First Couple agreed to speak publicly about the difficulties in their marriage in response to a variety of rumors about Paterson's personal life that have been circulating in Albany and among the press corps in recent days.

They spoke in the governor's office even as scores of friends, family members and political supporters were celebrating in the corridors of the Capitol his ascension to the state's highest post.

Given the call-girl scandal that erupted last week and forced Spitzer's stunning resignation, Paterson conceded that top government officials are bound to come under closer scrutiny for their personal actions.

The governor flatly denied what he called a "sporadic rumor in Albany that I had a love child" by another woman. "That's just not true," he said. "Don't you think he'd take care of a child if he'd had one?" Michelle Paterson said, in obvious disgust over that persistent rumor.

The romantic relationship he did have, Paterson said, lasted until sometime in 2001. He did not identify the former girlfriend. Asked if he had stayed with anyone else since 2001 at the same West Side hotel, Paterson said, "From time to time I used to take Michelle to that hotel."

Wait! The story continues>>>

After Eliot Spitzer Scandal, David Paterson Makes New Yorkers See Black On St Patrick's Day!

David Paterson, The 55th Governor Of NY, Takes Office

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NY Governor Spitzer Says Power Will Go To The Blind Black Man Effective Monday

A Stunning Fall, An Amazing Rise For David Patterson

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said on Wednesday that he will resign effective Monday after allegedly spending thousands of dollars on meetings with prostitutes.

"I look at my time as governor with a sense of what might have been," Spitzer said, with his expressionless wife Silda standing at his side. "There is much more to be done, and I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work."

His wife took deep breaths as hundreds of photos were taken at close range. Each of Spitzer's words was accompanied by a rush of camera clicks.

"Over the course of my public life, I've insisted, I think correctly, that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself," he said.

Watch Spitzer's Resignation Speech

Despite Spitzer's resignation, the U.S. Attorney's office said there was no deal in place for the governor regarding possible prosecution.

"There is no agreement between this Office and Governor Eliot Spitzer, relating to his resignation or any other matter," said Michael J. Garcia, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Of New York.

Attending the news conference with Spitzer were his close advisers and lawyers, including Ted Wells, a prominent attorney who recently represented I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Lt. Gov. David Paterson, slated to take Spitzer's place, requested that the resignation go into effect next week in order to have more time to put a transition team in place.

Paterson will become the governor of New York when he is publicly sworn in on Monday. Paterson will become just the eighth black governor in American history, the first in New York.

In a statement, Paterson expressed sadness over the scandal.

"On a personal level, Governor Spitzer and Silda have been close and steadfast friends. As an elected official the Governor has worked hard for the people of New York."

Spitzer formally announced his resignation in a Wednesday morning news conference.

Prior to the announcement, Spitzer and his wife left their apartment around 11 a.m. and got into a black SUV to take them to his office. Cameras aboard news helicopters tracked the movement of Spitzer's three-vehicle motorcade from his apartment on the Upper East Side to his office in midtown Manhattan.

Spitzer's resignation will not become final until he informs top-ranking officials and submits an official letter. WNBC.com has been told to expect a paper statement e-mailed out and posted on the state's official Web site.

New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, speaking at a news conference Wednesday, said he felt "sad" for Spitzer and his family but stressed that the state needs to focus on the future.

"He must deal with his own problems in his own way, but it is time for us and all new Yorkers to move forward," said Bruno.

Bruno and Spitzer have an acrimonious history, as Spitzer had been embroiled in an earlier scandal in which his aides were accused of overzealously searching for incriminating information about the majority leader.

Bruno also said he was looking forward to working with Paterson.

"We are going to partner with the lieutenant governor when he becomes governor," said Bruno. "David has always been very open with me, very forthright ... I look forward to a positive, productive relationship."

The case involving Spitzer started when banks noticed frequent cash transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The accounts were traced back to Spitzer, leading public corruption investigators to open an inquiry.

A law enforcement official said Tuesday that Spitzer had spent tens of thousands of dollars with the call-girl service Emperors Club VIP.

Still another law enforcement official said investigators found that during the tryst with a prostitute named Kristen, Spitzer used two rooms at Washington's Mayflower Hotel -- one for himself, the other for the call girl. Sometime around 10 p.m., Spitzer sneaked away from his security detail and made his way to her room, the official said.

According to an affidavit, a federal judge approved wiretaps on the escort service's telephone in January and February. FBI agents in Washington had the Mayflower under surveillance when Spitzer was in town, a senior law enforcement official said.

The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Spitzer, a first-term Democrat, built his political reputation on rooting out government corruption, and made a name for himself as attorney general as crusader against shady practices and overly generous compensation. He also cracked down on prostitution.

He was known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street." Time magazine named him "Crusader of the Year," and the tabloids proclaimed him "Eliot Ness." The square-jawed graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law was sometimes mentioned as a potential candidate for president.

He rode into the governor's office with a historic margin of victory on Jan. 1, 2007, vowing to stamp out corruption in New York government in the same way that he took on Wall Street executives with a vengeance while state attorney general.

His term as governor has been fraught with problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear his main Republican nemesis. The prostitution scandal, some said, was too much to overcome.

Barely known outside of his Harlem political base, Paterson, 53, has been in New York government since his election to the state Senate in 1985. He led the Democratic caucus in the Senate before running with Spitzer as his No. 2.

Though legally blind, Paterson has enough sight in his right eye to walk unaided, recognize people at conversational distance and even read if text is placed close to his face. While Spitzer is renowned for his abrasive style, Paterson has built a reputation as a conciliator.

Bruno, though the next highest-ranking official, does not become lieutenant governor upon Paterson's ascension to governor. The lieutenant governor's office would remain vacant until the next general election in 2010 under state law. However, whenever Paterson is out of state or if he were to become incapacitated, Bruno would be acting governor.

David Paterson To Become The Latest African American To Become Governor As Eliot Spitzer Faces Impeachment Unless He Resigns

Black History Spills Into March With Our (Soon-to-be) Four Governors

Now that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is in talks with Lt. Governor David Paterson to transfer gubernatorial power to the legally blind, former Harlem state senator, we thought it was odd that the media kept saying that Paterson would be the fourth African American governor to serve.

We knew of Virginia's Douglas Wilder and Massachusetts' Deval Patrick, but who else was left?

Well, meet the first to serve with this distinctive title, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback.

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (May 10, 1837 – December 21, 1921) was the first African American to become governor of a U.S. state. He was also the first non-white (biracial) governor of Louisiana. Pinchback, a Republican, served as the governor of Louisiana for thirty-five days, from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873.

Nicholas Lemann, in Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, described Pinchback as "an outsized figure: newspaper publisher, gambler, orator, speculator, dandy, mountebank -- served for a few months as the state's governor and claimed seats in both houses of Congress following disputed elections but could not persuade the members of either to seat him."[1]

Pinchback was born in Macon, Georgia (Bibb County), to a white planter (William Pinchback) and his former slave, Eliza Stewart. Known as "Pinckney Benton Stewart," he was educated at the Gilmore High School in Cincinnati. After his father died in 1848, he left Cincinnati because he feared that his paternal relatives might try to force him into slavery. He worked as a hotel porter and barber in Terre Haute, Indiana.

In 1860, while in Indiana, Pinchback, 23, married then 16-year-old Nina Emily. They had two daughters and four sons.

During the Civil War, Pinchback traveled to Louisiana and became captain of the Union Army's Company A, 1st Louisiana Native Guards (later reformed as the 74th U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment).

After the war, he became active in the Republican Party and participated in Reconstruction state conventions. In 1868, Pinchback organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club in New Orleans. That same year, he was elected as a Louisiana state senator, where he became the state Senate president pro tempore. In 1871 he became acting lieutenant governor upon the death of Oscar Dunn, the first elected African American lieutenant governor of a U.S. state.

In 1872, the incumbent Republican governor Henry Clay Warmoth, was impeached and convicted, removing him from office. Pinchback, as lieutenant governor, succeeded as governor on December 9.

Also in 1872, at a national convention of African-American politicians, Pinchbank had a public disagreement with Jeremiah Haralson of Alabama. James T. Rapier (also of Alabama) submitted a motion that the convention condemn all Republicans who had opposed President Grant in that year's election.[2] Haralson supported the motion, but Pinchback opposed it because it would include Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, a lifelong anti-slavery fighter whom Pinchback felt African-Americans should laud.

After his brief governorship, Pinchback remained active in politics and public service. He was elected to both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, but both elections were contested, and his Democratic opponents were seated instead. Pinchback served on the Louisiana State Board of Education and was instrumental in establishing the predominantly black Southern University in New Orleans in 1880 (later relocated to Baton Rouge in 1914). He was a member of Southern University's board of trustees.

In 1882, Republican President Chester Alan Arthur named Pinchback as surveyor of customs in New Orleans. In 1885, he studied law at Straight University, (which was closed in 1934) in New Orleans. He was admitted to the bar in 1886, and later moved to New York City where he was a federal marshal, and then to Washington, D.C. where he practiced law.

Pinchback died in Washington in 1921 and was interred in Metairie Cemetery near New Orleans even though the cemetery at the time was segregated and deemed to be exclusively for whites.

Former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer: Sex, Lies, And A Sistah Name Temeka!

The Spitzer Scandal: Lust Plus Pride Equals Black Man Will Now Run The Show

Talk about a red phone moment! On a day of heavy ironies for one of America's most prominent and promising politicians, there was drama. Not we're not talking about presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama.

Today the focus shifted to the prostitution ring that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer allegedly patronized called the Emperors Club VIP. And to Hillary's chagrin, this fall from grace would be particularly bruising for her campaign, while America watches another African American rise to one of the highest positions of power in this country.

It was, in many ways, a Jimmy Swaggart redux for New York state: the sloppy fall of a man known for his uprightness, his starched shirts (white shirts everyday), and the vigorous adjectives he reserved for those deemed less righteous (as the Wall Street giant — and perennial Spitzer adversary — Ken Langone noted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the governor called him "unsavory", "deceptive" and "tainted").

Spitzer may have made his name going after Wall Street gluttony, but he had a long history with criminal cases involving wiretaps, from his 1992 Gambino "mob tax" prosecution based on taped phone conversations to his 2004 calls for the FCC to let prosecutors tap internet phones and intercept text or picture messages on cell phones. Spitzer himself said that New York State does about 30% of the nation's wiretaps, and he helped make it a powerful weapon in the prosecutors' arsenal. If the charges are true, why would he think he was immune from such techniques? Another irony.

Four individuals had been charged last week with operating the Emperors Club VIP, which is described by law enforcement authorities as an "international prostitution and money-laundering ring." Court papers indicate the business garnered more than $1 million by arranging trysts between its more than 50 prostitutes and "wealthy male clients" in London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris and Washington. The customers are said to pay $1,000 to $5,500 per hour for the services of the ring's "Spokes Models" [sic]. Spitzer was allegedly among those clients.

Wiretaps allegedly recorded the setting up of a Washington, D.C., appointment between him and an Emperors Club "model." A defendant in the case, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, told a prostitute identified only as Kristen that she should take a train from New York to Washington for an encounter with Client 9 on the night of Feb. 13, according to the complaint. The defendant confirmed that the client would be "paying for everything — train tickets, cab fare from the hotel and back, mini bar or room service, travel time and hotel."

The prostitute met the client in Room 871 at about 10 p.m., according to the complaint. When discussing how the payments would be arranged, Client 9 told Lewis: "Yup, same as in the past, no question about it" — suggesting Client 9 had done this before.

According to court papers, an Emperors Club agent was told by the prostitute that her evening with Client 9 went well. The agent said she had been told that the client "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe ... very basic things," according to the papers, but Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that ... I'd be, like, listen dude, you really want the sex?"

The Emperors Club website crashed on Monday afternoon with the onslaught of journalistic and prurient interest. "Kristen" met with Client 9 the night of February 13, 2008, according to the affidavit, after describing herself as "petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, 105 pounds". They were finished, three hours and $4,300 later (It may not have been Client 9's first time there: he had a $500 credit.) "Kristen" then called a colleague at the Emperors Club and said that she liked Client 9. "I don't think he's difficult," she said. Spitzer's problem — long before this news broke — is that there are plenty in New York who would disagree.

The allegations will undoubtedly be more damning for Spitzer, a former hard-nosed prosecutor who had made ferreting out corporate malfeasance and cracking down on corruption centerpieces of his political platform. For African Americans, it's a bittersweet moment. While you can't help but feel for this man, all eyes are now on Lt. Governor David Paterson, a black former state senator from Harlem who in many ways will serve to avenge one David Dinkins, the former Mayor of the Big Apple who got kicked to the curb like no other New York politician of recent memory. That is, until now!

When Spitzer finally addressed the Emperors Club charges in a delayed and brief non-denial before the assembled media on Monday afternoon, the governor said, "I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas." But if these accusations do spell the end of Spitzer as an individual in political life, his ideas — of reform and clean governance in Albany — had already stalled because of a different cardinal sin: not Luxuria (Lust), as in Monday's scandal, but Superbia (Pride).

After sweeping to power in Albany with a landmark victory — he took office in January, 2007 by winning 69% of the vote — he quickly engendered resentment for both his policies and management style. Spitzer was the architect of a widely unpopular plan to issue driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, and did not endear himself to constituents by squabbling with the Republican-controlled State Senate, and particularly the body's majority leader, Joseph Bruno, whose camp accused the governor of deploying "dirty tricks" to smear his opponents.

"I don't think, by any metric, you'd say that his administration thus far has been a success," Phillips says. In order for Spitzer to keep his job, says Phillips, "he'd have to come clean right away, admit to what he did and not have this trickle of damaging information come out." [Time Magazine]