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The following article was published on p9 of today's New York Sun. It was handsomely illustrated with a vivid photograph of Senate Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Each is eating a large ice cream cone. Bruno's looks like vanilla, while Silver's is off-white with chocolate chips. The two men hold the cones together in a gesture of closeness, the ice cream cones almost touching. Each has a broad smile on his face. The picture, so clear it looks like high definition, is clearly worth a thousand words. That is two hundred words more than the column. The Sun's headlined the article: IF PATERSON HAS TO RESIGN, TOO.
Odd Line of Succession
For New York Governors
Switches Between Parties
By Henry J. Stern
March 21, 2008
Ten days have passed since Governor Spitzer's resignation, and events seem to be running even further ahead than expected.
When David Paterson was sworn in as the 55th governor of New York State, he received an enthusiastic reception from a joint session of the legislature. His speech was considered a success, demonstrating awareness of the state's acute financial crisis but not describing specific reductions.
What we did not know was that a few hours later, the new governor and his wife would hold a press conference dealing with mutual marital infidelity for two years at the turn of the century. The pair answered questions from the press and said they had come to a difficult period in their marriage, stayed together for the sake of the children, and are now in love again.
Even before that, on the day Mr. Spitzer resigned and Mr. Paterson held an impromptu press conference, the new governor was asked by New York Sun reporter Jacob Gershman whether he had ever used the services of a prostitute. Mr. Paterson waited a moment and then replied, "Only the lobbyists." This witty rejoinder to a possibly impertinent question enhanced his reputation as a regular fellow.
Another woman came forth yesterday, with a shove by Fred Dicker, the Post's crusading state editor. Apparently Diane Dixon, who won an Olympic gold medal while on the United States track team in 1984 in Los Angeles, and Mr. Dicker exchanged e-mails last week. She told him she had taped conversations with Mr. Paterson. He recommended her for several positions in the Department of Education. She was supposed to have been hired for one of the jobs, but has not started work yet. Mr. Paterson said yesterday that "any conversation she said she recorded with me could be played in this room and it wouldn't be interesting." He added: "I know her, not that well."
He knew her well enough, however, to recommend her for a number of non-teaching positions on the outskirts of the Tweed empire. In the Post, Ms. Dixon described herself as a single parent, which was the first category of individuals that Mr. Paterson spoke about on Wednesday as requiring special assistance.
Even assuming that there was no close, personal relationship between the two, the issue arises of how far a high state official, or any public employee, should go in pressing an agency to hire someone they knew. One reason the DOE was taken away from the old, politically dominated seven-member board was to get rid of politics in the school system.
If people still are being hired on the basis of calls from the powerful, that goal has not yet been reached. Chancellor Klein should look into this, and let the public know what he discovers. It is difficult to conceive that Mr. Paterson is the only public official who calls the Department of Education to help someone find a job.
One consequence of Mr. Paterson's elevation is that the next in line to be governor is the temporary president of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, who has held that position since 1995, when newly-elected Governor Pataki and Senator D'Amato secured it for him.
Senator Bruno has repeatedly been described in the press as facing indictment for a variety of allegedly corrupt transactions, but so far he has escaped prosecution, and it is possible that he will never be charged.
If, however, Mr. Bruno became governor, and were subsequently forced to leave the office, whether for legal entanglements or for reasons of health — he was born in April 1929 — the next in line to be New York State's chief executive is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has held that position since 1994 with increasing authority. In 2000, Mr. Silver crushed a revolt, punished the plotters, and solidified his power.
The denouement of this series of untimely events could be the accession of Shelly Silver as the 57th governor of New York State. A strong governor might control a dysfunctional legislature.
A Silver regime may cure the paralysis which has affected state government through decades of split responsibility and partisan conflict. However, it raises the issue of whether the taxpayers and voters of the state of New York would be better off with a divided, enfeebled legislature and governor than with officials who could really injure the people by their devotion to the special interests, labor, and business, and their persistent lobbyists, who in fact constitute the permanent government of the Empire State.
What Lies Ahead?
For the last few days, the names of additional attractive women have been added to the list of those associated with Governor Paterson's previous campaigns. Some women were paid money for unspecified services, others received the benefit of his intervention with public agencies on their behalf. It appears that the bookkeeping for Paterson's campaign was not complete. Nor is it clear just what campaign he was required to conduct, since in the general election of 2006 his name was paired on the ballot with Governor Spitzer. There was no primary that year for lieutenant governor because Paterson's seven opponents all diplomatically withdrew.
You can link to his campaign filings here. We would assume they are in the process of being amended to provide accuracy and transparency. This will allow the new Governor to reimburse his campaign for expenses of a personal nature, which would not normally be chargeable to a political committee. It should not, however, be charged to his contributors.
The level of scrutiny that a governor's filings receive is much higher than that of a lieutenant governor, so what has been discovered so far does not necessarily indicate any serious fault. We will wait until next week to comment on what may have been disclosed by then
We believe that private sexual activity by consenting adults is not the business of the state and should not seriously impact a public official's ability to perform his duties.
The governor, by his frank statement Wednesday (just hours after he was sworn in), put the issue before the public. If his disclosure was full and complete, he made a wise move. If, however, it was fragmentary, and additional revelations emerge, he will get no credit for either candor or fidelity. If, as a consequence of his conduct, the governor is not held in high regard, it will be even more difficult for him to influence the legislature when the two branches of government are locked in dispute. We hope that these matters are concluded with the governor's reputation intact, and his effectiveness unimpaired.
Several sophisticated readers have inquired what would happen if, on the resignation or incapacity of Governor Patterson and the consequent assumption of the governorship by Senate Leader Bruno, with Speaker Silver waiting in the wings, the Republicans could do anything to forestall Democratic recapture of the executive branch. Should Bruno falter in health or be terminated with prejudice (but not extreme prejudice) by the U.S. Department of Justice, which so expeditiously protected us from Governor Spitzer, there may be another way to protect the G.O.P.
It has been suggested that the Republicans could elect another temporary president of the Senate, succeeding Governor Bruno. His elevation would reduce the Republicans' edge in the Senate to 31 - 30, which means that the switch of a single vote could result in the election of a Democrat. Senator Carl Kruger (D- Bklyn) has been reported as ready to vote with the Republicans to organize the Senate, so more than one R to D turnover could be required.
On the other hand, the November elections are getting closer every day.. In view of the last two Democratic victories in senatorial by-elections, Darrel Aubertine in the Adirondacks and Craig Johnson in Long Island, the days of Republican hegemony in the state senate appear to be numbered. After 43 years in control of the upper chamber, and considering the aging of many Republican senators, there is a strong possibility that the Democrats will pick up a number of seats in 2008, which could give them control of the Senate.
If they hold these seats until the 2011 redistricting, they will have the opportunity to undo the Republican gerrymanders of the last four decades, and draw lines more favorable to the Democrats, under which Republicans would almost never have the opportunity to regain Senate control.
This may be too much inside baseball for many of you, but we are to answering your questions for you. We want our leaders to be honest, decent and ethical. If they are not, we should find people who are. It may be necessary to pick up the pieces of a dysfunctional legislature and try to put it together again. Term limits, such as the city has, can be helpful here. There are too many lifers who depend for their livelihood on the pleasure of the Speaker and the Leader. Sadly, Governor Spitzer failed to change the system. Governor Paterson should not forfeit his opportunity to do so.
P.S. Under the Constitution, the State budget must be adopted by March 31, ten days from today.
P.P.S. Enjoy the holidays. Happy Easter, we can say it.
~SQ
#457 3.21.2008 1497wds
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We have never had as sizeable a response to an error as we did to the attribution of the "Era of Good Feelings", a time of tranquility in American political history early in the 19th Century.
We thank the following readers, listed in order of our receipt of their e-mail on the subject: Mark Davies, Ned Davis, Judge Mark Friedlander, Corey Bearak, Eugene Feit, Dick Morris, Rosanne Klass, Stephen V. Fasano, and Harriet Davis-Kram. Please let us know if you find any mistakes in an article.
While and exact time frame for the “Era of Good Feelings” is debatable (you can link to several conflicting sources here), what is not is the fact that it occurred under the presidency of James Monroe (1809-1817), not James Madison (1819-1825), as we had mentioned in our March 13th article titled, "Paterson's Own History," a shorter version of which appeared in the March 12th issue of the New York Sun.
If you want to learn more on the “Era of Good Feelings” you can link to this article by Bison:
"Feelin' Alright",
by Michael Oliva
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