NY Gov. Patterson - Puttin' It All Out There

Photo: Nathaniel Brooks

How much time should we spend on this one? Shortly after his swearing in as Governor of New York, David Patterson was commenting on a different oath - the one he took and repeatedly broke as a married man. In what he hopes is a "pay now to avoid suffering later" maneuver, the legally blind and well educated Harlem born man admitted that he cheated on his wife, that he sometimes used his government credit card for booty call expenses when his own didn't work and that he did his thing with "several women." He also allowed that his lovely wife had her own blemished track record when it came to their marriage.

What he was aiming for, according to the New York Times, was preventing his past being leaked to the press to discredit him or worse, being blackmailed. He's only governor because Elliot Spitzer was caught using hookers. So it would seem that he's just adding fuel to an already raging moral fire. Then again, he did become Lt. Governor because of persistence, determination, probably some luck, and his own will to build a political career. So there is more to him than where he chose or even chooses to lie at night (or during the day or the afternoon). The question was if this was a smart move. Was it smarter than being caught? Was it better to tell people to lower their expectations of his private moral compass while judging him strictly on his public work? Did it make him seem more "human"? Truth be told, many people have had all the humanizing of politicians they can take through their Johnny and Jane-Come Lately confessions, campaign crying and grand speeches. We're based in Los Angeles, but know quite a few New Yorkers. Most are more concerned with how he'll address the budget and if he'll need to be replaced come re-election time. Though some in the "moral majority" may disagree, an increasing amount of Americans are weary of knowing more about what their elected officials are doing in the bedroom than in their office. Our hope is that Gov. Paterson is as open, concise and clear on how NY's tax system is handled as he's been on how he handled his bidness.