The New York Times now claims that Eliot Spitzer will soon resign as Governor of New York. Matt is right that something about Spitzer becoming a target of a justice department investigation does not smell right, but nonetheless what Spitzer actually did can't be defended. And I still feel like we lost a future President.
However, while looking through information on New York Lt. Governor David Paterson, the following passage really caught my eye:
In 2002, however, Mr. Paterson shot to unusual prominence for a Senate Democrat. With two other Manhattan legislators, Eric Schneiderman and Liz Krueger, he staged a coup that ousted the sitting Senate Minority Leader, Martin Connor. The Manhattanites saw Mr. Connor, of Brooklyn, as overly resigned to Republican control of the body. They wanted to fight more actively to retake it.
Ah, so Paterson has been one of the driving forces behind Democratic Senate gains in New York. Also, he seems to have good friends, like Eric Schneiderman, who recently wrote an excellent piece about transforming the liberal checklist for the Nation. (Check out Digby's write up of the piece here.) Those are a couple of whistles about Patterson that ring loud and clear to me that there are reasons to be hopeful that another transformative progressive is taking Spitzer's place.
Paterson would certainly break new ground, joing Barack Obama and Deval Patrick as the only sitting, African-American Governors or U.S. Senators:
David A. Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and the current Lieutenant Governor of New York. He is the first African American and legally blind person to hold this position. He was selected as running mate by New York Attorney General and Democratic Party nominee Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 New York gubernatorial election.
On a more superficial note, he also has a beard. This may sound stupid, but as a DFH who frequently sports facial hair myself, I am prone to trust male politicians with beards. Maybe he could form a caucus at the DGA with Jon Corzine.
I think there are some real signs here that David Paterson has real potential as the next Governor from New York. That should not be too surprising, since he was chosen by Eliot Spitzer in an election where Spitzer could have chosen really anyone and still won. This is another reason by choosing a reinforcing choice and / or a progressive choice as Vice-President is key for the Democratic presidential nominee this year. Let's just say, hypothetically, that Republicans attempt to tar and feather the next Democratic President with everything they can find. You know, like what they did to Bill Clinton. and let's just say, hypothetically, that the Democratic nominee is not a perfect person. You know, like everyone. As such, doesn't it make a lot of political sense to have someone like David Paterson in reserve, where in the horrifying event that the Vice-President needs to take over, that such a shift does not cause progressive policy moves to be halted? Having a second in line who will continue a progressive project is an unfortunate, but necessary, guarantee against an effective coup d'ete by the Republican Noise Machine. In fact, an overtly progressive choice for Vice-President like Sherrod Brown might even make Republicans think twice about getting rid of the next President. With Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, choosing a progressive as Vice-President could even potentially cause Republicans to back off a little bit (not likely, but also not impossible). A reinforcing and / or progressive second in line is a good guarantee for effective governance in the next Democratic administration.
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