« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

White House targeting… Gov. Paterson (D, NY).

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  September 20th, 2009 at 02:02 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

They apparently started by making a quiet request that he drop out, and I’m going to guess that Paterson told them ‘no.’ So they leaked the news.

To repeat: so they leaked the news.

ALBANY – In a stunning request, the Obama administration has made it clear to poll-challenged Gov. Paterson that the White House would prefer he not seek election to a full four-year term next year.

The Obama administration sent the message through White House political affairs director Patrick Gaspard, who met with the governor at his campaign headquarters for nearly two hours last Monday, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.

Let us dispense with the polite fiction that this source is acting with anything less than the full approval of the President of the United States; as Hot Air points out, the same source went to both the New York Times and ABC News. And let us also dispense with any illusion that it’s in the best interests of the Democratic party for Paterson to run for Governor next year: the way things are shaping up, he’d be eviscerated in the general election by the Republican nominee.  Both of those things being noted, though… the phrase that comes to mind from reading this story is ‘ham-handed ruthlessness.’  The ruthlessness is obvious – and will probably be lauded by his most devoted supporters.  Everybody else will note that the President apparently thinks that nobody within the Democratic party has the right to expect that disagreements with him will remain private.

This is not the kind of reputation that the President wants to get, by the way.  It’s the fastest way I know of to make sure that everybody around him starts giving him the mushroom treatment, out of sheer self-preservation…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Tags: , , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • larryp

    why this conversation would take two hrs. “We don’t want you to run for Gov.”
    To bad, I am running.
    1 hr 58min left.

  • janis

    by even his own side! Yayyy for overreaching—it’s certainly something that the Dems, when in power, never can restrain themselves from doing. Obama, however, puts a whole new spin on that concept. Apparently there is no one in this country, or world, that Obama doesn’t feel compelled to order around like just so many lowly flunkies.

    Except for the Tyrants Club, of course. Those guys are off limits from his meddling.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    The rest could be just getting coffee orders in, or something.

  • ss396
  • http://www.redstate.com/tnjim TNJim

    the process with replacing Kennedy, now this. If these 2 things aren’t proof he’s a Chavez wanna-be, I don’t know what is. Well, there is taking over the banks and 2 car companys…

  • Ausonius

    a. because of all the wailing and gnashing of teeth

    b. because of all the foul-mouthed cursing on both sides

    c. because nobody says “No” to Big BRObama and just walks away: not the Chicago way

    d. a,b, and c

    Moe LAne wrote: “This is not the kind of reputation that the President wants to get, by the way. ”

    I think Moe is wrong, and right: Big BRObama will play hardball with his playmates here at home, and does indeed want to present a tough controlling persona.

    You are right: this should not be something he wants, but given that everything he has done so far is wrong, what can we expect?

    Ultimate irony: NObama refuses to be tough with the characters who deserve a slap in the face: Putin, Chavez, Castro, Kim, Ahmedinejad, etc. etc. etc.

    Instead, he picks on a blind black man! :)

  • bk

     

  • 6eorge Jetson

    Not “liberal”. The only association the left has with free is the price they’ll pay when they take your stuff.

    Most of us has observed a control freak boss that racks up one underperformance after another but always has an excuse for it as long as they get to control the conversation and point the finger.

    Great. Government by a million <i>Marys. (Insert your own local control freak.)

  • fisk2521

    I’ll just speculate here that the reason the meeting took two hours is that Obama offered Patterson some lucrative position if he agreed to ‘step down’. You know, “pay to play’ kind of tactics….. win/win for everyone…. except of course the American public and New York State taxpayers that are being driven out of their homes by unsustainable taxes.

    We also should all remember the situation with Caroline Kennedy and her desire for the Senate seat that Hillary left. Patterson said no to the appointment, upsetting (Oh no) the Kennedy mafia and Obama who wanted her as well. Don’t P.ss off these people, they’ll get you……

    “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
    Plato

  • janis
  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx
  • janis

    His actions with regard to Honduras are the clearest indication to me of what really offends this man. And that would be democracy in action in the truest sense of the word. He has no intention whatsoever of just serving one term. This man wants total control for as long as he lives.

    Then again, there’s the concept of “What I want” as opposed to the concept of “What I’m going to get”.

  • janis

    the health care reform thing. After all. Paterson is legally blind and I would think that, by Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel’s standards, Paterson is somewhat further down the “Terms of Life” ideal than a younger and better-sighted man would be.

    Or maybe the two of them took all that time trying to figure out how to make the job of “Hooker and Blow Czar” more politically correct.

  • fisk2521

    It worked for Al Capone for quite a long time….

  • DavidSage

    The Democrat Party used to have to tip-toe whenever it tried to throw unelectable black politicians under the bus, but no longer. They now have the ultimate referee in all issues of race.

    If it’s leaked that Obama wants the person out of the way, it can no longer be racist.

    Democrats can now do whatever it takes to get Paterson out of the way without upsetting the black base.

    The Democrats will make sure Paterson loses that primary, they’re much better at doing what it takes to consolidate power. Republicans will keep a rotting politician on until he loses like Ted Stevens or Don Young.

  • http://www.redstate.com/tnjim TNJim

    He still insists calling what happened in Honduras a coup, when in fact they are just enforcing their constitution. The, um, differences he has with our own Constitution are a great cause for concern. Which remeinds me, I need to reply to the latest email I got from the chair of my county GOP. She says she can put me to work. Getting involved is the only way to stop this guy, although I doubt he can pull something like this off in TN anyway.

    But I’ve underestimated him before…

  • 6eorge Jetson

    next term after dropping out of the election race.

  • mbecker908

    And the old. And the morally challenged. Heh.

  • janis

    Just look at the cast of moral and ethical degenerates he has assembled in one place–the Cabinet, for starters.

  • mbecker908

    Michael Steele is calling both BO and the silent “black leaders” on this one. See here. And yes, I’m shameless.

  • jeffreywturner

    I am hoping Patterson uses the race card in this issue as well, and causes a nasty, bitter, drawn-out primary in which he eeks out a victory.

    Not only will that ensure a GOP victory in the Governor’s race, but it will hurt the Dems down ballot as well in the State Legislature as well, assuring that the GOP has 2 of the 3 seats at the table when they sit down to re-draw New York’s congressional district lines in 2011.

    Statehouse control is so critically important in states with many congressional districts with the lines being drawn by politicians (ie: Florida, New York, Texas).

  • mbecker908

  • jeffreywturner

    Will they actually be brave enough to do the same thing to the likes of Chris Dodd, or even Harry Reid when the time comes?

  • Tbone

    in writing.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    hint, hint

  • janis

    “burdens” looming in the news. Maybe Obama can persuade Janet Reno to come back. What’s not to love about that? Clintonite, dubious career credentials, ethically shady, sics armed men on 6 year olds in the middle of the night, orders the murders of religious figures and their followers…….

    ……perfect.

  • izoneguy

    Comedy gold from the RNC chairman, cheekily borrowing Alinsky Rule 4 to rub the left?s face in its own bottom-feeding racial demagoguery. His argument?s absurd, of course, and deliberately so: Imagine believing that Obama hates black people ? when we all know it?s blind people that he really hates.

    Paterson responded this afternoon to the The One?s nudge by kinda sorta telling him to get bent. Exit question: Is Paterson racist?

  • janis

    line up with? Not Michael Steele, I’m sure of that. But would they side with Paterson or Obama on this one? That will be entertaining, to hear what they say, or don’t say.

    Who’d a thunk that this brilliant bunch, all flash and glitter in the beginning, could now be seen as so brassily, thuggishly arrogant so soon?

    46% of us all across America knew it in Nov. of ’08. And now?

  • victoriadelsoul

    Poor Governor Paterson – none of his friends have faith in him!? He finds himself all alone!? And since he can’t see, the dems feel free to throw him under the bus and leave no witness, LOL.?

    To be fair, I can’t blame anyone for giving him a vote of no-confidence.

  • victoriadelsoul

    Poor Governor Paterson – none of his friends have faith in him!? He finds himself all alone!? And since he can’t see, the dems feel free to throw him under the bus and leave no witness, LOL.?

    To be fair, I can’t blame anyone for giving him a vote of no-confidence.

  • Scope

    they have been very silent on the “racism” issue so far. There have been “black issues” in the news, such as the Gates/Crawley debacle, and, I don’t remember seeing the the “black civil rights activists”, those named above, coming out and making their case. I’m sure I’m missing something, but, the last black stand I saw from them was the “Jenna Six” case. Has Obama asked them to step aside? Did he remind them that he is the first post-racial presiden? There is now a case where another “black” woman, who had consentual sex with 5 men, and then accused them of rape, and then said she brought the case up because she didn’t want her boyfriend to know she had sex with 5 men. Piggy backing from the Duke case? Where are the supporters of the “I will back the black no matter what” crew?

  • proudgop

    Obama has already injected himself into keeping Gillibrand primary free

    I find it shocking that they would have someone inside his inner circle release this to the press. The Kennedy clan hates Cuomo so you have to wonder how they feel tonight too ( they are not please with Patterson either)?

    One has to wonder why he injected himself here when Gov of MA has just as much backage?

  • larryp

    that therewas a state legislaor that was running orasking for Hillary’s Sen seat.
    And he was squelched and toldto back off by the WH iirc. Anyoneelse recall that?
    Also, Maybe Spitzer is back in the limelight. Wasn’t he making speeches last week or so?

  • proudgop

    Supposedly, the WH is concerned that Patterson would hurt Gillibrand and all way down

    This was dumb move by Obama camp to leak it to the press.

    I don’t expect Patterson to survive a primary with Cuomo but it might hurt Cuomo for general election with African American turnout

  • proudgop

    Israel, Maloney, and McCarthy were all going to run against Gillibrand and WH basically told all above to not run

    Gillibrand Mrs ACORN is very vulnerable and yet I still doubt Pataki runs. He is basically nonexistent in NY. I can’t recall last time he was anywhere in state

  • VanishingNYRep

    You guys are missing the point. Paterson will never survive a primary. Cuomo will be the nominee. The whole thing was unnecessary. The President and his adm are control freaks. They want to make sure they control all nominations and then can demand loyalty. By telling Paterson to get out of the race, they can go to Cuomo, when he wins, and tell him that they were responsible for it and that he’d better toe the line.

  • AngryMatt

    Cuomo is up by what, fifty or sixty points on Paterson in the primary? He’s also up over Giuliani by I think a dozen points as well whereas Paterson is down by thirty or forty. You’re right; this is a power play by the White House to “clear the field” and make Cuomo thinks he owes Axelrod and Emmanuel something when the general is over when in reality he owes them nothing.

  • mustango

    Rush just reminded me Paterson was the one who made the infamous quote, on the occasion of Limbaugh officially vacating NYC, to the effect that had he known his tax policies would have that effect, he’d have instituted them sooner.

    The man got what he deserved.