(Photo: Robin Platzer/Twin Images)

Golfing With George
Gimme an ’08 iron.
If you needed yet one more sign that George Pataki thinks he’s running for president in 2008, not governor next year, the invitation to his tenth annual Governor’s Cup Golf Outing fund-raiser on July 18 at Westchester’s Whippoorwill Club asks guests to make out their checks not to his reelection campaign but to his 21st Century Freedom PAC. That’s the outfit funding Pataki’s increasingly frequent trips around the country to, yes, lay the groundwork for a possible presidential run. “This is another indication that the lights are being turned off in Pataki’s governor’s mansion,” concedes a senior administration official. Still not convinced? Then pay attention on July 15. That’s when state campaigns have to file their papers—and political insiders theorize that Pataki’s will show scant funds being raised for the purpose of warding off would-be governor Eliot Spitzer.
—Greg Sargent