Yesterday Governor David Paterson made a joke to a group of advocates about his old times as a hard-working state legislator, accusing some of his colleagues of saying one thing in speeches and doing another in session.
“I used to sit in my legislative office and think about how difficult it is to travel 150 miles to Albany on a bus … and how there were legislators who I used to think practiced their own versions of being Count Dracula,” Paterson said. “They would be very nice to the advocates when they came to Albany and then … the sun would go down and they’d go back to who they really are, a bunch of bloodsuckers.”
It’s a relatively innocuous (and relatively true) comment. Some Albany legislators are notorious for paying lip service to special issues and then serving only their own interests, just as all politicians do. But even though he later clarified his comments to reporters, some state congressmen immediately began shaking their torches and pitchforks at Paterson himself. Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, without even knowing to whom in particular Paterson was referring, called the comments “flip and not very amusing — in fact they were ‘Spitzeresque.’” Oh, Dean. Wethinks the succubus doth protest too much! In actuality, the comments were more “Cuomo-esque” — Mario, after all, was the governor who once called the State Legislature “monkeys.”
Gov. Paterson unveils fangs, calls state lawmakers ‘bloodsuckers’ [NYDN]
