Paterson Won’t Resign

New York Governor David Paterson shot down rumors that he was planning to resign at a press conference Tuesday, hoping to quash a controversy that has consumed Albany for several days. “The only way I’m not going to be governor next year is at the ballot box,” Paterson told reporters. “And the only way I’ll be leaving office before is in a box.”

Paterson admitted sitting down with reporters from the New York Times, the paper rumored to have been working on a scandalous story that was to prompt Paterson’s resignation. The Governor was quick to add that the interview touched only on political and governing issues, not the topics “that have been the source of the mass speculation and feeding frenzy and circus that we have witnessed the last couple of weeks.”

Paterson deserves credit for his moxie if nothing else. He soldiers on in the face of dismal approval ratings, an obstinate if not wholly hostile state legislature, and even a Democratic White House that just wishes he would go away. This latest rumor about Paterson’s early exit only compounds the issue. The Governor himself openly mused about its source, and one can’t help but wonder if political enemies are trying to hasten his exit from the public stage.

It is ironic that Paterson’s only ally these days seems to be his one confirmed challenger for governor, Republican Rick Lazio. In an open letter to Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, Lazio called upon the Gray Lady to either confirm or deny whether it was working on the rumored story and bring an end to “over a week of innuendo and nasty speculation.”

Lazio’s letter provided an interesting twist to the unfolding drama, or tragedy, that has become David Paterson’s administration. The letter could be written off as a shrewd political move on Lazio’s part, but more likely it was a sincere statement about the depths to which politics and media have sunk. It surely stands in stark contrast to the actions we have witnessed in Albany this past week.