ALBANY — Gov. Paterson bought four more weeks in office — at best — by asking Andrew Cuomo to probe his involvement in a scandalous effort to intimidate a battered single mom.
But when the AG’s pack of former federal prosecutors finishes with Troopergate II, it’ll be curtains for sure for our accidental governor.
That’s the view at the Capitol — even among Paterson’s fellow Democrats — where an informal political deathwatch is under way. Top state government officials are counting the days to when Richard Ravitch, the state’s accidental lieutenant governor, becomes New York’s third chief executive in as many years.
No such sense of imminent resignation greeted Troopergate I when it took place 2½ years ago, after it was revealed by another pack of aggressive Cuomo investigators that Gov. Eliot Spitzer used the State Police in an effort to destroy a political foe.
The offenses then were considered serious, potentially criminal, but not quite impeachable. This time it’s different.
The allegations against Paterson, top aide David Johnson and State Police Superintendent Harry Corbitt are so shocking that it’s considered likely that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Democratic leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) would move to impeach the seriously unpopular governor if they’re true.
Without Cuomo’s probe, Paterson would have to step forward and answer questions about what he did, what he knew and the seeming contradictions in earlier comments.
Resignation would surely be at hand.
With the probe, Paterson can hide — as he did on the John Gambling radio show yesterday — behind the claim that he’d “better not discuss” the specifics of the charges for fear of interfering with Cuomo’s investigation, which is expected to last about a month.
Another key difference between Troopergate I and Troopergate II is that Paterson, perhaps in a state of shock, signed a formal legal “referral” giving Cuomo full subpoena, prosecutorial and even grand-jury power.
That’s something the savvy but satanic Spitzer wisely — from his point of view — refused to do in Troopergate I.
The referral means top aides to Paterson and Paterson himself will have to testify under oath to Cuomo’s investigators, or face being indicted.
“The attorney general has told his staff to push ahead aggressively and to let the chips fall where they may, ” said a source close to Cuomo.
Letting the chips fall where they may on the private goings-on in the Paterson administration is something likely to make even Gov. Ravitch wince.