NYT Prints Another David Paterson ‘Bombshell’…Does Anyone Care?
Just when you thought it was safe to completely give yourself up to the congressional death threats news meme, and the return of Israel to the headlines back comes David Paterson! Paterson sort of managed to slip out of the headlines a few weeks back thanks to one Erica Massa. And then stay out of them thanks in part to the deluge of health care bill headlines. But the ever-intrepid New York Times has just pubbed another piece on the Gov. today and it’s not great. As in, what was he thinking?
Gov. David A. Paterson personally helped draft a statement last month that he hoped would be endorsed by a woman involved in a domestic dispute with one of his top aides, proposing language asserting that there had been no violence in the encounter, according to three people with knowledge of the governor’s role.
On the night of Feb. 16, with The New York Times preparing an article on the aide, David W. Johnson, Mr. Paterson told his press secretary the key points that needed to be included in a brief statement that was sent to the woman, Mr. Johnson’s former companion, the three people said….Ms. Booker refused to go along, telling the mutual friend at one point in the process that she would not participate in “a lie,” according to two people briefed on the exchange…It is unclear, however, if at the time he was told that she had characterized it as “a lie,” the people with knowledge of the administration’s handling of the episode said.
Worth noting, timeline-wise, that Feb. 16 article was the first in a very long series, so perhaps Paterson did not anticipate the frenzy that would follow and that he could manage to pull this off under the radar? Not that that’s a good thing! That said, the Johnson profile followed weeks of speculation about an imminent Times “bombshell” so probably Paterson should have known better….really just in the general sense. Of course, the man appears to be political equivalent of teflon at this point, so who knows if this will even make a ripple.
