Meet Governor Paterson

David A. Paterson was sworn in as the governor of New York today, following the sex scandal that forced Eliot Spitzer's resignation. Paterson is the country's second blind governor. (Bob Riley served as an interim governor of Arkansas in 1975.) Also, he is only the nation's fourth African-American governor.

Unlike his more confrontational predecessor, Paterson called for bipartisan unity:

Let us grab the unusual opportunities that circumstance has handed us today and put personal politics, party advantage and power struggles aside, in favor of service, in the interests of the people...

No matter how talented an individual may be, no matter how much energy he might posses, regardless of how much integrity and honesty he or she may have, if that person is alone, they can accomplish very little...

And so what we are going to do from now on is what we always should have done: we are going to work together. With conviction in our brains and compassion in our hearts and the love for New York on our sleeves, we will dedicate ourselves to principle but always maintain the ability to listen. And now we look forward in this great state, we look forward with our eyes very much on the greatness of New York, and we look forward – ever forward – together.

It will be interesting to see what role he'll play in the election. In virtue of his being a Democratic governor, Paterson is also a superdelegate. Spitzer had supported Hillary, but Paterson's style seems to put him in the Obama camp. Will he go for Obama, or follow the Democrats of New York and support Clinton instead?

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WHORES!

As you may have heard about through the similarly dignified way the United States media reports on the significance of yet another governmental sex scandal, New York governor Eliot Spitzer is linked by payments totaling a few thousand dollars from various bank accounts to an expensive call-girl service. As Michael Lando of international.jpost.com writes, in one instance:

Spitzer allegedly paid for a call girl to take a train from New York to Washington - a move that opened the transaction up to federal prosecution because she crossed state lines. The governor has not been charged, and prosecutors would not comment on the case. A Spitzer spokesman said the governor had retained a large Manhattan law firm.

The case started when banks noticed the frequent transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, the law enforcement official told the AP. The accounts were traced back to Spitzer, prompting public corruption investigators to open an inquiry.

It's comical to think that had Spitzer been the governor of Nevada and spent time in Elko or Las Vegas (and of course, not been married), his frequenting of expensive call-girl services would have been legal. Gov. Spitzer is now facing intense pressure to resign due to the national attention this scandal has received. If Spitzer had not crossed state lines, staying within New York, there would not have been a federal investigation nor the media attention that will most likely result in his resignation. This would be the time for the Democratic party to take a page out of the Republican playbook as to how to keep explosive, heterosexual sex scandals from surfacing.

On the bright side, Spitzer's resignation might mean one less super-delegate for Hillary Clinton.