Report: Obongo Urges Blinky To Drop Campaign

[The Bobster]

http://cbs3.com/topstories/obama.paterson.governor.2.1195715.html

Report: Obama Urges Paterson To Drop Campaign
Official Reportedly Reveals President Encourage Embattled N.Y. Governor To Reconsider Re-Election Efforts

NEW YORK (CBS) ― National Democratic Party leaders have asked Gov. David Paterson to consider withdrawing from the 2010 governor's race, according to two senior New York Democratic advisers.

Both advisers, who are close to the governor, spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for Paterson. The sources said it was unclear what Paterson would do in response.

The New York Times, which originally reported the request on its Web site, said that it was President Barack Obama who asked Paterson to withdraw.

Party leaders in Washington have bec
ome concerned about Paterson's political weakness, believing the governor's office is too important to risk losing, one of the state Democratic advisers told the AP on Saturday.

Paterson spokesman Peter Kauffmann declined comment to the AP on Sunday morning. White House officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A message about the race was delivered from top national Democrats at a dinner Friday night with Paterson, but it was unclear whether it was at the direction of Obama, one of the advisers said. The Democratic leaders spoke of a concern referred to as the "David Paterson problem," the adviser said.

The request has been in the works for a couple weeks, and the intention was to wait until after the state's primary to deliver it, the other adviser said.

Patrick Gaspard, Obama's political director, was scheduled to meet with the governor on Monday, one of the sources said.

Obama is scheduled to be in upstate New York that day, when he is expected t
o deliver a vision of economic revival to students at the Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.

As lieutenant governor, Paterson moved to the governor's office in March 2008 with Eliot Spitzer's resignation amid a prostitution scandal. But in the months since, his popularity has plummeted, and the state's economic situation deteriorated, with job losses mounting and the unemployment rate rising to the highest in 26 years.

Paterson has announced he will seek a full term in the 2010 election.

Paterson was sworn in as New York's 55th Governor on March 17, 2008.

 

[The Bobster]

Hochul made ‘unforced error’ with embattled chief judge pick, ex-gov says

Gov, Kathy Hochul made an “unforced error” in picking moderate Hector LaSalle to be the state’s top judge when key backers of her reelection bid had expressed their distaste for t…

nypost.com

Hochul made ‘unforced error’ with embattled chief judge pick, ex-gov says​

By
David Meyer


January 1, 2023 3:52pm
Updated

"It's really kind of amazing that this whole thing happened," Paterson said. Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutters

​

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul made an “unforced error” in picking moderate Hector LaSalle to be the state’s top judge when key backers of her reelection bid had expressed distaste for the choice, one of her predecessors charged Sunday.
“It’s sort of an unforced error because a number of parties had complained about this nomination, even before she made the selection,” former Gov. David "Blinky" Paterson said during an interview on WABC Radio’s “Cats Roundtable.”
“The governor is putting in the highest court in New York … someone who a lot of individuals who helped her thought would not stand for even what the governor stands for,” the fellow Democrat said. “It’s really kind of amazing that this whole thing happened.”
Hochul’s pick to head the state’s highest court upset unions and progressive groups who boosted her campaign against Lee Zeldin in what wound up being the closest New York governor’s race in decades, Paterson told host John Catsimatidis.
Hochul’s pick has run into opposition from progressives and unions.G.N.Miller/NYPost
“The unions, the Working Families Party and other progressive forces really came together at the end to help the governor pull this out,” he said.
“I think they did not take very kindly to her first major action after this to take a judge whose record apparently from their point of view on labor issues is not acceptable, and who is thought to be not really in favor of the rights that women have in New York right now.”
Paterson had previously urged lawmakers in Albany to at least give LaSalle a hearing to explain his positions and his qualifications for the role.
“This is why we have a process. This is why we have hearings,” he told The Post last week.
Hector LaSalle would be the first Hispanic chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals.Handout
Enough Democratic senators have expressed opposition to LaSalle’s nomination that Hochul will need Republican votes if she wants to jam the pick through.



Paterson, a former top state senator in Albany and lieutenant governor, became governor in 2008 after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer and served through 2010.

 

[The Bobster]

Ex-Gov. Paterson says it’s time to demand border, crime reforms after migrants freed despite beating cop

“Maybe this is the right case for people to really start standing up and demanding more accountability from our government,” Paterson said. “There’s no counterpoint to this. Somebody n…

nypost.com

Ex-Gov. Paterson says it’s time to demand border, crime reforms after migrants freed despite beating cop​

By
Social Links for Carl Campanile



Published Feb. 4, 2024, 1:09 p.m. ET















Ex-Gov. David "Blinky" Paterson raged Sunday that the migrants busted for beating two cops in Times Square and then allowed to bolt should be the final straw when it comes to dangerous US border and crime policies.
The Democratic former New York governor said the deeply troubling incident is an epic scandal and that the public should demand changes to ongoing lenient related policies, which have been led by the Biden administration and city law enforcement such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“Maybe this is the right case for people to really start standing up and demanding more accountability from our government,” Paterson said on the “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM radio.
Paterson did not target politicians or authorities by name when urging reforms after the Jan. 27 caught-on-video beat-down of the NYPD officers.
But he clearly was referring to everyone from President Biden to Bragg and Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Martinez Alonso, who released three of the defendants on their recognizance last week.
4
David Patterson slammed the release of migrants who assaulted a police officer. Getty Images
The prosecutor’s office could have sought to hold the accused criminals on bail under the law but did not, and the jurist failed to impose the key safety measure either way.
“First of all, we let them into this country,” Paterson said of the migrants — in an apparent dig at Biden, who has been criticized for his adminstration’s lax border policy.
“Second, they get into a fight. Third, when the police try to break up the fight, [the migrants] have no respect for law-enforcement, and the police become the victims,” Paterson said.
“There’s no counterpoint to this. Somebody needs to do something about it.”
For starters, Paterson said, the defendants are not American citizens afforded the same presumption of innocence in a criminal case.
4
Shocking video captured the moment a migrant mob pounded a pair of cops near Times Square over the weekend . DCPI
He said the migrants are “people from other countries, and you don’t even know what their [criminal] records are in those countries.”
Paterson then waded into New York’s controversial cashless bail law. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic-run legislature outlawed cash bail for most non-violent crimes in 2019. While the law has been tweaked several times to detain serial offenders, for example, many law-and-order critics say the policy is still too permissive.
Paterson noted that bail is supposed to be used as a tool to ensure a defendant shows up at his criminal trial — and not flee.
“In this particular case, they didn’t even have a bail hearing. They released these [migrant defendants] on their own recognizance, which is supposed to mean there is no way they will leave the jurisdiction,” Paterson told host John Catsimatidis.
4
“Maybe this is the right case for people to really start standing up and demanding more accountability from our government,” Paterson said on the “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM radio. DCPI
But the defendants did flee, reportedly to California.
“We’ll never see them again,” Paterson predicted.
“Just deport them! That’s what should have happened,” he said.
“Victims of crime — no matter who they are — should have a right to have the crime prosecuted. And it’s not going to happen in this case, because these people aren’t coming back,” he said.
Adding insult to injury, one of the released defendants gave people the middle finger upon release, he noted.
The disturbing incident began on a Saturday around 8:30 p.m. on West 42nd Street when an NYPD officer and lieutenant told a group of loitering migrants to move along.
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The migrants reportedly fled to California. Steven Hirsch
The interaction devolved into the mob of migrants converging on the officers, raining kicks on their heads and body, footage shows.
Seven migrants were eventually charged in the assault on the officers — and six are believed to have fled to California with the aid of taxpayer dollars thanks to government-paid bus tickets given asylum-seekers.
The six who fled include Darwin Andres Gomez, 19; Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19; Wilson Juarez, 21, and Yorman Reveron, 24, all of whom were freed without bail.

What do you think? Post a comment.

Of the three others arrested — Jhoan Boada, 22; Jandry Barros, 21 and Yohenry Brito, 24 — only Brito is still being held at Rikers Island on $15,000 cash bail.


Bragg issued a joint statement Saturday with NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban in which the DA vowed to work “hand in hand” with cops on the case.


“Our office continues to work with law enforcement to bring everyone responsible for these heinous attacks to justice,” the embattled DA said in a statement. “It is clear from video and other evidence that some of the most culpable individuals have not yet been identified or arrested.”