The hits keep coming towards Governor David Paterson, for how he handled appointing a replacement to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Specifically, how his aides spun the crumbling of Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid fast and furious through quotes to the press.
Last week, the Post slammed Paterson for being a liar, Photoshopping him as Pinocchio, and questioning why Paterson claims not to know who spread the leaks; the Post's Fred Dicker wrote, "The person responsible for the smear was an individual whose identity is well known to the press, whose full-time job is to do the governor's bidding, and who is intelligent enough not to call reporters to damage Kennedy's reputation without approval from the top - and that means Paterson." Today, the NY Times gives a worrying perspective, saying that Paterson's office handled the leak similar to how former Governor Spitzer worked:
A review of public comments and interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the process make clear that Gov. David A. Paterson’s administration released confidential information about Ms. Kennedy and misled reporters about its significance as part of an orchestrated effort to discredit her after she withdrew. But the governor is unlikely to face the legal scrutiny or numerous investigations that Mr. Spitzer did, even though he has acknowledged that the information about Ms. Kennedy should not have been released.
Ethics specialists say that because Mr. Paterson’s search for a new senator was essentially a political matter, not an official state government process, launching an investigation into his conduct or that of his aides would be difficult.
The Times goes on to confirm the Daily News' suspicion that PR specialist Judy Smith was behind the leaks. Smith was hired after Paterson's chief of staff Charles O'Byrne resigned, due to tax problems which O'Byrne blamed on depression.
The Observer, which has a feature on how Paterson "needs a friend, fast" gets this characterization of what's happened from a Democratic operative: "The words ‘shit show' are being thrown around a lot."
