Calls for Gov. David Paterson to resign are premature, but considering Paterson’s less-than-full accounting for his role in the scandal that chased him from the campaign, they’re hardly unexpected.
For weeks, rumors swirled about a blockbuster story that would surely force Paterson into a position like that of his predecessor Eliot Spitzer, who resigned after being caught in a prostitution sting.
To date, no hard proof has been proffered that Paterson has committed a crime. There is smoke, but so far no smoking gun in the case of a domestic dispute involving Paterson’s close aide and friend David Johnson.
Press accounts, primarily reporting by the New York Times, have brought to light a disturbing Halloween night incident between Johnson and his girlfriend. The woman, according to court records, accused Johnson of choking her and throwing her against a mirrored dresser. He took two phones away from her when she tried to call for help. A second woman witnessed the assault, according to Times reporters.
The woman sought to press charges against Johnson and, according to those same court records, she was harassed and threatened multiple times by members of the governor’s state police detail if she persisted. Eventually, she stopped pursuing the criminal complaint.
It remains unclear what if any knowledge Paterson had of the state police’s role or of the incident itself. The governor has said he believed the incident to have been heated, but not violent. He acknowledged speaking personally with the woman in question, offering his support as a friend.
To date, no one has proven the governor wrong. That’s not to say he hasn’t acted improperly, but at present he’s guilty of mishandling a sensitive situation involving a close friend. There exists no proof as yet that he ordered state officials to cover up that friend’s domestic abuse.
If Paterson is to serve out the remainder of his term with any sort of capability as an effective executive, he needs to offer a full and complete public accounting of what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it. He should cooperate fully with an investigation by the state attorney general’s office (an investigation Paterson asked by convened). He should pledge to fire anyone who acted improperly and follow through on that promise when all the facts have been brought to light.
At least, that’s what a person who has nothing to hide should do.
Editorials
OUR VIEW: Paterson owes full accounting in aide’s abuse
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Scale back Canal Fest hours
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OUR VIEW: Kudos to Slaughter on STOCK Act
Rep. Louise Slaughter and a small band of colleagues in the House of Representatives deserve praise for their determination in putting a stop to a long-standing dirty secret in politics — that members of Congress have been making a boatload of cash by parlaying their official knowledge of the nation’s affairs into private fortunes on the stock market.
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OUR VIEW: Time to fundamentally rethink education
In the three school districts primarily composing the Tonawandas we are seeing, in varying degrees, the beginning of the end of education here as we know it.
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OUR VIEW: Super job by Bills on signing Williams
More than the Xs and Os of a football playbook, the Mario Williams signing is a generation-in-the-waiting signal that this franchise is finally on the right track.
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OUR VIEW: WNY must build on success at ECC
In reading Sunday’s cover story by reporter Jill Keppeler, readers probably shared our shock in the success story that is the Erie Community College industrial technology program.
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OUR VIEW: ‘Mailing it in’ is not good enough
The U.S. Postal Service has been mailing it in for years.
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KEPPELER: Daydream believer
I felt sorry for Whitney Houston. But this week, the world lost two people whose departure makes me truly nostalgic.
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OUR VIEW: Slisz v. Beyer exposes flaws in election system
Though voters in the city who have waited for nearly four months to find out who won might find this welcome news, the problems with our election system this razor-thin race uncovered are anything but comforting.
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OUR VIEW: Officials need to take walk
The tumult and excitement over approving Nik Wallenda’s request to walk across the Niagara Gorge has at times been deafening.
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