Gov. Paterson Must Love Him Some Social Justice!

More artificial excuses--a product of social justice? I think so. It's just too much to blame his failures on himself because of his performance or his chosen ideology so he has to put the blame outward and base it on hatred of his race.

I love how politicians try to tell us that we don't hear what we know we heard, that our eyes and ears are lying to us.

Paterson Steps Back From Race Remarks
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: August 25, 2009
STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Gov. David A. Paterson attempted to distance himself on Tuesday from comments he made last week suggesting that some in the news media who are critical of him and other black politicians are motivated by racial bias.

If he intended to quell the furor his remarks caused, his comments on Tuesday appeared to only complicate the situation.

While Mr. Paterson said he regretted the distraction his comments had caused and hoped he could put the episode behind him, he denied having insinuated that race was a factor in criticism of his leadership. That denial — which is contradicted by what he said in two interviews — made for an odd exchange with reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

“My remarks never say that there’s a race element at all,” Mr. Paterson told reporters after an appearance at Stony Brook University on Long Island, where a speech on his economic initiatives was quickly overshadowed by the controversy over his earlier remarks.

“What I did talk about was some negative racial stereotyping, which I think has gone on from time to time,” Mr. Paterson added. “But I didn’t blame my problems on that, and I’m not changing the remarks I made. I’m just correcting the interpretations of my remarks that are wrong.”

In a radio interview on Friday, Mr. Paterson said governors of other states with similarly difficult financial problems have not experienced the kind of criticism directed at him and Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, the country’s other black governor.

“My poll numbers are no worse than the 40 other governors who are in states that have deficits,” he told Errol Louis, the host of a morning call-in show on WWRL-FM. “My point is you don’t hear this crusade that it’s time for the governor to step aside. My feeling is that it’s being orchestrated. It’s a game, and people who pay attention know that.”

Then he pointed to what he saw as derogatory depictions of black leaders of the State Senate and said President Obama would probably be the next black political figure to face such attacks.

“I submit that the same kind of treatment that Deval Patrick is receiving right now in Massachusetts, and I’m receiving, the way in which the New York State Senate was written about, calling them a bunch of people with thick necks,” Mr. Paterson continued, “that we’re not in the post-racial period. And the reality is that the next victim on the list — and you see it coming — is President Barack Obama.”

Mr. Paterson raised the issue of bias again in an interview on Saturday with Gerson Borrero, a political commentator, that was posted on the Internet on Monday

The comments have left Mr. Paterson more politically isolated. The White House distanced itself on Monday from Mr. Paterson’s remarks, saying that President Obama does not believe that his critics are motivated by race. And on Friday Mr. Obama’s political director, Patrick Gaspard, took the unusual step of telephoning the governor’s top adviser, Larry S. Schwartz, to express displeasure with the remarks.

Democrats in Albany and New York City have also backed away from the governor. David N. Dinkins, the former mayor, and Charlie King, an associate of the Rev. Al Sharpton and a prominent Harlem political leader, also disputed the governor’s characterizations.

Tuesday’s exchanges were the first questions on the issue Mr. Paterson has answered. At first he tried to tamp down some of the controversy by admitting that he had caused a distraction, but his insistence that he never suggested that race had anything to do with criticism of him quickly became a point of contention with reporters.

“I didn’t say it,” Mr. Paterson said, referring to the suggestion that racial prejudice was a factor among his critics. A reporter then read the governor’s comments with Mr. Borrero, in which he said, “One very successful minority is permissible, but when you see too many success stories, then some people get nervous.”

Mr. Paterson said then that he had let his emotions get the better of him.

“I don’t think that it’s an orchestrated attempt,” he said. “And I think this is the kind of distraction that, in my view, arose from a personal incident that annoyed me that I would just rather move on.”

The “personal incident” Mr. Paterson was referring to was a comment by a local television reporter suggesting that the governor was allowing his daughter to stay late at a nightclub. The reporter incorrectly said the daughter was under age.

“We all have a point where our buttons can be pushed,” Mr. Paterson said. “And we all know that criticizing the media is something that we try to avoid. And I tried to avoid it, but there was one incident that was personal to me. And I addressed it. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it.”

The governor’s attempt to calm the situation on Tuesday left even some Democrats saying that they were concerned that Mr. Paterson himself had become too much of a distraction.

“That he’s denying it, it’s baffling to me to say the least,” said Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem, a Democrat who now holds the same seat Mr. Paterson held when he was a state senator. “We need the governor on message, on target. Right now he’s off target.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/nyregion/26paterson.html?_r=1&ref=politics