NY Lt. Governor to People: Be Calm! We Don’t Live in a Banana Republic!

I wonder just what sort of thinking prompts a statement like this:

Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who will take over as New York’s governor following Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s dramatic fall from power in a prostitution scandal, said Thursday that the state’s government is stable.

Paterson spoke as he hurried off to meet with lawmakers Thursday morning, and was set to speak publicly in the afternoon.

“The message to the people of New York is that New York state government is still thriving, and we are still serving the people,” Paterson said in his first public comments since Spitzer’s implosion.

Were people worried that, without Governor Hotpants, the state government would collapse into a violent melee of would-be successors? Was Paterson? If either one is true, then I don’t hold out much hope for a successful run as Governor for him.

One of the great wonders of our system of government, a great wonder we learn about in 4th Grade civics class, is that our system of government is greater than any one person we elect to it. It is a testament to the Founders that the government they devised could withstand such scandals and continue to operate as well as it ever has. America didn’t crumble after Nixon left office. No state has broken out in a coup after a governor had to leave office in disgrace. Senators and legislators have bowed out without ruination befalling their constituents.

Someone needs to make sure that Lt. Gov. Paterson remembers where he lives and why his ascendance to the Governor’s Mansion is so orderly.

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Category: Our New Democratic Overlords