Ex N.Y. Gov Eliot Spitzer, Once Caught Up in Prostitution Ring, Wasting No Time Making Excuses

Eagle-eyed fashion folk hitting the Bryant Park tents on Friday for the first full day of shows had a surprise in store. Instead of the usual mix of A-list celebrities and TV stars there was another face in the front row of Yigal Azrouel's show this morning: Ashley Dupre, of Eliot Spitzer fame.

Of course, many in the crowd, including the Brit socialites Poppy Delevigne and Sophia Hesketh sitting just three seats down the row, showed no indication of recognizing her. Nor did the many paparazzi who prowl the outside of the tents and the catwalk.

 

From the start, and even in his best moments, David Paterson has acted like the Accidental Governor, one who scored better off Eliot Spitzer, Client No. 9, than a hooker named Ashley Dupre.

Now Paterson suggests that people come after him the way they do because of race. When he does, he is a black governor sounding like somebody waving a white flag. Even the least accountable athletes wait until they lose the game before they start making excuses.

This all happened on a radio show hosted by Errol Louis of the Daily News. And when you really look at what Paterson said, about himself and Deval Patrick, another African-American governor, and even President Obama, you are as struck by Paterson's desperation as anything else.

"We're not in the postracial period," Paterson said.

Then he added, "The reality is the next victim on the list - and you can see it coming - is President Barack Obama, who did nothing more than trying to reform a health care system."

When he tried to explain himself later, saying that it wasn't racism that had the media out to get him, Paterson said "certain media outlets have engaged in coverage that exploits racial stereotypes."

Too little and too late. Paterson couldn't take back his own words anymore than he could take back the mess he made of things when Caroline Kennedy wanted to succeed Hillary Clinton.

David Paterson is too smart a guy to think he is in trouble only because he is black. People didn't want to run Isiah Thomas out of town, and as far away from the Knicks as possible, because he was black. They wanted to run Thomas out of town because he was one of the worst sports executives in all recorded history in New York.

The media didn't create the impression that Paterson is in over his head. He did that on his own. His trouble isn't skin color. It is his accidental constituents being unable to shake the idea that Paterson's advisers run the state as much as he does, and that his only true vision is this:

Getting himself elected to a full term.

Paterson cries about the media now, but he and his lieutenants used the media every chance they got when kicking Caroline Kennedy on her way out the door. Even when he tried to do the right thing, in ordering some of the mutts in the state Legislature back to work, you got the idea that Paterson was playing some kind of part.

He came in behind Spitzer, a crusading white-knight governor who was found out to be consorting with high-priced call girls. People wanted Paterson to succeed, people wanted to get behind a lieutenant governor with a famous New York political name, a black, sight-challenged New Yorker who had made it to the biggest job in Albany. 

Still, says the Post, a lot of those around the former governor figure it's only a matter of time before he returns to the ring. "There are people around him who want to see him [in office]," one unnamed source told the tabloid. "He sees himself there too. He loves to be in the limelight."