The rumors that  Andrew Cuomo will replace Joe Biden as Barack Obama’s running mate in 2012 have died down, but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said today that Cuomo doesn’t need to put away his White House drape measure quite yet.

“That is above Houston Street. That is above my district,” the downtown lawmaker said. “I wish the governor well. I certainly would love to see him in the White House at some point. He has been a friend of mine for many many years but right now I think he is going to be the governor for a while.”

Silver also talked about a poll out this morning that showed that New Yorkers had an improving opinion of their state legislature, and he blamed Albany’s reputation for dysfunction on the tenure of a very former governor of New York: George Pataki.

I think the public recognizes that the men and women of the legislature on both sides of the aisle work hard at their jobs, they are around their districts, they help constituents and they do the legislative work day and night that has to be done in order to make government function. I think it always functioned. What happened is there was greater partisanship that took place under the leadership of George Pataki and it was the job of Democrats in many instances to stop things from happening that we felt were inappropriate under the circumstances.  I think you see there are a lot more compromises that are taking place and that enable government to function smoother and better.

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