New York Post State Editor Fred Dicker retweets his December 2006 takedown of Governor George Pataki, just in time for his expected entrance into the 2012 presidential race.
And it’s Dicker at his finest:
While his many liberal political allies and plentiful media apologists delighted in portraying the betrayal as clever pragmatism in an increasingly Democratic state, Pataki’s abandonment of his supposed core beliefs wasn’t that at all.
Those who know Pataki best (and I’ve talked with many of them day-in, day-out during his three terms) say that it was actually a calculated effort by a selfish cynic to hold on to power at all costs – in order to use it for personal gain, social advancement and the enjoyment of millions of dollars worth of state-funded aides, servants, security services and a state fleet of aircraft, all providing a lifestyle even Donald Trump would envy.
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Pataki was elected in 1994 as the anti-Cuomo. No one really knew much about him, other than that he wasn’t Mario Cuomo. His campaign was a political Rorschach test, with voters seeing what they wanted to see in him. Ambiguity reigned. I don’t think this was intentionally deceptive, but actually reflected Pataki’s personality as political tofu. He takes on whatever taste his surroundings dictate.