Lieutenant Governor David Paterson spent the weekend working on the speech he will give after his swearing-in as Governor. According to the NY Times, he had been "rehearsing it and committing it to memory," and since he is blind and cannot rely on a teleprompter, "his remarks will be partly memorized and partly improvised." The speech is also be "conciliatory," versus his predecessor's aggressive approach (Spitzer implied Governor Pataki turned NY State into Rip Van Winkle "New York has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by").
The swearing-in ceremony will not take place on the steps of the Capital building (where Governor Spitzer's took place) in Albany but inside the State Assembly chambers. There, he will address a "rare joint session of the Legislature," without the usual music, fireworks, or other grand traditions associated with inaugurations - Paterson wants to avoid any celebratory overtones.
As he gets ready to be the most powerful man in the state, the future governor is annoyed with various parties, including friends, saying they have access to him. He told the Post, "It's fair to say I wasn't very happy when I heard about some of the people out there claiming to represent me when they only represent themselves." Example: Someone asked him for his cell number, claiming Barack Obama wanted to speak with him soon. To which Paterson said, "That's interesting, because Barack called me eight hours ago."
Paterson will be sworn in at 1 p.m. by Chief Judge Judith Kaye, with religious invocations from Reverend Monsignor Wallace Harris, from the St. Charles Borromeo Church in Harlem, and Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, from Agudath Israel of America in Brooklyn. As for the swearing-in's attendees, Senator Clinton, Mayor Bloomberg, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and former Governors Pataki and Carey will be present. Soon-to-be former Governor Spitzer will not be there.
