The Paterson administration sounds like a very fragile operation right now. Even as the Kennedy-Gillibrand Senate debacle moves further into the rear view, sources are telling local papers that the state house is in shambles and possibly has been since the resignation of the governor's top aide, Charles O'Byrne. A Democratic leader tells Elizabeth Benjamin of the News, "He refuses to lead, and nobody is empowered enough to set things straight." Another one tells her, "(Paterson) has to demonstrate something he hasn't shown yet—that he can do the job." The Post doesn't talk to anyone much kinder to the governor with a policy expert describing one of his top aides as "insecure, easily rattled, verbally abusive...she's in totally over her head." Fred Dicker of the Post sums it all up by referring to Paterson's staff as "a collection of indecisive bureaucrats whose day-to-day operations are wracked by internal chaos and fraught with divided loyalties."