Legislative Democrats are fed up with Gov. Paterson's chief of staff, who's allegedly attempting a power grab from his embattled and "disengaged" boss. One top official told the Post's Fred Dicker that the governor's highest-ranking staffer Larry Schwartz "has become the Alexander Haig of state government, saying, 'I'm in charge,'" referring to Ronald Reagan's former secretary of state, who made the presumptuous claim after Reagan was shot in 1981. Some go so far as to accuse Schwartz of sabotaging Paterson's already plodding budget proceedings (Dicker estimates a final budget won't be done before the end of the month.) "Larry is calling up Wall Street bankers, telling them not to sign on to a legislative borrowing plan," said a leading Democrat. "He's working against his own lieutenant governor."
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