Governor Paterson prayed to God and damned the media during a rare visit to Cornerstone Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant yesterday. Paterson has declined to speak publicly about two high-profile investigations into his administration, but yesterday he opened up to the congregation, which received him warmly and even put their hands on his back as he prayed before the altar, the Times reports. Referring to Paterson's interference in a domestic violence dispute between a Bronx woman and his top aide, one parishoner told the Daily News, "He is guilty of helping." Another, Bed-Stuy resident Valda Moore, 41, opined, "It is his personal life. It has nothing to do with his job as governor." Paterson told the congregation:
I will keep governing to the end of the year, in the spirit of making the tough decisions and trying as hard as I can to fulfill the mission in which God placed me. In the last couple of months, I’ve been the victim of rumor and innuendo, gossip and absolute lies. The term ‘unsubstantiated reports’ used to mean you couldn’t print it. Now it means they put it on the front page.
I shouldn’t be listening to the god of the media. I shouldn’t be listening to the god of polls. I shouldn’t be listening to the god of popularity. I shouldn’t be listening to people who are going in a path, rather than leading a path. I should be listening to my own heart. If you know the truth, and you want to serve God, then stand before him no matter what happens.
Paterson has repeatedly declined to discuss the investigations with the press because he's under investigation(s), but legal experts say there's nothing precluding him from speaking publicly. "The governor is free to say whatever he wants," a source in the Attorney General's Office tells the Post. "Notwithstanding all of Paterson's public comments—he can't say this, he can't say that—nothing prohibits him from speaking publicly and saying whatever he wants." Paterson's criminal-defense lawyer, however, may be advising him to seal his lips because anything he says could be used in a prosecution against him.
Paterson's aide David Johnson, who was accused of assaulting his then-girlfriend last Halloween, will speak with investigators this week, possibly as early as Monday, CBS2 reports. We look forward to leaks from the Attorney General's office on that one, assuming Andrew Cuomo continues heading the investigation. Councilman Charles Barron has called on Cuomo to recuse himself because his rumored plans to run for governor could create a "serious conflict of interest." Asked whether he thinks Cuomo should step aside, Mayor Bloomberg told the reporters, "Well, the governor asked them to do it, and I think that says it all."
A new Siena College poll [pdf] suggests that most voters view Paterson unfavorably, but 55 percent still want him to finish his term. "More voters have an unfavorable view of David Paterson now than at any time, and more voters view the job he’s doing as governor as poor than at any time in the two years he’s been governor," said Steve Greenberg, a Siena Poll spokesman. "Yet, a clear majority want to see him serve out the remaining nine months of his term rather than resign by a more than three-to-one margin." 54 percent also say the Paterson imbroglio makes them embarrassed to call themselves New Yorkers.
