Spin Cycle

Early reports out of Albany indicate that Gov. Paterson, at his news conference, says he was actually involved with more than one woman, including someone who was on the state payroll.

"I was involved with someone on the state payroll...An employee I may have inherited. This was known to my wife."

Helpfully, however, Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno have preemptively cleared him, without waiting for actual facts,

Bruno: “I think his personal life is his personal life.”

Silver: "It’s not an uncommon occurence in people’s lives when marriages are failing. This is how they worked it out....I think it’s a media story, depending on how you play it, and that’s it, and the story should be over.”

In Albany, of course, it's pretty predictable that mere adultery would be waved off. Too many of those buns have been toasted by too many players for anyone to make a fuss, state payroll or not. The other point is to contrast it with Spitzer.

They didn't like Spitzer, he wasn't one of the boys, so when he was caught with a prostitute it was, 'We don't care about the facts, you gotta go.' But they like Paterson, so no one's really interested whether he used the taxpayers' dime to help his gal, it's just, 'We don't care about the facts, Dave's OK.'

Further developments to come.

Update: Apparently, Paterson says there was more than one woman on the state payroll, never anyone he supervised but one person whom he has now inherited in the governor's office.