What is it with the New York governor seat??  First Eliot Spitzer goes down for spending “quality time” with a $1000 per hour call girl (who became famous from the incident; her name, Ashley Dupre).  Now his predecessor, and former lieutenant governor, David Paterson is also staring down the barrel of a possible resignation.  Last week the New York Times reported that Paterson sent a squad of the state police to the residence of one Sherr-una Booker to intimidate her out of filing an order of protection (basically a restraining order) against Paterson aide and friend David W. Johnson.  Johnson — a monster of a man at 6 foot 7 — came home on Halloween evening to find his then girlfriend Booker putting on a costume with one of her friend’s at Johnson’s place.  Reportedly, Johnson was angered by the costume (I know, right??  Ridiculous) and proceeded to choke the woman, throw against a dresser, and rip off the garments.  When she tried calling the police he took her phone away from her and left.  Paterson has been accused of obstructing justice by means of using his state police on Booker.  On Friday he officially withdrew himself from running for New York State governor for 2010 but claims he never “abused his power as governor”.  More than his political future is at stake though, David Paterson may also now face criminal charges for his actions in the scandal.  Police failed to report what the Halloween costume in question was.  My guess: Sarah Palin.

-D

Mark Sanford — the governor of South Carolina — has been charged with a whopping 37 ethics charges.  Among his less flamboyant abuses of power, this tw*t has used state money to buy plane tickets to South America (to cheat on his wife with his mistress), used state/government aircraft 9 times for personal trips (including a visit to a campaign contributor).  The more boring charges are no less serious, such as violating state campaign finance laws and abusing his position as governor.  I briefly mentioned Sanford in a piece we posted on the 17th, “Jenny Sanford Makes Most of Husband’s Affair“, and I promise this will be the LAST time I so much as utter his name.  Think Voldemort, only more snake-like.  This massive amount of criminal charges puts Sanford on an even larger pedestal of jackass-ery after repeatedly cheating on his wife and disgracing his family.  I’m not sure why he wasn’t impeached then, if I had to guess it would be cause the South Carolina Legislature is Republican controlled.  But now he’s in real trouble, especially if he gets convicted of even half these charges.  Today, the legislature has “began the preliminary steps of a process that could lead to the governor’s impeachment and removal from office“.  The most absurd and sickening thing about this story is that Sanford’s lawyers claim his secret trips to cheat with his mistress and these ethics charges (37, to boot) aren’t enough grounds for impeachment in his official statement/complaint.  Unbelievable the nerve some of these people have.

-D

In a political environment filled with recounts, lost votes, and uncertainty, Election Day 2009 came and went yesterday like another Saw flick released just in time for Halloween.  Of course voter turnout will not be as high as last year, one of the biggest voter turnouts since the glory days of the political machine.  But it did surprise quite a few counties across quite a few states.  You can’t go to a political website right now and not read a headline titled something like, “2009: The GOP Strikes Back“, Star Wars reference aside I mean.  Republicans won cozy new governor seats in both Virginia and New Jersey last night, which some pundits are saying spells out the trouble Democratic congress members are in for 2010.  Meanwhile, in New York state near the Canadian border – the smell of stale hockey pads and mediocrity wafted into the air… NO, uhh, I mean… the Dems had something to cheer for in a House seat victory in NY state’s 23rd District.  In that race, the GOP challenger to Democrat Bill Owens was called “too moderate” and taken on by Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman which drew tons of national attention.  Hoffman was endorsed by heavy conservative hitters, like Sarah Palin, for taking an extremely far-right position, further right of the Republican choice anyway.  There’s a lesson to be learned here for the GOP if they want to make a splash in 2010 and 2012:  moderation wins elections, not bat-sh*t crazy extremism (besides maybe Texas and Florida).  The new governors of Virginia and Jersey won on that principle, granted, in states that constantly shift from left to right.  Or maybe the lesson is: anything Sarah Palin touches dies within months.  The biggest news yesterday for us here at Watch-Ur Mouth, though, has to be the Maine vote to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriages.  Maine would have became the sixth state (Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut) to legalize gay marriage.  If only Sarah Palin endorsed the repeal…

-D

Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty took another shot at the President today as possible political posturing for a 2012 run at taking Barack’s job.  In an interview with a conservative website called Newsmax (in a recent “poll” they’re claiming the country is now 40% conservative, 35% moderate, and 20% liberal; when in reality we’re probably 60% moderate, and 20/20 far left or right), Pawlenty said Obama “[projects] potential weakness”.  He went on to attack the president’s foreign relations and international indecisiveness, as well as call his domestic approach one of a “nanny-state mentality”.  Previous Obama criticisms from Pawlenty were always the latter, domestic policy ribbing, but with Pawlenty upping his public attacks to foreign status it’s becoming near certain he’ll be running in 2012.  Not that it wasn’t certain enough; earlier this year the MN governor announced he indeed would not be seeking a second term in that office, which drew lots of national attention.  He briefly summarized his quarrel with the current Health Care Reform proposals:

The diagnosis of the problem for the health care delivery system in the country was supposed to be cost-containment.  In other words, we need to make it more affordable for individuals and families, businesses and governmental entities. But, instead, they are now focused substantially on expanding access.

-D