http://www.nypost.com/seven/12282006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/good_riddance_opedcolumnists_fredric_u__dicker.htm?page=0December 28, 2006 -- AFTER 12 years and three terms, Gov. Pataki leaves state government far worse then he found it: Albany is scarred by notorious dysfunction, afflicted with pervasive corruption and marked by a torpidity unprecedented in modern times.
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While his many liberal political allies and plentiful media apologists delighted in portraying the betrayal as clever pragmatism in an increasingly Democratic state, Pataki's abandonment of his supposed core beliefs wasn't that at all.
Those who know Pataki best (and I've talked with many of them day-in, day-out during his three terms) say that it was actually a calculated effort by a selfish cynic to hold on to power at all costs - in order to use it for personal gain, social advancement and the enjoyment of millions of dollars worth of state-funded aides, servants, security services and a state fleet of aircraft, all providing a lifestyle even Donald Trump would envy.
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* Rarely did Pataki work at his job. When he could no longer avoid making a decision, he resorted to late-night cramming sessions. Friends calculated Pataki averaged about 15 hours a week of real work.
That left most of the work of actually governing New York to a ragtag collection of private-sector political consultants and public-sector political hacks, whose often-ignorant and abusive treatment of the state workforce destroyed a once-proud corps of professional administrators.
Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker has been covering state government for over 25 years.
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