Gov. David Paterson is celebrating his 56th birthday this week, according to his Facebook page.

(UPDATE: Some people, including me, are jumping the gun. Paterson’s birthday is not today, but May 20, which is Thursday. There is no scheduled legislative session on that day due to the Jewish holiday of Shavuot).

Paterson was in the Red Room for his 55th birthday last year – albeit for a somewhat happier occasion – a bill signing ceremony for a measure that extended unemployment benefits for 13 weeks. He was surprised with a cake from then-Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (this was pre-coup, remember), and all the leaders sang for him.

What a difference a year makes.

It will be a miracle if the leaders can get through today’s five-way Red Room meeting – the first in more than two months – without killing one another.

Last year at this time, the governor was raising money for a planned run to keep the post he had inherited from former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. (He was supposed to have a belated B-Day fundraiser in Fayetteville, but that was hastily and rather mysteriously canceled). Paterson also threw a big bash at the Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan at which Robin Thicke provided the entertainment.

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