Former Gov. George Pataki, who might very well be the most disciplined New York pol in recent memory when it comes to staying on message, largely declined to take the bait this morning when asked by radio host Curtis Sliwa if he’s still angry with AG Andrew Cuomo for his “hold the coat” remark during the 2002 campaign.

The comment, in which Cuomo accused Pataki of playing a bit part in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, serving as little more than a coat-holder for Mayor Rudy Giuliani, came during a wide-ranging interview with reporters during an upstate campaign bus tour. It was widely viewed as a major gaffe by Cuomo, who was at the time making a long-shot run for governor against Pataki and the Democratic Party’s preferred candidate, then-state Comptroller H. Carl McCall. (Cuomo ended up dropping out one week before the primary).

“You know Curtis, you can’t take it personally,” Pataki said. “Politics is rough in general, and it’s certainly even rougher when it comes to New York. And, you know, people say stupid things, and if they say them twice, then you react a little differently. But, you know, if I got angry at everybody who said something that I didn’t agree with or that I could have taken as a personal insult in the course of the campaign there would be a lot of people on a list.”

Pataki also dodged questions about his former LG, Betsy McCaughey, whom he dumped unceremoniously off the ticket in favor of Mary Donohue in advance of his second re-election bid. McCaughey returned the favor by switching parties and trying to run against him as a Democrat. She lost the primary to then-NYC Council Speaker Peter Vallone, but ran on the Liberal Party line in the general election, which she and Vallone both lost to Pataki.

The former governor was far less reticent when it came to criticizing the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policies in the wake of the foiled Times Square car bomb. He’s been doing a lot of that lately.

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