Former Gov. David Paterson gave a tough assessment this morning of his successor as Democratic leader in the state Senate Malcolm Smith today, suggesting that his new colleagues in the Independent Democratic Conference should “re-think” giving him a leadership post.

Paterson, never the most reliable narrator in these interviews, criticized Smith for never taking up issues as the Democratic leader and knocked him for flirting with a run for mayor of New York City on the GOP line.

“Malcolm Smith who is like the tennis ball at Wimbledon bouncing between parties,” he said on Fred Dicker’s Talk-1300 radio show. ”First he’s running for mayor of the city of New York as a Republican and now he’s an independent Democrat. How can he be in there if he wants to run for mayor as a Republican.

Paterson did compliment Smith for not bending to then-Sen. Pedro Espada over leadership perks, but he said the IDC should be wary of giving Smith a leadership title.

“… the only thing have ever hear about Malcolm Smith is he wants an important leadership position,” he said. “If that independent Democratic conference thinks they are create diversity by giving him a leadership position when he has sold out everyone around him, they’ve got to really re-think that.”

Paterson did criticize the Senate Democrats during their time in the majority for overspending their office budgets, which he said gave Sen. Jeff Klein and the IDC a good reason not to stick with the mainline conference.

And he said Gov. Andrew Cuomo is doing the smart thing by not getting involved in the ongoing leadership struggle. Paterson said that when he injected himself into the internal workings of the Senate as governor, he was “rewarded” with criticism from rank-and-file Democrats.

“I never heard the rest speak out against the way they treated me,” Paterson said. ”If Gov. Cuomo has any apprehension, maybe he read the newspaper articles about how they attacked the previous governor.”

 

Share|