Decline and Fall

I long ago stopped believing in the argument that crisis necessarily leads to a healthy outcome, but the growing consensus about our social and political dysfunction awakens my slumbering, not to say comatose, optimism. Perhaps it’s the sight of our non-existent governor [above] slowly and deservedly being pushed over the edge as the details trickle out about his obstruction of justice in Drivergate.

Or perhaps it’s the prospect of Democratic corporate shill Blanche Lincoln [below, right] of Arkansas getting a primary challenge from someone slightly less noxious, thus provoking a flood of e-mails into my inbox from the people who put Obama in office and were promptly dissed by his sleazy chief of staff. One need not succumb to fantasies about who the Arkansas challenger is to obtain satisfaction from seeing this classic Blue Dog get a scare as her reward for jettisoning every chance to serve the public interest. The teabagger crowd showed the way by intimidating Republicans into their current know-nothing intransigence, and it’s time for some push-back from the other side.

But back to our own bumbling Lord Fauntleroy masquerading as governor of the state. Paterson, born into a powerful Harlem machine family, was peacefully enjoying the privileges of dynastic entitlement when he accidentally became governor due to his boss’s bout of Uncontrolled Boner Syndrome. Now caught trying to cover up his driver’s bad habit of beating up girlfriends, Paterson whines about weeks of ‘horrific, unsubstantiated rumors’ about his sex life—note that he does not say ‘untrue’ rumors.

Meanwhile, worthy Democratic pols rush to Paterson’s side complaining that he is getting roughed up for being black. As usual, they don’t address how Paterson’s actions help actual black people other than himself and his friends—but they ought to.

Paterson’s other scandal is the highly dubious deal handed out to operate the Aqueduct racetrack gambling enterprise to a company comprised of rapper Jay-Z and the owner of a collection agency, David Rosenberg. Rosenberg is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and the state attorney general for fraudulent and harassing tactics, and his company has already settled hundreds of lawsuits from abused debtors.

So there we have it: incompetent governor retreats behind the race card while enabling his friends to get rich exploiting poor people. When toxic slag-heap of these proportions collapses, one can only cheer, no matter what happens next.